WAR AND PEACE: President Donald Trump’s diplomatic efforts in the Middle East and potential talks to end Russia’s war in Ukraine are in delicate territory as news out of both regions threatens to derail peace progress.
On the ground in Israel: VP JD Vance arrived in Tel Aviv to meet with Israeli officials today as the administration works to ease tensions after Israel and Hamas accused each other of breaking the terms of the truce following a weekend of violence. But Vance said that this weekend’s incidents were not the reason for his visit: “I wanted to just see how things are going,” he said, per NYT’s Tyler Pager.
Amid growing White House concern that Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu might be the one to end the deal, Vance embarked on a day of what one U.S. official described to CNN as “Bibisitting.” The VP worked to downplay fears of a ceasefire collapse in his visit.
“What we’ve seen the past week gives me great optimism the ceasefire is going to hold,” Vance said at a news conference. He said he feels “very optimistic,” though he ceded: “Can I say with 100% certainty that it’s going to work? No.”
Vance also warned that a truce between both Hamas and Israel would take a “very, very long time,” urging Israel to extend a “little bit of patience” with Hamas’ pace of returning hostages’ remains, per AP’s Seung Min Kim. As for Hamas laying its weapons down, Vance declined to state a firm timeline: “I don’t think it’s actually advisable to say this has to be done in a week.” Special envoy Steve Witkoff reiterated Vance’s optimism, adding that progress is “exceeding where we thought we would be at this time.”
Meanwhile, Trump’s son-in-law and former adviser Jared Kushner told reporters that U.S. and allied countries may begin the reconstruction of Gaza in the parts of the war-torn enclave currently held by Israeli forces. Though Kushner said plans are still in flux, he reiterated that “no reconstruction funds will be going into areas that Hamas still controls,” adding that reconstruction “would give the Palestinians living in Gaza a place to go, a place to get jobs, a place to live,” per NYT.
Trump weighs in: “Numerous of our NOW GREAT ALLIES in the Middle East, and areas surrounding the Middle East, have explicitly and strongly, with great enthusiasm, informed me that they would welcome the opportunity, at my request, to go into GAZA with a heavy force and ‘straighten our Hamas’ if Hamas continues to act badly, in violation of their agreement with us,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post today. “There is still hope that Hamas will do what is right. If they do not, an end to Hamas will be FAST, FURIOUS, & BRUTAL!”
Yeah I’m sure other countries are more than anxious to get militarily involved in this. And Kush doesn’t seem to understand that Trump’s still wanting to put the Palestinians in trailer parks in the Sahara. They should probably get on the same page. (Either that or Grandpa’s glitching too and only remembering his brilliant ethnic cleansing brainstorm.)
Oh, and whatever “progress” Trump was expecting on Ukraine is falling apart too. Rubio and Lavrov spoke on the phone and the upshot was that nobody’s meeting any time soon.
I think Trump’s going to need to find another war or two to “solve” to keep his numbers up. These two aren’t doing what he wants them to do. Maybe he could just stop blowing up fishermen in the Caribbean.