Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu 'has been set in his place quite publicly by the American visitors'

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00:00U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is in Israel.

00:02There, he warned that moves by Israel's parliament toward the annexation of the West Bank

00:07could threaten President Donald Trump's plan to end the war in Gaza,

00:11which has so far yielded a shaky ceasefire.

00:18Let's bring in Noga Tanopolsky, our correspondent in Jerusalem.

00:21Noga, very good evening to you. Tell us then about Rubio's visit.

00:24Good evening, Mark. Well, Rubio's visit has just started.

00:31In fact, he's meeting with the Israeli prime minister now.

00:34They were supposed to have held a press conference about an hour ago,

00:38but it's running late, the way things often do here.

00:41We are seeing an extraordinary chain of top American figures come to Israel, one after the other.

00:50We had President Trump's Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, along with the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, here for about three days.

00:58Just as they were leaving, we saw the arrival of the vice president for his first visit here, J.D. Vance, with his wife.

01:05Quite a big visit and weighty.

01:08They left today, and within less than an hour, if I'm not mistaken, the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, arrived.

01:16And after Rubio leaves, we're waiting for at least two new headliners,

01:21the head of the CIA, John Ratcliffe, and Witkoff's deputy, Morgan Ortegas.

01:27The short version of the story is that the United States wants to keep a very, very hands-on posture

01:35regarding Israel's side of the Trump ceasefire agreement for Gaza

01:40and is really taking matters into their own hands via this new American military civilian base in southern Israel,

01:51where we now see flags of Denmark, Norway, the U.K., other countries, other military representatives

01:58who have come to also supervise matters, and also through these very high-profile visits

02:05in which Prime Minister Netanyahu has really been set in his place quite publicly by the American visitors.

02:11So, as you say, it's been quite an all-style lineup of American politicians coming through the door where you are.

02:19Obviously, J.D. Vance, his visit, his whole aim was to sort of keep Netanyahu on side.

02:25Is that a fair assessment?

02:29Absolutely.

02:30And his visit ended on quite a bitter note because a few hours yesterday, a few hours before Vance's departure,

02:41some members of the opposition and of Netanyahu's coalition, in fact, a majority of the members of his own party,

02:49kind of pulled a prank, the sort of prank that Israeli governments under Prime Minister Netanyahu

02:55have gotten accustomed to pulling on American presidents and other senior American officials.

03:01In other words, holding a symbolic, performative vote in the Knesset.

03:06Yesterday, it was two votes on preliminary bills that haven't even yet arrived in committee,

03:11but on very provocative subjects so as to draw the attention of the massive international media circus

03:18that follows these headliners.

03:21Yesterday was two votes regarding Israeli annexation of the West Bank, and J.D. Vance hated it and didn't hide it.

03:29He said to Netanyahu that he was not happy, and then he said to the cameras that he felt personally insulted

03:37by what he called a stupid stunt, and he then said that the Trump administration opposes annexation

03:44and, quote, Israel will not annex the West Bank.

03:48A stance that Prime Minister Netanyahu has held of promising annexation to his base for a good five, six years now.

03:55So it really didn't end well, and we have to see now what happens with this visit currently underway with Marco Rubio.

04:04Noga Tandopolski in Jerusalem.

04:05As always, thank you very much indeed.

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