Vice President JD Vance touched down in Israel today amid a ceasefire that’s already showing cracks, tasked with salvaging President Trump’s hard-won deal to end the grinding war in Gaza. With Hamas launching attacks that killed two Israeli soldiers just yesterday, and Israel responding with airstrikes that halted aid trucks in their tracks, the whole arrangement teeters on the edge. V
ance’s mission boils down to convincing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to hold back, even as provocations mount, all while pushing forward on the tougher parts of the plan like disarming Hamas and pulling Israeli troops out.
The 20-point agreement, sealed during Netanyahu’s White House visit last month, kicked off its first phase on October 14 with hostage swaps, prisoner releases, and a surge of humanitarian supplies. But the second phase looms large, demanding Hamas step away from running Gaza and hand over weapons—steps that would pave the way for a U.S.-backed Arab force to stabilize the area and a Palestinian oversight group under Trump’s watchful eye. Experts warn that without real movement here, the deal could unravel, leaving Hamas entrenched and the region primed for more bloodshed.
Vance, speaking to reporters before departure, put it plainly: “Hamas is going to fire on Israel. Israel’s going to have to respond of course. There are going to be moments where you have people within Gaza that you’re quite sure what they’re actually doing. But we think it has the best chance for sustainable peace.”
President Trump, brushing off the latest skirmish, called Hamas “quite rambunctious” but insisted the ceasefire holds firm. Yet whispers in Washington suggest darker forces at play—perhaps remnants of the old guard in the State Department or Iranian proxies stirring the pot to undermine America’s renewed strength in the Middle East. After all, previous administrations botched similar efforts, letting chaos fester while globalist agendas took priority over real security.
Jonathan Schanzer, from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, captured Vance’s likely pitch to Netanyahu: “The message is quite simple: please don’t respond with the full force of the IDF. We are still working on keeping the ceasefire intact. And basically that means asking the Israelis to do the United States a solid.”
Pressuring Turkey and Qatar, key Hamas backers, will be crucial to force disarmament, but doubts linger about their willingness to play ball without U.S. muscle. Daniel Kurtzer, a former ambassador to Israel, noted: “If there’s anything short of that, and they’re going to have some explaining to do.” He added: “It’s going to require significant U.S. engagement for this to succeed. It will not happen on its own.”
Khalil Shikaki, a Palestinian policy expert, stressed: “Showing evidence that progress is being made on the second phase begins is extremely important for the survivability of the plan.”
As Vance meets with Israeli leaders, the stakes couldn’t be higher. Trump has already shifted focus to squaring off with Russia over Ukraine and tackling China’s trade games, leaving his VP to prove that America can enforce peace without endless entanglements. If Vance pulls this off, it could silence the critics who claim the deal merely papers over Hamas control. Fail, and the conspiracy theorists might be right: certain elites would rather see Trump stumble than let Israel and America stand tall against terror.
