'Hogwash' that Israel is a US client state, Netanyahu says after meeting with Vance

Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, dismissed suggestions that his country was a client state of Washington as "hogwash" yesterday, as a US diplomatic push sought to shore up the fragile Gaza ceasefire.

- Lorenzo Tondo Jerusalem William Christou

The US provides an estimated 68% of Israel's foreign-sourced weapons, yet when asked if Israel was beholden to Washington, Netanyahu responded: “I want to put it very clearly. One week they say that Israel controls the United States. A week later they say the United States controls Israel. This is hogwash.”

At the end of a meeting with the US vice-president, JD Vance, in Jerusalem, Netanyahu added: “We have a partnership, an alliance of partners, who share common values and common goals. We can have discussions, we can have disagreements here and there, but on the whole I have to say that in the past year we've had agreement - agreement not only on goals but how to reach them.”

Vance replied: “We don't want a vassal state, and that's not what Israel is. We don't want a client state, and that's not what Israel is. We want a partnership. We want an ally here.”