VP Vance Arrives in Israel: What Happens Now?

Vice President JD Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance have arrived in Israel, reportedly to work on the next steps in the Gaza peace plan. This arrival happened only hours after President Trump made a rather unambiguous statement claiming that other Middle Eastern nations have agreed to help with the clearing of Hamas out of Gaza. The president made the statement on his Truth Social platform.

NEW — From DJT: pic.twitter.com/wcbbvQPAUP
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) October 21, 2025

The Truth Social post reads:

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. The love and spirit for the Middle East has not been seen like this in a thousand years! It is a beautiful thing to behold!
I told these countries, and Israel, “NOT YET!” There is still hope that Hamas will do what is right. If they do not, an end to Hamas will be FAST, FURIOUS, & BRUTAL! I would like to thank all of those countries that called to help. Also, I would like to thank the great and powerful country of Indonesia, and its wonderful leader, for all of the help they have shown and given to the Middle East, and to the U.S.A. TO EVERYONE, thank you for your attention to this matter! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP

Note that the only country named specifically is Indonesia, which is a Muslim-majority nation, although not in the Middle East.

On Tuesday, Vice President Vance and the second lady arrived in Israel and were greeted by the American ambassador to Israel. The Vice President, flanked by White House envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, delivered some remarks.

First, on the American involvement in Gaza:

.@VP: "There are not going to be American boots on the ground in Gaza. The President of the United States has made that very clear." pic.twitter.com/y0p4cTOPgA
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) October 21, 2025

I think it's important for Americans to know a couple of things. Number one, there are not going to be American boots on the ground in Gaza. The President of the United States has made that very clear. All of our military leadership has made that very clear. What we can do is to provide some useful coordination. How do you take, you know, the Gulf Arab states, plus Israel, plus, you know, the Turks, plus the Indonesians, how do you actually get those folks to work together in a way that actually produces long-term peace? The only real mediators are the United States of America. So that's the role that we're going to play, I think the American people should be proud, they should know that there are going to be no American boots on the ground in Gaza.

This is going to come as a big relief to anyone with sons/grandsons in the service today who would rather not see young American men sent into Gaza; we've seen rather a lot of those kinds of deployments in recent years, and in that part of the world, they never go smoothly. America can, as the vice president says, act as an intermediary between the parties who do have boots on the ground - but a brief look at the history of the region and the players involved makes that a daunting notion.

'Eradicated... Pretty Violently': Trump Makes It Clear to Hamas He Isn't Messing Around

Second, on Hamas:

.@VP: "We know that Hamas has to comply with the deal, and if Hamas doesn't comply with the deal, very bad things are going to happen... in order for us to give it a chance to succeed, we've got to be a little bit flexible." pic.twitter.com/msu2IRoZf9
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) October 21, 2025

The president actually put out a truth this morning, that I thought was very instructive. We know that Hamas has to comply with the deal, and if Hamas doesn't comply with the deal, very bad things are going to happen. But I'm not going to do what the President of the United States has thus far refused to do, which is put an explicit deadline on it, because a lot of this stuff is difficult. A lot of this stuff is unpredictable. You basically have two regions in Gaza, one of which is relatively safe, I wouldn't say very safe, and one of which is incredibly dangerous. And part of ensuring that we get to a durable peace is to broaden the scope of the area that's safe. And the international security force is a big part of that. We don't yet have the international security force set up.
That's something that we're working towards. We have a number of volunteers who want to participate in that international security force. So my point is, I don't think it's actually advisable for us to say this has to be done in a week, because a lot of this work is very hard, it's never been done before, and in order for us to give it a chance to succeed, we've got to be a little bit flexible. I think what you're seeing from our Gulf Arab friends, and partly from our Israeli friends, is a certain amount of impatience with Hamas. We're going to keep on working on this process, we're going to keep on trying to bring the deceased hostages home, but also to make sure that all Gazans are able to live in a prosperous and safe place.

That's a lot of political language for "Hamas is probably going to have to be squashed flat before there's any peace in Gaza."

There's a long, long road ahead in Gaza, and the vice president seems to be in the region at least in part to manage expectations. He hits on the one thing that could bring about real change in Gaza, that being prosperity; in other words, liberty and property rights, which could bring the foreign investment I've mentioned many times in discussions on this region. The area, Gaza and Gaza City, has great potential if Hamas can be rooted out and the effects of Hamas rule for a couple of decades wiped out. Gaza could be the next Dubai: Modern, wealthy, a Mecca (hah) for tourists from around the world.

But Hamas has to go first. That's the part we're all waiting to see. That's the part that Vice President Vance is referring to when he calls for patience. But Hamas is still murdering people in Gaza, and that doesn't inspire patience - or confidence.

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