Benjamin Netanyahu after Marco Rubio meeting: US and Israel have "shared

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu provided a breakdown of his meeting today (Sunday) with Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the meeting of the government.

Netanyahu began by describing his own close relationship with the President and his administration: "There was a visit here by Marco Rubio, the new United States Secretary of State. I've known him for many years. I've known President Trump for many years, when he wasn't president. I've known Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for many good years, and many others as well."

He then explained his approach and policy regarding managing relations with both sides of the American political divide, even when the countries disagree: "I nurture this relationship, I nurtured it when we were in the minority. We stood against administrations - let me tell the truth, I'll be diplomatic for a moment - that were much less supportive. Administrations that pressured us from all directions to make dangerous concessions, blocked various things that are important to us. We withstood it, and I withstood it while nurturing relationships with these people, and also with Democrats who thought like us that there should be a strong Israel that acts against our common enemies and the United States' enemies, and works toward common interests.

"I didn't act in a partisan way - I acted in a Zionist way, and thought that we need to cultivate relationships with public opinion and leaders on both sides of the aisle in the United States, to support Israel in the views that I lead, and I know that you also lead. This is what we did, this is what I led, and this is what has resulted now."

Netanyahu then went on to detail the nature of the relationship between Israel and the United States: "Our coordination with this administration is full coordination. Contrary to publications. You need to understand this. We have a shared strategy, we are coordinated and working in full cooperation. This happened even before President Trump published his vision for Gaza, a revolutionary vision that holds an enormous change for the State of Israel. This didn't come as a surprise, we knew about it and discussed it beforehand. The same applies to other things you're hearing right now.

"President Trump and I are working in full cooperation and complete coordination. I cannot go into all the details - but we have a joint strategy, including when and how the gates of hell will open if all our hostages, all of them, are not released and do not return home.

The Prime Minister then reiterated that the government is not giving up on its goal of ending Hamas power, alongside its desire to return the hostages: "In any case, we are committed together to shared goals. Not just the release of the hostages, eliminating Hamas, and of course ensuring that Gaza does not return to being a threat to Israel, plus the President's plan that says there will be a completely different Gaza. This is what we are committed to, this is what we are working on, in a joint strategy with the President of the United States, in continuous contact that was made just five minutes ago with his people.

"This is very important, it creates for us tremendous hope for a completely different future, for a situation that the State of Israel hasn't been in since its establishment. There weren't such opportunities, there wasn't such a partnership, and there wasn't such potential to both remove threats and truly bring opportunities that we simply didn't dream of. So it's worthwhile to work together, also in full cooperation here, and to ensure that we fulfill all this tremendous promise for the future of the Jewish state and the future of the Jewish people."