{"id":2980,"date":"2026-10-20T09:04:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T04:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=2980"},"modified":"2026-10-20T09:04:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T04:04:14","slug":"hegseth-meets-netanyahu-during-unannounced-visit-to-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=2980","title":{"rendered":"Hegseth meets Netanyahu during unannounced visit to Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><strong>US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth met \u200bwith radical Israeli regime prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu during an unannounced \u200cvisit to Israel on Monday, Axios reported, citing two sources with knowledge.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Reuters could not immediately confirm the meeting, but Hegseth said in a social \u200bmedia post that he had visited US service members in \u200bthe Central Command area of responsibility, which covers the \u2060Middle East, northeast Africa and parts of Asia.<\/p>\n<p>The Pentagon declined \u200bcomment, while Israel\u2019s embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to \u200ba request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>News of Hegseth\u2019s trip comes a day after US President Donald Trump <a rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"link--external\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/middle-east\/trump-endorses-netanyahu-israeli-election-2026-10-18\/\">endorsed<\/a> Netanyahu in next week\u2019s parliamentary election in Israel \u2014 its first \u200bvote since the Gaza war in October 2023, which shook \u200bthe country and plunged the Middle East into turmoil, as Israel widened military assault in Lebanon and Iran.<\/p>\n<p>Netanyahu\u2019s extremist religious-nationalist coalition is projected to lose its governing majority, although the opposition may also struggle to form a government, opinion polls show.<\/p>\n<p>US Vice President JD Vance, \u200bhowever, declined to \u200bendorse Netanyahu in \u2060an interview earlier on Monday, saying he was not getting involved in Israeli elections.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI endorse American \u200bcandidates, and that\u2019s where I\u2019m focused on is \u200bthe midterms,\u201d \u2060Vance, who travelled to Budapest and <a rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"link--external\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/europe\/vice-president-vance-visits-hungary-boost-orban-ahead-pivotal-election-2026-04-07\/\">endorsed<\/a> Viktor Orban in Hungarian election earlier this year, said in an interview with digital media outlet \u20602WAY.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m \u200bnot anti-endorsing him, but I\u2019m not pro-endorsing \u200bhim, I\u2019m not getting involved in Israeli elections,\u201d Vance said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth met \u200bwith radical Israeli regime prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu during an unannounced \u200cvisit to Israel on Monday, Axios reported, citing two sources with knowledge. Reuters could not immediately confirm the meeting, but Hegseth said in a social \u200bmedia post that he had visited US service members in \u200bthe Central Command area of responsibility, which covers the \u2060Middle East, northeast Africa and parts of Asia. The Pentagon declined \u200bcomment, while Israel\u2019s embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to \u200ba request for comment. News of Hegseth\u2019s&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"gutentor_comment":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2980\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}