You said "The clay is Israel,...." No sir, the clay is not Israel. It's Israel and the rest of mankind. You may want to consider reading verses 17 & 23-24.
The clay is Israel. Again, look at what Paul was quoting from: Jeremiah 18;
Jeremiah 18
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This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD:
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"Go down to the potter's house, and there I will give you my message."
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So I went down to the potter's house, and I saw him working at the wheel.
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But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.
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Then the word of the LORD came to me:
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"
O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?" declares the LORD. "Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.
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If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed,
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and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned.
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And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted,
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and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it.
We see here that God isn't locked into one plan for Isreal, but he reserves the right to change his mind depending on what his chosen nation does.
Isaiah writes, “Woe to the one who quarrels with his Maker—An earthenware vessel among the vessels of earth! Will the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you doing?’ Or the thing you are making say, ‘He has no hands’?” (Isa. 45:9) In this section of Isaiah, the Jews were surprised to hear God call the Persian King Cyrus his “anointed one” (Isa. 44:28-45:1) God tells Israel that he can choose to work through whomever he wants—even a Gentile. Paul’s reference to these OT passages continues to support the idea that God can save Gentiles to be his servants—regardless of their race or their righteousness.
Paul’s use of this illustration in 2 Timothy shows that we are not divinely determined to be one type of clay or the other. Elsewhere, Paul writes, “In a large house there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also vessels of wood and of earthenware, and some to honor and some to dishonor. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work” (2 Tim. 2:20-21). Notice that the individual can choose to change whether or not he will be an honorable or dishonorable servant (“if anyone cleanses himself… he will be a vessel for honor”).
Paul’s reference to these OT passages continues to support the idea that God can save Gentiles to be his servants—regardless of their race or their righteousness.
Of course, you can go with your interpretation and say that God just makes puppets or forms some people to be evil and some to be good with no freedom to choose, but if you go that route, I hope you have the honesty to admit that what you are embracing is fatalism.