What are your thoughts initially on a
day after plan? We've heard a lot of
rhetoric from this president, including
the idea of leveling Gaza, removing
everyone who lives there, and creating
waterfront condos. I'm assuming that's
not what we're talking about here.
No, indeed it's not. And look, uh, a
couple thoughts, Joe. First of all, the
US has focused, uh, first the Biden
administration, now the Trump
administration. The US began focusing on
these questions of what happens after
the war is over. As early as late
October, early November of 2023, we
began talking to Israeli counterparts in
the military, in Ministry of Defense,
the security services, and the prime
minister uh about how to to prod them to
really articulate to think about what
would come afterwards. Um and it it was
a very frustrating it was a very
frustrating uh series of discussions
over the course of a year um which
really went nowhere. I I I for one am
very glad to hear that the Trump
administration that President Trump has
gathered people together today for a
series of discussions but we are nearly
two years into this conflict. So it's
long overdue. I don't believe for a
moment that we're talking about or
envisioning something like the the
February 2025
notion of of the US taking over Gaza and
essentially pushing Palestinians out to
somewhere else and and building some
sort of Riviera. It's not tenable.
There are questions about rebuilding
Gaza, which may be for another day,
because we have to talk about what's
going on now. I realize that a day after
plan is necessary, but the fighting
endures, and in many cases, the starving
endures in Gaza. You were a key adviser
to Secretary Blinken
following the attack on October 7, and
we're still having the same conversation
about how to get food into Gaza. This is
something that is not getting easier. It
is in fact getting harder. You tried to
even build a pier at one point in your
administration. What
what could the Trump White House do to
get around these obstacles?
So look, first of all, it was not the
the pier was almost uh in a sense a move
of desperation as were the air drops.
Really, what you need to do is open up
every land crossing possible and surge
aid in. We were never able to get our
Israeli partners to do that on an
constant ongoing basis and it was always
tied to the prospect of of uh of a surge
with tied to the next phase of a of a
hostage deal. But the fact is that is
wholly insufficient because you went
from December in 2023 to uh fully a year
later before there was another such
release. That's unsustainable. It's
untenable. And so really, there is
nothing to prevent um there is nothing
to prevent the Israeli government from
surging aid on an ongoing basis. And you
can do that um deconlicting with your
military operations as as as you go.
Interesting. Um with that in mind here,
the president's going to be talking.
Joe, I'm sorry. If I could add, that is
one way to overwhelm Hamas's ability or
frankly criminals ability to steal
assistance. You surge it. You have it
coming in in four or five different
crossings and it becomes pretty
impossible for it to be looted or
controlled by um an organization like
Hamas. It gets to people.
We're hearing some new blowback uh from
Democrats on Capitol Hill about the
policy. And by the way, it's not going
to sound unfamiliar to you. President
Joe Biden heard quite a bit of blowback
from progressives here in Washington and
around the country when it came to
supporting the military effort on
Israel's behalf and specifically
providing weapon systems. The ranking
member, the top Democrat on the House
Armed Services Committee, Adam Smith, is
calling now on Congress to withhold some
weapon shipments from Israel to create
more leverage over Benjamin Netanyahu.
Would it actually work?
Uh, look, I think there are are there
are tools, there is leverage to be used
by President Trump that comes well
before you turn to something as dramatic
as curtailing arms shipments. He has
that uh leverage now um in in his
relationship uh with Prime Minister
Netanyahu.