Okay. So, I understand that you were up at 4:30 in the morning this morning

working what on phase two. What were you working on? So, Steve is a very early riser and my

kids get up early to go to school. So, uh, the time before they get up is usually a great time for us to catch up

before the day and go over what’s been happening overseas. So, this morning we were talking about a lot of the issues

of getting the aid into Gaza and deconlicting some of the misunderstandings. Deconlicting meaning

meaning that you have a lot of people with good intentions right now. Um, an example is the UN is trying very hard to

get food into uh the people of Gaza. the Turks were offering to send a recovery

and rescue team in to help search for some of the uh the dead hostages um that

uh that were looking to recover and uh there’s just a lot of miscommunication that stalls and holds up some of these

efforts. So uh getting all sides perspectives and finding a mechanism to get quick adjudications and the right

adjudications uh is something that’s very necessary to put in place. I heard

the president asked you what the chances were for success. Yes. And you said

100%. And he said, “Why do you feel so confident?” Yeah. And I said, “Well, we can’t afford to

fail.” We just kept on thinking to ourselves, “This finish line, this finish line is

about saving lives.” I need to know if you did some bare knuckle stuff. You know, I think of the

real estate negotiation as hard-nosed, get your dukes up.

There were a couple intense moments that we had, but what led to this was really the trust that we were able to build.

And I was trained in foreign policy really in President Trump’s first term by seeing an outsider president come

into Washington with a different school of foreign policy than had been brought

in place for the 20 or 30 years prior. and his foreign policy was really about pragmatic realism, right? Taking

pragmatic stances, trying to use strength to avoid wars and figuring out

how to uh make deals, not lecture the world. And so um the way that wait, what does that mean? Make deals

and not lecture the world. focus on interests over values sometimes and figure out what are where do we have

joint interests with other countries and pursue those joint interests and then where you have differences on interests

or values discuss those privately and try to find ways to get it to the best

place possible. But the way that we were successful in the first term with a lot of the different trade deals and uh

peace negotiations like Abraham Accords and the ending the GCC dispute was that we never approached it with people like

we were across the table from you. We sat uh with the people on uh from other countries and we said let’s agree on the

same objective and then once we agreed on the objective we kind of locked arms and said let’s figure out ways that we

can work together to try and get there. We joke with the Abraham Accords that we succeeded at plan C, but only because we

went through the alphabet three times and failed at every letter and kept going and we never quit. And was that true here as well?

Uh, we probably went through the alphabet seven or eight times, I think. So, yeah. And this was more complex.

I I heard that one of the things that was different from a diplomatic approach

was that you took risks, more risks, a lot of risks. Would you agree with that?

Well, first I would say that uh President Trump is a very different sort

of president to work for. He delegates well. I don’t think people realize that he gave us a lot of authority to

negotiate. He felt um he he understood the dynamics of it. We put him in the

room. We explained it to him, I think, thoroughly. But he gave us lots of authority uh Leslie and I

to make decisions without having to check in all the time. Yeah. And it’s not to say, by the way, that we wouldn’t check in. We did check

in often, but that that feeling of comfortability on our part, it allowed us to uh to

freewheel it a little bit. Give us an example of the freewheeling.

Give us some insight into how that worked. After the missile strike uh in Qatar from Israel, um Steve and I basically

were very upset about that. We thought that that really was not a smart strategic move and it violated a lot of

the trust that we felt um like we deserved from the Israeli side. And so

at that point uh Steve and I basically sat together and said we need to take a whole new approach and perhaps with all

of this chaos can come an opportunity. And so we decided to take the previous

ceasefire proposal and then the end of war proposal that we’ve been working on and merge it together into one document

and then focus on seeing if we can get the Qataris in the Arab world on board.

And so we put that together, spoke with the Qataris, made a lot of progress, brought it to the president and he said,

“I love this idea. Let’s go all in and let’s push very hard to get the Arab world aligned and then we’ll figure out

how to get Israel on board and turn this whole negotiation around. Okay. Um I’m going to come back to the

attack on the uh compound in Doha, but let’s uh move forward for one second.

So, you um have both done a lot of business with the Gulf States, billions

and billions of dollars worth of business, and you’ve done some of the

business while this negotiation has gone on. Um, and that has raised some issues

of conflict. I mean, some blurring of a line between, you know, what you’re

doing in terms of foreign policy and benefiting financially from what’s going

on. Yeah. So, first of all, Leslie, nobody’s pointed out any instances where Steve or I have uh pursued any policies or done

anything that have not been in the interests of America. Um, number two, perception,

but Liz, we we can’t spend our time focused on perception as much as we have to focus on the facts. We’re here to do

good. These are impossible tasks and because this is important, I’ve volunteered my time to help the

president and and Steve try to make progress. But Steve nor I will be involved in awarding contracts or

figuring out who does business um you know in Gaza after. Well, from my standpoint, Leslie, I’m

not in business anymore. I’ve But your family is, but I’ve divested like Jared. I receive

no salary and I pay all my own expenses. This has become an issue. what people

call conflicts of interest. Steve and I call experience and trusted relationships that we have throughout

the world. If Steve and I didn’t have these deep relationships, the deal that we were able to help get done that freed

these hostages would not have occurred. We have trusted relationships in the Arab world and even in Israel where

we’ve both done business in the past, but that means they trust us. We understand their cultures. we understand how they work and we’re able to use

those uh that knowledge and skill set to try to do things that advance the world. I would I would agree exactly with what

Jared said and I like uh his statement that conflict of interest is is uh a

terminology used by some and we call it experience. We really do. You call conflict of interest experience

because we don’t think there was a conflict of interest Leslie. That’s why because we don’t think that uh we crossed any ethical barriers because

there becomes this sort of perception that there might be a conflict of interest because we can call shake

Muhammad in Qatar directly or because we can call BB directly or because we can

call the foreign minister of Turkey who is um a very critical person in this

equation or call uh MBZ in the Emirates or MBS. Get him on the phone

immediately. Yeah. and and garner support. The president when we went to that ANGA uh meeting with the Arab

leaders came out of that with almost unonymity a consensus support from

everybody there. We had been working those uh telephone lines to all the leaders of those countries. We were not

talking to uh junior people or lieutenants over there. we were talking directly to the people who make the

final decisions and that ultimately became very very critical to the to us

being successful. I want to ask you about a statement you made that may have framed your outlook on

this Jared. You said issues are simple. It’s the people who are comp complicated

and complex. Issues are simple. Now, that really is

inverting the way diplomacy has worked. Yeah. Well, I agree with him, by the way. I agree with that statement. I I

say all the time, the issues were so thorny, they’re still impos Oh, you know, hard to get through.

I like to say, Leslie, and it’s a version of what Jared uh you quoted Jared is just saying. I like to say that

we’re sort of like we’re our title should be secretary of miscommunication

and correcting miscommunication because that’s a lot of what we were doing out there. You know, we were trying to build

trust between people who didn’t trust each others each each other for for because of decades of of myths and

distrust and that’s not an easy thing to correct. Can I say on the issues are on the

issues are simple and the people are complicated. Yeah. When I first started looking at this file, I spoke to

everyone who’d been involved in the Middle East diplomacy for the 20 years prior, all the historians and all of those

and the way they were explaining things to me just made no sense. And the foundational idea that I came to is that people just

want to be able to live with security and live freely. They want to be together. They want to have economic opportunity. They want their children to

be able to live a better life. And they want to safely and freely practice whatever religion they choose to

practice. And that for me was really what it was about. And so when you think about everything through that light, you

have all these old historical conflicts or bulcanization of communication. And it really is just getting people to

focus on how do we make the future better versus getting stuck in these old conflicts. We want to walk through, you know,

chronologically. And we want to start with the bombing in Doha. Um, we’ve been

told that that bombing, the Israelis bombing the compound where the Hamas

negotiators were in in the capital of um,Qatar. U, that that was a turning

point that the Israelis had crossed some line. Explain how that was a turning point.

What went through everybody’s mind? How did it move your negotiations from one

place to another place? Well, Leslie, we were on that I want to

say Monday. It was Monday, Jared, right? Yeah. We were Monday at it was my turn

to host the uh the uh negotiation. So, me uh Ron Durmer, who was the um lead

minister in Israel, and Jared were at my home and we were going through the peace proposals that

we were putting on the table. And and at the time, we were discussing compromise deals. We were discussing what they

called the 10 and 10. 10 hostages come out, 10 get left for the final negotiation. We were discussing a

complete deal. Mhm. And we were sending Jared was drafting. He had his computer out and um he was

drafting and we were the three of us having a what I thought was a you know a

very productive session and we were sending these drafts back to the Qataris

who were sitting in the room with uh in Doha in Doha presumably Hamas and they were

going over things and we came away thinking that we were

awful close to a deal and in fact I was supposed to go to Paris on Friday and

meet Shake Muhammad and several other people. We had agreed to that trip and we came up with this notion that we

would let Hamas um have a 4 and a half day period of time to get back to us as

to whether the deal was done or not. And we woke up the next morning to find out that there had been this attack.

to the negotiation as were the the Egyptians and the Turks and we had lost

the confidence of the Qataris. And so Hamas went underground and it was

very very difficult to get to them and and they were the your link to Hamas.

Absolutely. you were dealing through the Qataris to make your proposals to Hamas and it became very very evident as to

how important and how critical that role was. But there was something that happened that uh brought the Qataris back in and

I wouldn’t call it forced. You wouldn’t? No, I would I would say that I would

becoming a diplomat. Clearly, I would I would say that that apology

was pivotal. It was the lynch pin that got us to the next place. It was really really

important that it happened. And I think we spent uh with the president at his

direction. We spent a lot of time discussing it with Durmer, discussing it with Prime Minister Netanyahu. And then

the president weighed in. He was tough with Netanyahu. President Trump had a great line at a

speech in the Knesset where he said BB’s very tough, but that’s what makes him great. And ultimately, Prime Minister

Netanyahu wasn’t going to do anything or say anything or agree to anything that he didn’t feel comfortable with, but he

he knew what needed to be done at that moment to make peace. And I give him a lot of credit for meeting the moment and

doing what needed to be done in order to get this deal done. The goal of the phone call was to help things move

forward and now there’s a trilateral mechanism between the countries which didn’t happen before. So this is the

first time there’s a formal mechanism now between Israel and Qatar and I believe over time Israel and Qatar could

actually turn out to be incredible allies in the region to advance things forward. The apology needed to happen.

It just did. We were not moving forward without that apology. And the president said to him, people apologize. I I

remember him saying I apologize sometimes. I’m talking about President Trump and uh

rarely. I don’t know about that. I’ve I’ve seen him uh I’ve seen him. Okay. Three times.

Okay. No. President Trump told Prime Minister Netanyahu that it was time to make peace. and he said, “We’re not going to

make you do anything that will create long-term security issues for your country, but we want you to work very

closely with us and be flexible on the areas where you can be flexible in order to give us what we need to get the Arab

world on board and get this deal done.” So after this, the Qataris are back in

and um so the they were kind of squeezing Hamas and you were kind of

squeezing the Israelis. Is that the right way to say it? And how did you

doing that? How did things move forward from there? I don’t think squeezing is the right word. I think refining the different

variables that were truly necessary. Now you’re the diplomat. No, I I I say this very sincerely, which

is at the end of the day, it goes back to the issues were pretty simple. We wanted the hostages to come out. We

wanted a real ceasefire that both sides uh would respect. We needed a way to bring humanitarian aid into the people.

And then we had to write all these complex words to deal with the 50 years of stupid word games that everyone in that region is so used to playing. Both

sides wanted the objective and we just needed to find a way to help everyone get there. But you would you were dealing with the

Israelis and the Qataris were dealing with Hamas and you were dealing with uh

yes and no. The Qataris were the interlocutors directly talking to Hamas but then we were on the phone with the

Qataris, the Egyptians and the Turks. And the notion was to convince everybody

that those 20 Israeli hostages who were alive were no longer assets for Hamas.

They were a liability. How did they become a liability and not their sort of

because they weren’t bargaining chip? What did Hamas gain by keeping these hostages? You had tens of thousands of

Palestinians who were killed in these wars. Uh you have half of Gaza or more than half of it is absolutely destroyed.

And so what’s been the gain? And so they saw the commitment from President Trump and the Arab mediators to say, “We want

to help the Palestinian people. We want to help them find a way to have a better life.” And that can’t begin until the

hostages are returned and this war is ended. So the same day of the phone call, I think the president announced his

20point plan for peace in the region. Um, and the Israelis were supposed to

stop the bombing and Hamas was supposed to release the hostages as.1

out of the 20 points. Um, so how did you move from there to get an agreement

because it it wasn’t you weren’t that close that day. So the way we designed the 20point plan with President Trump

was to give it enough room so that we can then not get into the same technical

elongated negotiations that had occurred in the past and give a lot of people the ability to stall and kill the deal. So

we tried to make everything as defined as possible. And what that did was it put the ball in the court of Hamas and

it turned the Arab world against them because now the Arab world had endorsed this plan and President Trump had gotten

Israel to agree to the plan. So whereas two weeks earlier Israel was globally isolated within two weeks Hamas was now

globally isolated and their Arab benefactors were now all saying it’s time to make a deal. So that maneuver

figure out what we really need to make it in a way where you could have the assurances you need to feel like it can

be successful.” Does that lead to the Shamal Shake meeting on October 8th?

It does, but we shifted the narrative and that helped with the with the Arab

mediators. But it was also important at the same time, Leslie, that Hamas felt

that there were certain things in that 20point plan that benefited them. And it was important that we were able to

demonstrate that the president stood behind that. An amnesty program, um, all kinds of other things, uh, redeployment

of, uh, Israeli forces, aid coming in, and it was important that we demonstrate that because you can’t make a deal where

you don’t consider each each person on the other side. It’s got to be a fair deal or the deal is going to be broken.

One of the points was that uh Hamas did not have to leave Gaza. I guess that was something that was important to them.

Well, if you go through um normally when there’s wars, they usually give the deck of cards where they have all the

different, you know, top generals, second level generals, third level generals. We said to the Israelis is

everyone who you sought to target after October 7th has basically been killed. And so it’s been a major turnover with

Hamas. They’ve lost over 20,000 soldiers in this conflict. And so at some point,

you have to stop the killing and you have to give an opportunity for something new and better uh to hopefully

come and take its place. And if people can get tired of the war, then maybe they’re ready to try peace. But I heard that the Israelis did not

want to stop the war despite that argument. I think everyone wants to end war. I I

don’t think they believed that it was possible to stop the war in a way where they can get their hostages back and

where it wouldn’t pose a threat again from Gaza. BB had set forth five

principles to end the war. And it became very clear to him that

diplomatically in this 20point agreement that we had absorbed those five

principles and yet created other points that where Hamas felt that they were

being heard and they were being respected and it was the joining of those two things

Shamal Shik and the whole point is to get Hamas on board. So tell us about

this meeting to set the stage. Well before you go to Charal Shik after uh BB was at the White House with

President Trump and they announced his agreement to the President Trump’s 20point plan then there was a couple

days of waiting to see what would Hamas do. And that Friday in the afternoon,

uh, we were getting word from the mediators that they were going to come out positive, but with a couple of

conditions and different things that they wanted to see modified in any final agreement. But the vibe we were getting

was quite positive. Well, first one thing one thing I’m going to point out is that we were getting because of our

relationships and this goes back to you know that conflict of interest question you had for for us but we our

relationships were direct with the leaders of these three countries and we were hearing that Hamas was positive on

the deal and yet I was reading intelligence reports every day and getting briefings from the CIA three

times a day and those intelligence briefings were suggesting that Hamas was going to say no. And so Jared and I had

to make had to make a decision as to where we thought this was going. And both of us, you know, we didn’t need to

convince one another. We really felt that this was going in a positive way. And sure enough, Hamas came out and

said, uh, you know, we accept the president’s plan and that allowed us to, um, get into the next gear.

Yeah. And one thing that also caused confusion after that was they put in some language um that was really very

face- saving for them uh in order to do and one thing I would tell everyone is in the Middle East you just have to

ignore all the public statements that everyone puts out uh because they’re all just talking to their political bases.

But the message they were telling us was that they were on board with releasing the hostages. They wanted to end the

war. Uh they wanted to negotiate on some of the different variables in the agreement but on the little stuff and

not the big stuff. What Steve and I said to the mediators is let’s go to Charmeal Shake. We’ll do the negotiation, but we

would prefer that they pre-agree to as many things as possible. We don’t have to start the negotiations when we get

there. There are certain issues that could be adjudicated now. And if they’re not going to agree to those issues, then

let’s not bother with the trip. So we c we tried to diffuse some of the more complex issues before they came to

Charmealshake in order to give us a higher probability of success and a more efficient negotiation when we got there.

Did you have the authority to make the deal to make these compromises?

What kind of authority did you get? Let me ask it that way. To not make a bad deal.

But but Hamas was that describe President Trump’s uh I would say mandate. Don’t make a bad deal. Don’t make a bad deal. But Hamas was

going to be there and I know that you spoke directly. So did you have to get

authority to do that or was Yes, we both described it to the president as this.

If we would have an opportunity to meet Hamas and if in our view that opportunity could lead to a deal, were

you comfortable with allowing us to go meet with Hamas? That that was the question that we asked him and the

entire foreign policy staff and and the answer came back. If you feel that you can get to a deal, of course,

why wouldn’t we why wouldn’t I encourage I being President Trump, why wouldn’t I encourage you to get into that room and

get it finished? Steve, was there um an understanding before this meeting that US diplomats

don’t speak to organizations like Hamas? I said to the president, are you

comfortable with this? and he looked at me quizzically and saying, “How would I not be comfortable? Who wouldn’t take

that meeting if that was going to lead to a deal?” But I’m asking if the diplomats would

not have done it. I can answer that. In President Trump’s first term, when I was working on this

file, I raised the idea of potentially meeting with Hamas to have conversations and it basically was shut down and and

ridiculed by everyone I brought it up with. The diplomats were not supposed to do that.

Yeah. Well, I just want to say this first of all. Um, I think the president was very, very comfortable with it, but

I can remember thinking to myself, this is as courageous a decision as I’ve witnessed. It was those lives are more

important. Uh, bringing uh certainty and closure for these families is important.

Stopping the killing is important. And we need if we need to do that then, you

know, go do it. Yeah. And it felt courageous. I’m I’m just trying to um set set the

stage for this meeting on October 8th that that it was an an unusual thing

that your dealmakers, you know, you’re different. Let me give you sort of the crux of

what’s at the bottom of why meeting them was so important. There’s so much

mistrust between Hamas and the Israelis. Doha accentuated that and the president

and both sides will be treated fairly and both sides will be treated fairly.” So, you get to the meeting in Egypt and

you’re in a meeting with the chief Hamas negotiator, right? and you’re meeting

him for the first time. This is just a month after the attack in Doha.

So, we got into the room. The lead negotiator was sitting right next to me. That negotiator was in Doha when the

Israelis struck. Correct. He survived, but his son was killed. Is that right?

That’s right. And we expressed our condolences to him for the loss of his son. mentioned it and I told him that I

had lost a son and that we were both members of a really bad club, parents

who had buried children and um you know Jared describes it maybe a little bit

better than me um because you were watching. Yeah. What I saw at that moment was very interesting. You had we go into a room

and you have the Qataris, the Turks, and the Egyptians. And then we meet the four representatives of Hamas, which is a

terrorist organization. And I’m looking at these guys and I’m thinking, these are hardened guys who have been through

two years of war. They’ve obviously, you know, they green lit an assault that

raped and murdered and did some of the most barbaric things. They’ve been holding hostages while they’re their

while while Gaza’s been, you know, bombed. and they’ve they’ve withstood all the suffering. But when Steve and

and him spoke about their sons, it turned from a negotiation with a terrorist group to seeing two human

beings kind of showing a vulnerability with each other. Is it true that once the deal was agreed

to that the Israelis there at that meeting and the Qataris began to hug

each other? Absolutely. And I thought to myself, I wish the world could have seen it. I wish people could see people from Qatar

hugging people from Israel. And by the way, it happened with the Turks, too. And it happened with the Egyptians,

which sort of, I don’t know, makes you feel a whole lot better about what the possibilities are for the world.

So, how did you get to an agreement with them? The basic framework of the deal was that the 48 hostages would be returned in

exchange for a ratio of Palestinian prisoners that the Israeli government had agreed to. 48 meaning 20 alive and

stabilization force in place from the international community and they saw a real pathway towards disarmment of Hamas

and the destruction of all the military capability, they would further withdraw with the goal of ultimately uh Gaza

being peaceful and Israel no longer needing uh a presence. So there was a lot of conditionality built into the

deal and a lot of elements that would be trust. Hamas’s worst nightmare in this deal would be that Israel withdrew to

the agreed upon line. Um Hamas released all the hostages and then once that

occurred, Israel just resumed the war and went back to going after them. So what they needed was a guarantee from

President Trump that um that President Trump would hold Israel to their word as

long as Hamas kept their word. And obviously given the dynamics of the Middle East, given the relations between Israel and Hamas, there was zero trust

anywhere to be found. Now, here’s something um about you being business people, dealmakers

um that was different from the normal in negotiations

um that you just accepted point one of this 20point deal and said,

“Okay, let’s get done what we can get done and move on later.”

But it’s like kicking the hard issues down the road. Can you tell me why you accepted just part one?

A lot of business is reading your opponent and hearing what he’s willing to say now and what he’s willing to do

later. What we what we read in their response was that they wanted to get there, but they needed a way to save

face and they still had some work to do to figure out some of the finer points that we weren’t going to be able to

solve at that moment in time. Let’s go to the cabinet meeting in Israel uh

where Netanyahu’s government is called upon to ratify the agreement. And you

are there and you’re sitting on one side, you’re sitting on the other side.

In Israel, they called you the babysitters. Babysitters.

As if you were there to make sure that he stuck to the deal. At least that was

the sort of message that came through. Well, that’s but that’s bad messaging because that’s not what happened. What

He invited you to join. He invited us to join. And I understand that one of the more right-wing members

of his cabinet, Ben Gavir, started to lecture you and yell at you

a little bit. A little bit. Um, but I’ll tell you this. When he when he invited us, when the prime minister invited us,

both Jared and I knew that he endorsed the deal, that we were there to help to

sell it to the cabinet, to let that cabinet know that we were going to stand behind all aspects of the deal and not

do anything that would endanger the security of the Israeli people. But they they did ratify but after this man gave

you two a talking to um yeah want me to tell the story it’s politics.

Okay. So uh so Jared and I are both there and we got a really good reception from the

cabinet. I think I irrespective of where each any of them individually uh uh uh

stood politically. I think they were grateful that um two Americans on behalf

of President Trump were there to help get this thing to be done and they were grateful for it and they um expressed

that to us. But there was a moment with Mr. Gverier and I understand it. It’s

emotionally charged situation and people have died and he’s got family members I

think who um uh who who might have been impacted in some sort of way injured.

You know, everyone in Israel knows a hostage or knows someone who has been killed. So it’s a it’s it’s it’s it’s an

emotional issue for everybody and he was emotional and it started with me and

but like this I I I also talked to him about I I talk

to Gavier about my boy. I always feel I’m I’m in these situations because my son Andrew puts me in them and I talked

to him about my son. Um, and I I wouldn’t say he was dismissive, but he

was talking about all the death and all the carnage in Israel. And I was saying to him at some point, you got to let it

to my boy. And so I had this sort of moment with him. Well, part of the plan is the

reconstruction, the building, rebuilding of Gaza. And um, you’re builders. you’ve been in

real estate, as you said, it’s extremely complex. Um, tell us more about the plan

and h how much it’s going to cost, where’s the money going to come from, and who’s going to award the contracts.

Three questions. I think it’s going to cost a lot of

money. What’s a lot of money? You know, the estimates are in the $50 billion range. It might be a little bit

less. It might be a little bit more. I happen to think that that’s not a lot of money in that region. You have

governments that are going to jump on in and so the uh Middle East countries are

going to provide the money. Yep. But you’ll see European participation and so forth. I I think

the beginning of this plan is how to get it going and that’s that’s what me and

what me and Jared work on all the time. The money raising we think is the easy part. We think that happens re

I think if the world saw the progress so far, they’d be pretty impressed. Yeah. So, so basically over the last

couple years there’s been a lot of organizations that have been trying to determine what happens after the war.

What’s clear right now is we’re very much focused on the humanitarian and the deconliction to make sure that the aid

can get to the people and deconliction you because there’s still shooting over there. So, so you have to make sure that we’re

dealing with both sides and sending messages so that you don’t let embers become little fires that become forest

fires. So, we’re working on deconliction humanitarian aid. Right now you have um

gazins trying to go home. They’re trying to go back to where they lived before. They’re going back to

where the rubble is and putting a tent down and Correct. Correct. And and and by the way, and it’s rough there because it’s

not just rubble. It’s um a lot of unexloded munitions all over the field. And um as to your question, Leslie,

who’s going to award contracts? Um the answer is there’s a board of peace and we’re going to be very very focused and

fidious about having the best talent there. We’re already talking to contractors from all of the Middle

Eastern countries because we think there has to be support from them and they know the market in the best and uh in

the best way. Will it be transparent? Everything’s transparent that we do. Yes. You you can’t you can’t replace a

corrupt government with another corrupt government. the reason why again and this is an impossible thing to do, but

Steve and I and and President Trump are always aiming to try and accomplish impossible but rational things. So the

goal here is to set up a trans a transparent good government. This can be very very difficult to do, but we’re in

the very early phases of trying to accomplish that. All right, let’s go back to the Tik Tok. So the is the the Israeli cabinet does

ratify the deal and that starts a clock that Hamas has 72 hours to release the

hostages. So what are you guys going through? Are you nervous? Are you anxious? Are you

biting your nails? What’s going to happen? What could go wrong? So after we went back to the hotel after the cabinet

met um we started getting calls from both sides saying that the the prisoner exchange list was not being finalized

and that both sides were not fulfilling their obligations. Yes. And so and there’s a mechanism that

had been done between them for different exchanges that had happened in the past. Um, we announced the deal before

agreeing to this list in in in detail simply because we wanted to get the 72-hour clock started as quickly as

possible. But at 2 in the morning uh that night after leaving the cabinet, we got word that there was a big gap

between the sides and Steve and I basically were working the phones between the Qataris and the Israelis

going back trying to find compromises and solutions on that. Um, literally we finished it about 5:40 in the morning.

And so that was a moment too where everyone’s celebrating and we’re getting all these nice texts and messages and

we’re sitting there saying, “This deal may actually blow apart.” And I said to Steve, I kind of feel like an impostor

right now because everyone thinks this deal is done and there’s still details that could blow it off.

Before the hostages actually come out, you decide to go to Gaza. Mhm. And what did you see? It looked almost

like a nuclear bomb had been set off in that area. And then you see these people moving back. And I asked the idea,

“Where are they going?” Like, “I’m looking around. These are all runes.” And they said, “Well, they’re going back to the areas where their destroyed home

was onto their plot and they’re going to pitch a tent.” And it’s very sad because you think to yourself, they really have nowhere else

to go. Would you say now having been there that it was genocide?

No. No. Absolutely not. No. No. there was a war being fought.

So that very night you go to hostage square where the families of the hostages have been protesting, mourning,

being very frustrated, angry sometimes. And every time you mention President Trump to President Donald J. Trump,

I had to stop because they were cheering. Thank you. Thank you. But then you tried to thank

Netanyahu. Yeah. And to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Oh, every time you said his name. Look, that’s how they feel. I don’t feel

that that that way. And I thought he steered his country through some really difficult circumstances.

People think that he prolonged the the incarceration of the hostages for his

own political uh future. Yeah, I don’t I don’t think that’s the case. The biggest message that we’ve tried to

How are you doing with that message? We’re we’re just getting started. How sure are you that what you’ve

accomplished so far is going to stick? First of all, it’s the Middle East, so everyone complains about everything.

Number one, uh it’s looking I thought you were going to say all deals fall apart. No, it’s it’s very delicate right now,

but we just have to stay on top of everyone and try to make sure that everyone works hard to try and create

the best outcome possible. This is a very difficult situation and a very difficult dynamic. So, one of the issues that was left for

phase 2 was um Hamas disarming

are these are real time challenges. This has not been done before at the speed and with the with the pressure. So

again, these are very hard tasks, but Steve and I have been working day and night to figure out how to define this,

how to put it together. And so there’s conversations that are ongoing about what the criteria um are that are needed

in order to make this the highest chance of success. But because this one issue was left

unresolved, Hamas now is using weapons to execute

people that they perceive as their enemies in Gaza. And they’re also using

their weapons to reestablish themselves as uh the the entity that is governing

Gaza. They’re moving into the vacuum. Hamas right now is doing exactly what you would expect a terrorist

organization to do, which is to try to reconstitute and take back their positions. Right?

If they are successful, Hamas will fail and Gaza will not be a threat to Israel in the future.

Here’s what President Trump said. Hamas must disarm or we will disarm them

perhaps violently. Is it possible that American troops will go in?

That’s not the intent. But what does he mean then? President Trump is exactly what he said.

He’s his statement is is that he wants to see this done and he’s fully committed to seeing it done and uh and

he’s going to continue to work hard to make sure that it is completed. If it if not the United States to u to

to disarm if if Hamas doesn’t do it itself who who does that

who disarms them? Right now, the goal is to have the the agreement is that an international stabilization force will

build a local Palestinian police force and there will be an agreement reached between them on how to create a secure

and viable Gaza. And by the way, none of the reconstruction money is going to be going in until you have tariff-free

zones because nobody wants to invest this money into a place where it’s just going to get destroyed again by

terrorism. But is it remotely possible that American troops go into

Highly unlikely. No, we’re going to have a weapons buyback program. This is all linked to amnesty

and disavowing violence. Uh if if Hamas people want to stay there, we are well

on top of it. And phase one was very hard. Phase two could potentially be even harder. So, there’s a lot of work to do,

right? Because um you you’re trying to establish a government, right, out of nothing. Out of nothing, a

police force. But none of these things have started the stabilization peacekeepers

um who were supposed to be from the Arab countries right in the region. No, we we’ve started uh putting out

feelers trying to figure out how to organize it uh figure out what are the tasks, who’s in charge of the tasks and

creating a mechanism to start approving it. Ultimately, this will report to the board of peace. But there’s a lot of work that’s

want to be involved. The Indonesians uh uh have said they want to be involved. You seem pretty um relaxed about the

pace. I’m surprised. Well, we we we literally the deal got done three days ago.

Yeah. And you know, we’ve probably been able to accomplish in the last three days is about three weeks worth of work. And so

these are very hard, complex things, but there’s been a lot of thought that’s been put into it by the US government,

by different organizations, and so uh we’ve got a really good group of people assembled and we’re going to do our best to get to the best outcome possible.

Are the two of you committed to the next phase? Totally.

I’m going to try to help set it up and then I’m going to hopefully go back to my normal life. Is there any possibility

that no matter what happens, the Israeli army or the Israelis refuse to pull back

their army? Everything’s possible, but again, I think that we’ve shown that we have the

ability to work with these parties and get them to be as reasonable as they’re capable of being.

Well, they’ve got their soldiers there in half the half of Gaza committed to move back. You know, there

are three phases of redeployment. And if if Gaza is starting to show signs of being peaceful and not a threat to

Israel, there’s nothing more that Israel would like more than to not have to have a heavy military presence there.

They just don’t believe that that’s ever going to happen. So, we have to help make it happen. Now, part of the agreement was that, as

you had mentioned, Jared, 28 bodies, Israelis were supposed to come out and

phase one by now. Do you think that the that Hamas is breaking the agreement? Is

it bad faith? So, this has been a very intense effort on behalf of our joint center with

Israel and with the mediators in order to convey whatever information Israel

has on the whereabouts of the bodies to the mediators and to Hamas uh in order

to retrieve them. So, you’re involved in this part of what’s going on right now. Are you

trying to reassure the Israelis that Hamas is really looking for the bodies?

We’re just trying to convey information and make sure that everyone knows the expectations and push both sides to be

uh proactive in terms of finding a solution instead of blaming each other for breakdowns.

But are you saying publicly right now that Hamas is acting in good faith?

Seriously looking for the bias? As far as we’ve seen from what’s being conveyed to us from the mediators, they are so

far. That could break down at any minute, but right now we have seen them looking to honor their agreement.

What’s the most important next step? Is it the stabilization force? Everything. It’s I took the words right

out of my mouth. So there’s no order of priority. There’s about It sounds like the stabilization.

There’s about 10 tier one priorities and we’re working all them in parallel. When you talk about a government,

do you see it as a government with a strong man? Too early to tell. I I just being

honest, too early to tell. Let’s see if we can make it functional. And if it’s functional, there’s a lot of ways to do

it. So, are you going to do anything or can you do anything about the violence

going on right now in Gaza? So, SenCom put out a a strong statement on it and we’ve sent strong messages

through the mediator to Hamas. Uh we’ve been trying to hold back Israel from getting involved. We’re working to set

up a safe zone uh beyond the yellow line for Palestinians who feel that they’re

at threat from Hamas. Uh what we have heard back from the mediators is that Hamas doesn’t control all the different

factions inside and that there is a little bit of chaos occurring because Hamas right now is quite weak and

desperate and so uh we’re doing our best to create safe zones and opportunities to avoid as much of this as possible.

there could create a pathway to it. But you know these what I learned when I got involved is that the the word state

means different things to different people. And so right now what we’re focused on is creating a situation for joint security and economic opportunity

for Israelis and Palestinians so that they can live peacefully side by side in a durable way. What you end up calling

it over time will allow the Palestinians to determine that themselves. But right now it’s just focused on making this

functional. There’s been a long war. The war is over. Hopefully we keep it that way. and uh we want to create conditions

for a long-term success. Okay. So, do you have any uh responsibility or do you feel it to uh

unite Gaza and the West Bank? We’ll see. You know, it’s interesting what a lot of the Arabs have been telling me is that it’s there’s very

different cultures. The people haven’t been connected in a long time. And ultimately, I think you need to create the right leadership in both places and

then let them decide if they want to be connected or not. But you need both places to be functioning uh in a good

way where they can thrive before you can um connect them. Israel has become increasingly isolated

because of this war um because of the pounding in Gaza. Um what do they need

to do? What should they do to reestablish the good reputation they

had? Just just be exceptional. You know, I think if they they don’t have to explain themselves to the world, I think this

war has taken a big toll. But if Israel focuses on the things that make them incredible, which is their ingenuity,

their innovation, their compassion, they focus on creating and um and just being

again on the world stage. What about the anti-semitism? It seems that this war has

created a rash of anti-semitism everywhere. Well, that’s unacceptable.

And it’s even going on in the United States of America. Well, that’s my point. That’s unacceptable. And then that and that’s

the president’s position. But, you know, when you see the destruction that you went and saw in

person, you see the what what’s going on on television screens, people see it

with their eyes. It makes a big emotional impact when you when it comes

in that way. I I I think what Israel should just do is focused on showing people that if you’re partners with Israel, you can benefit.

And if you are against Israel, they’re tough they’re a tough opponent. You look at after October 7th, Hezbollah now is

mostly destroyed. Iran is weaker than they’ve ever been. And Gaza is mostly destroyed. And it’s not just the

buildings. You have all the terror infrastructure underneath Gaza. I mean, you had tens of billions of dollars of aid that went into Gaza. and their

democratically elected government, Hamas, used that to build over 450 miles of terror tunnels. And so there’s been a

lot of misappropriation of things. And so from Israel’s perspective, these people went after them, but they showed

their strength and they they crushed their their their threats. And that’s what they’ll do because their survival is existential to them.

Jared, even the president’s base, the MAGA group, um that’s beginning to

fracture. You have some people leaders who aren’t supporting Israel. That’s

okay. Look, a MAG I always think a political party is a collection of tribes and I think the very strong uh

majority of President Trump’s MAGA base does support Israel. But again, most people are against war and people don’t

like what’s happened over the last couple years. But I do think, you know, a strong relationship with Israel

benefits America and President Trump has been a big proponent and believer in that and has been a great champion of

making that relationship strong to benefit both countries. Ukraine now that you’ve shown yourself

to be able to make deals like the one you’ve made here. What about Ukraine?

Are you working on it? Well, we are actively actively. I’m just always available to Steve as needed.

Doing a peace deal is becoming infectious. people want to do them. People want to

get to this place. You know, it’s it’s not I don’t think it’s um it’s coincidental that leaders are now coming

to the White House saying, “How do we move a peace deal to uh uh forward on in Ukraine?” And we’re getting calls from

the Iranians. So, what? Yeah. So, what are they saying? What peace is infectious now?

Who are the Iranians calling you? Well, well, we’re we’re we’re we’re there to,

you know, hopefully have a long-term diplomatic solution with Iran. So, um, and someone’s working on that.

Oh, yeah. We’re working on we’re working on Algeria and Morocco right now, our team. And there’s going to be a peace

deal there in the next, in my view, 60 days. What about Iran? You’re actually

working. Yes. Talking to them. Absolutely. And you’re working on Ukraine.

What happened with Putin today? I think there was a very good call, very productive call. You know, we’re we

don’t stop after just uh after just one deal. We keep on plugging away.

Okay, final question. Let’s go back to the hostages. It really was unexpected.

It was unexpected that these 20 young mainly young boys, young men, um would

would come out. Steve, how were you feeling when they come up? Elated.

Elated. And I was thinking to myself, what would I have felt like when I got the call from Cedar Sinai Hospital that

my son had died if the call from them was he didn’t die? Oh god.

We revived them. And these people were all getting that type of call. Their kids were coming home. seeing October

7th and and the breakdown of such barbarism and what it did to Israeli

society and seeing these people taken uh as really innocent hostages in this

situation was just something that I tried very hard not to think about what

conditions they were in or what abuses they would be um experiencing at the

hands of their captors, but it was just something out there that made me think that we couldn’t stop no matter what the

failure was, what the situation, uh, what other responsibilities or obligations I had in my life. Um,

knowing that these people were in the position they were in and that for whatever reason, God put um, Stephen,

myself in in the position to try and do something about it really just gave us the constant motivation to not stop

until we achieved an objective. seeing it actually complete. It just again a huge sigh of of relief just knowing that

they don’t have to endure that anymore and even in addition to that that their families don’t have to endure what

they’ve been enduring with the uncertainty and the anguish and the doubt that they were all feeling. So to

be able to do that is one of the greatest honors you could ever do and and any you know sacrifice that Steve or

I had to make along the way uh was just not even a question of what needed to be

done in order to take a shot at achieving something so important that

everyone thought was so impossible.