President Biden must not weaken on supporting Israel.

0:00 Speaker 1 With it this morning is Ambassador John Bowten, one of the smartest guys I know, and he uh still maintains his security clearance. And ambassador Uh, so many things are happening in the world. Can you give on a Sunday morning, can you give uh what you an update of what’s going on in Ukraine, what’s going on with Putin, what’s

0:24 going on with Hamas, et cetera.

0:26 Speaker 2 Well, as you say, it’s it’s it’s a complicated world. And I think in some senses these these crises tied together and and maybe other threats we could face from China while this is going on. You know, in Ukraine, although it’s been out of the headlines because of the conflict with Hamas and Israel. Uh, the Ukrainians continue to

0:46 try and make headway. But uh, but the but the opposing forces, the Russians defense is very well dug in. And Uh. I think the Ukrainians are worried about about possible loss of some Americans support. I hope we’re going to find a way to give them the additional military support they need. But right now that conflict goes on

1:06 and it remains very bloody. And but at this point, stalemate I’m worried Putin may seek a diplomatic way out of it and consolidate the territorial gains the Russians have made. So I think it’s important we act quickly and try and get the Ukrainians the additional assistance we need, you know.

1:24 Shifting to the Hamas Israel conflict. Obviously, the ceasefire.

1:28 Speaker 1 Bro let’s stay, let’s stay in the Ukraine. A second Putin almost threatened. And well Blincoln says to Israel, was it in Russia or Israel? Where Blincoln said, uh? To Israel? Was Israel said you don’t have any credit and ask them to uh to do it? You know President Biden’s way.

1:55 Speaker 2 Yeah, Well, you know, despite Biden’s early strong rhetorical support for Israel, he spent most of the last several weeks trying to prevent Israel from eliminating Camas. Although interestingly, on Friday, Secretary Blincoln had to admit that the cause of the breakdown of the cease fire for the exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners was that Hamas had fired a rocket

2:20 into Israel and it had increased its terrorism, not in Gaza but on the West Bank. So look, I think the onus is on Jimas. I think the administration needs needs to understand that and to give Israel some space here so that they can accomplish the objective of the government has said they want to achieve, which is eliminating

2:39 the threat. And this constant nit picking and second guessing the Israelis is not solving the terrorism problem.

2:47 Speaker 1 I agree. So we’re a stalemate, it looks like right now with Hamas in Israel, and until somebody makes the next step.

2:58 Speaker 2 Right, I think the Israeli are very determined here. They’ve got a lot of tunnels to destroy, They’ve got a lot of Hamas leaders still to eliminate, a lot of Hamas soldiers. And I think really the problem is what I call the terrorist veto. People say, oh, but it’s going to cause so many civilian casualties the all as

3:17 Israel goes into the southern part of the Gaza Strip. The reason for that is entirely Hamas cynically barbarically using the gas and people, the residents of Gaza Strip. It’s its own fellow Palestinians as human shields. They use the kidnapped victims that they took on October the seventh from Israel as human bargaining chips to buy time, which is

3:43 what they did during the pause, to uh to shore up their own positions, get people out of vulnerable, to get their fighters into more defensible positions, and put themselves in a better position to resist Israel’s efforts to clean them out of the guys as a strip. And they’ve been cheating on their commitments the whole time. You know, Really,

4:06 there comes a point when a country’s allowed to defend itself. The Hamas in effect declared war on Israel, and Israel is entitled not just to punish Hamas for what they’ve done, but to eliminate the Hamas threat.

4:24 Speaker 1 Understood. Back to Putin and the Ukraine. What’s the next step? Whose step is it?

4:31 Speaker 2 Well? I think the Ukrainians will continue to fight. I mean this is for them existential like it is for the Israelis against the Hamas, and they’ve shown great courage, but they need outside assistance. Russia is three and a half times bigger than Ukraine. It’s got a much bigger army and in a war of attrition, ultimately, if we

4:50 don’t help the Ukrainians out, ultimately Russia will win. I think we need to do a better job of it. I think people in the House and the Senate should press Biden the harder to develop a winning strategy with Ukraine, not just preventing Ukraine from losing, but figure out how Ukraine can win. And I think we’ve got to be

5:09 very concerned about a Russian diplomatic offensive that tries to win in the over the bargaining table. What the Russian troops can’t win, I think on the battlefield, and that could come at any time. So we need to be ready for that.

5:23 Speaker 1 Understood, Ambassador, We covered both of those bases. Anything else you want to tell the American people on a Sunday morning.

5:33 Speaker 2 Well, look, I think one thing to worry about is what the what the Chinese leadership in Beijing is thinking. They see the US and Europe focused on Ukraine, focused on the war in the Middle East. And if I were a Chinese Communist leader, I’d be saying, with with all that attention being focused on those conflicts, maybe this

5:52 is the time for us to get something in the East China Sea or the South China Sea or elsewhere in Asia while the US attention is diverted. And so I think that’s a real possibility, and I think, you know, we need to be able not just to handle Ukraine and the Middle East crisis, We’ve got to be on

6:11 the lookout for threats elsewhere too, and I don’t know that the administration is doing that, So I’m worried. As bad as things are in Europe and the Middle East, we could have a problem in Asia pretty soon too.

6:22 Speaker 1 Ambassador John Bolton, thank you for everything he’s done for America and continue to do for America, and we’ll catch up again real soon.

6:29 Speaker 2 Well, thanks John for having me on