I'm John Batson with my good colleague, Peter Berkowitz, of the Hoover Institution.

His new book is Explaining. Between 2014 and 2024, these are collections of some of Peter's columns

for Ritler Politics, observing the dynamism and the fear and the threat in those 10 years

to the state of Israel. We begin, however, with accomplishments

because I need to understand if they're permanent

or whether they were at the time diplomatic successes only.

Peter was a member of the first Trump term,

senior advisor to the Secretary of State Mr. Pompeo

from 2019 to 2021.

The first achievement immediately comes to mind is the Abraham Accords.

The second achievement is moving the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which is, as you

read in the Bible, the center of life in Israel.

Peter, these were achievements. Are they lasting achievements or

were they politically useful at that moment? They were politically useful at that moment and

I hope they are lasting achievements. Let's start with first in time. Donald Trump not only moved the American embassy in Israel from

Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Before that, he recognized formerly Israel as, sorry, Jerusalem as Israel's

capital. And we should also remember, he also recognized Israel's sovereignty over the

Golan Heights. In my opinion, that involved President Trump properly recognizing accomplished facts.

Jerusalem is Israel's capital. Our embassy does belong there. and it was the sense of Congress from 1996,

and Israel has exercised de facto sovereignty over the Golan Heights in northeast Israel for

40 years, and there was no conceivable set of circumstances under which that territory

crucial to Israel's security would be returned to a Syria controlled by Bashar al-Assad,

...