Two Years Since October 7, With Elliott Abrams and Ed Husain

The President’s Inbox

Council on Foreign Relations

Politics, News:politics, News

4.4 • 734 Ratings

🗓️ 8 October 2025

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Elliott Abrams, senior fellow for Middle East studies and the Council, and Ed Husain, senior fellow at the Council, sit down with James M. Lindsay to discuss the state of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the second anniversary of the October 7 attacks and whether President Donald Trump's twenty-point peace plan will produce a lasting ceasefire. Mentioned on the Episode: Elliott Abrams, "The Teaching of Hate in Jordan," CFR.org Naftali Bendavid, Scott Clement, and Emily Guskin, "Many American Jews Sharply Critical of Israel on Gaza, Post Poll Finds," Washington Post For an episode transcript and show notes, visit The President’s Inbox at: https://www.cfr.org/podcasts/tpi/two-years-since-october-7-elliott-abrams-ed-husain

Transcript

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0:00.0	Two years ago, Israel suffered the deadliest day in its history. Hamas fighters crossed from Gaza into Israel,
0:08.8	killing more than 1,200 people, wounding many more and taking some 250 hostages. Israel responded
0:16.5	with the ferocious military campaign against Hamas. More than a million Palestinians have been displaced from their homes in Gaza, and perhaps as many as 65,000 have been killed.
0:26.6	Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians now face famine.
0:29.6	Israel also assassinated senior Hamas officials overseas,
0:32.6	shruged militant groups in Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen, and waged a 12-day war with Iran, and most recently
0:39.2	attempted to kill the Hamas negotiating team in Qatar. Over the weekend, Hamas accepted the outline
0:44.6	of President Donald Trump's 20-point peace plan. Hamas says it agrees with parts of the proposal,
0:50.1	including the release of hostages and handing governance of Gaza to a Palestinian body of experts.
0:55.0	But it says there are still sticking points.
0:57.0	Negotiators from Hamas, Israel and the United States are meeting now in Egypt
1:01.0	determine if they can finalize a ceasefire deal.
1:07.0	From the Council on Foreign Relations, welcome to the president's inbox. I'm Jim Lindsay.
1:12.5	Today I'm joined by Elliot Abrams, Senior Fellow for Middle East Studies at the Council,
1:17.3	and Ed Hussein, senior fellow at the Council.
1:19.9	Elliot and Ed, thank you for speaking with me.
1:22.5	Great to be with you, Jim. Glad to be here.
1:24.8	Elliot, I'd like to begin with you, if I may.
1:27.4	Help me understand the basics of
1:29.6	President Trump's peace plan in what the negotiators meeting and Shama al-Shake are discussing.
1:36.0	The basic bargain in the peace plan is that Hamas releases all the hostages, living and dead,
1:42.9	Israel starts to pull back out of Gaza. They withdraw
	...

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