In this episode with Elliott Abrams, we provide additional detail on the history of Israel-Gaza/Hamas — this time from a White House insider on U.S.-Middle East policy during a critical period in Hamas’s takeover of Gaza — what were leaders in Washington and Jerusalem thinking at the time?

Elliott takes us into the Situation Room: What did they get right and what did they get wrong? This part of the discussion is a good complement to our conversation last week with Jonathan Schanzer on this history of Hamas.

Elliott also considers all that has changed for Israel, the region (especially the Sunni Gulf and Iran), and the Diaspora-Israel relationship as a result of this war.

Elliott is senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. He served as deputy national security advisor in the administration of President George W. Bush, where he supervised U.S. policy in the Middle East for the White House, and as Special Representative for Iran and Venezuela in the administration of Donald Trump.

Elliott was educated at Harvard College, the London School of Economics, and Harvard Law School. After serving on the staffs of Senators Henry M. Jackson and Daniel P. Moynihan, he was an assistant secretary of state in the Reagan administration and received the secretary of state's Distinguished Service Award from Secretary George Shultz.

Elliott is the author of five books, including “Tested by Zion: The Bush Administration and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict”, which is most relevant to today’s discussion.