President trump has been trusted entrusted the future of middle east peace alongside jared kushner. Come garrett, welcome welcome jason, welcome back from your travels, and welcome to the summit. It is really an honor to be here. This duringuntered the campaign, i was privileged to speak at a luncheon. I was amazed at the passion for israel in the room. The all the speakers all speakers were great, but what really amazed me was there was a young man around 19 years old, i have six kids. He spoke so eloquently about , and with beautifully such an credible passion, i thought to myself, how do we harness that and get all of our Young Children to speak that way about the state of israel . So im honored to be here, thank you. So we are all very curious. Having just returned from bahrain, what for you was the most Encouraging Development . I will start with the positive. We had what i thought was a great conference. Jared kushner worked very hard with many of my colleagues in the u. S. Government to put together a 50 million package for the palestinians, for jordan, egypt, for lebanon, if we are able to afford a Peace Agreement. What was amazing was if you walked through the room ,hroughout the hotel, israelis arabs, palestinians, whatever religion walked around with these. Facebook with ease. They spoke about they spoke with ease. They spoke about the future and what could be. That is what i have asked what i have experienced. To make, that that was extremely encouraging. What was discouraging is the ones who chose to boycott and undermine the event. But everybody came and i think that is a positive as well. What is the next step . The obvious next step is we need to decide when and how to unveil the political plan despite what some people are saying. This is only part one. There is no economic plan without a political plan. Similarly, there is no successful political plan without a very strong economic plan. And President Trump will decide the right time to do that. As far as the next step on the economic plans, this was billed as a workshop because we want to built as a workshop because we want feedback from the israelis, the palestinians, from the region. So we will be spending the next period of time getting feedback for this plan to find in the plan and get it right, and then couple it together with a political plan. In terms of feedback, do you get the sense the palestinians are ready for a deal . I prefer to speak in terms of ordinary palestinians. The street is the street. I do not know what that means. There are posters out there that try to give us information. Anecdotally, every palestinian i have met over the past 2. 5 years is anxious for this conflict to be gone. Sameask for some of the things that you hear from the palestinian leadership, but they also have a different voice in private than they do in public. In the confines of my office or a hotel, wherever i meet them, they speak about wanting to find creative solutions. They speak about wanting to get past the conflict in a way that embraces israel, but unfortunately, the freedom of speech that they have once they leave those rooms is significantly curtailed. So, it is a little bit hard to gauge the street and we have to differentiate between palestinians in the west ink and in gaza bank and in gaza. In gaza, they are suffering under the iron fist of hamas. It is hard to get information, real information out of gaza. It is a real question to ask but nobody really has the answer to the question. Control of of hamas gaza, how much does this affect your plans for palestinian prosperity . It affects the peace plan generally, which means it affects the piece to prosperity idea. When i first started, some of my colleagues had asked me not to discuss,. They felt that. Not to discuss hamas. They fell that if i raise the profile, it would show they have the ability to spoil peace lands. Peace plans. It took me about a week or two to realize that is just not the case. Hamas knows without figuring out how to deal with gaza, it is an impairment to a peace effort and tragic for the palestinian people. That untilng to me we started speaking up about hamas, the administration lied. Nobody was really talking about hamas. We had our great former ambassador to the u. N. Who try to get a resolution condemning hamas at the United Nations, and we failed. Which was rather remarkable. When i gave a speech to the Security Council about two months ago, this was a few days after a 700 after 700 rockets had been fired from gaza into israel. Not one country spoke up to condemn those attacks. After i spoke about it, other countries started to do it. Given the benefit of the doubt that these condemnations were not in their prepared remarks. It is remarkable Healthy PeoplePay Attention how few people Pay Attention. It causes tremendous suffering for the palestinians in gaza, to the israelis, and nothing can happen until the world recognizes that day are among the biggest problems to creating peace. [applause] so, once the plan is unveiled and funds start flowing to the palestinians, how are you going to ensure that funds are not misdirected or used for terror . Administration, the leadership of President Trump, not a penny will flow unless it is carefully earmarked to make sure the money only goes for the intended projects, that they will be finished on time and on budget, and that it is not siphoned off. At least under this administration, gone are the days were money has been siphoned off not only for terrorism but for corruption. Something that jerry took the biggest role in to make sure that nothing will there are two things, a comprehensive Peace Agreement, types ofr two, the controls you would expect that any significant commercial transaction to ensure that all the money is used completely appropriately. Excellent. [applause] we greatly appreciate you speaking about, and the real threat in the region. Hamas and the real threat in the region. Is disarmament part of a pre conception for peace in the region precondition for peace in the region . We cannot have a comprehensive Peace Agreement that does not ensure israels security 100 . I caught some of the vps remarks. Thank you. With the Vice President had set about had set about security is through this entire administration, there is no Peace Agreement that does not make sure that israels security is ironclad, and we know that makes people upset because we know that some people like to throw around slogans of the past and think that they can wave a magic wand and throw in a few of those slogans and all of a sudden you will have these have peace. That is not the way it works. Our plan takes that into account. Thank you. [applause] back to the Palestinian Authority for a minute, obviously, there is an issue with their not being a clear succession plan. How much of your plan is dependent on other palestinian elites . It is hard to predict what happens in a post president world. Time withnt a lot of the president during 2017. The the president announced bold and courageous decision to recognize jerusalem as the capital, as israels capital, they cut off ties from us. We are hopeful the president will realize that this is the best opportunity that palestinians have for peace, for a brighter future. Withr plan right now is the president , we are not looking for any type of regime change. However, if you were to the part depart and retire, it is important for everybody to recognize that you really have to governments, the Palestinian Authority and hamas. Right now, the Palestinian Authority does not speak for the people in gaza. Does, but wee plo have to deal with everybody to make this work. More people need to say that out loud. We cannot make peace unless we make sure to make comprehensive peace, unless we make sure that we are dealing with the representatives of all the palestinian people. Zooming out a little bit. Lets talk about the elephants o in the room, iran. Let just in the middle east, but in terror worldwide. Where does iran fit into this conversation . Iran is very likely a significant spoiler to our efforts if we are lucky enough to actually get traction on negotiations between the israelis and palestinians. It is a little bit connected to what is going on with iran generally. There are other spoilers. We are just going to have to do everything we can to make sure they do not undermine our efforts or cause mischief, significant trouble. We are watching it closely but it is not something i can discuss in public. We will switch to something more positive, the following of relations between thawing of relations. Can you speak of where you see those relationships headed . I will give you a little bit of a long answer on this one. It is a fascinating unfolding of events. Going back to when i started, roughly in march or april of 2017, there was an article in the New York Times about the outside approach. The writer made it seem essentially that it is very simple, the arab countries will gather around and enforce the palestinians to sign a deal. I thought, this is great. I will be home with my family for passover. It is just not that simple. However, we think that remarkable progress has been made in 2. 5 years with the gulf region in israel. We dont take credit for that alone. Prime minister netanyahu has done a great job. The leaders have done a remarkable job. What is now over the table is the Israeli National anthem being sung in the uae, participation and highlevel meetings, various forms of tournaments, we will continue to see that because it is important to the region. The region is tired of the conflict and the region recognizes if the conflict is not resolved, things have to continue moving. The region appreciates israel for what it is. I dont know those of you who follow the Foreign Ministers comments, the bahrainian foreign minister. We might reach a Glass Ceiling for a while. I think there will be a point in time where the countries in the region want to take a breather, then we will see what happens. The region is not interested in leaving the palestinians behind but i think the region is tired of the palestinian leadership preventing progress in the region. Host to those in the United States that may be tired of the United States leading in international relations, leading in the middle east, what do you say about the importance the role United States plays an engaging in the process in the middle east and in the world . The first thing that comes to mind is iran. When we arrived on the scene, every arab leader that we met with, plus Prime Minister thrilled thate President Trump was the president , because he understood that iran was the real threat to the reason. It is not the israelpalestinian conflict. People like to say that is a core conflict. That is a small conflict. The real issue is iran. Every leader there believes that under President Trump we have a chance to potentially salt the solve the iran issue. Number one is iran number two, a israel strong secure, helps keep stability in a very rough neighborhood. That is another important point we make. We have other allies. Egypt, jordan, saudi arabia. All those countries rely on the United States for as much stability as can be achieved. So, this entire matrix is intricately tied together. The israelpalestinian conflict is one aspect of that. The rest can be handled without solving the conflict. We very much want to try to solve that conflict. Host you spent a lot of time in the region and a lot of time in israel. One of your meetings in israel attracted a lot of attention last week when you and ambassador sigmund visited the pilgrims road that this audience just heard about from the Prime Minister. Can you speak a little bit about that experience and why it was important for you to be there . First of all the stress was remarkable. To be able to walk that road, see what it was from 2000 years ago was incredibly spiritual, incredibly moving. Really a remarkable event. I think the two things that ill say surprised about nothing surprises me anymore, the two things that sort of surprised me his number one, we, david and i, got criticize so heavily for attending this event. Among many of the criticisms came from the chief negotiator the primelestinians, minister of the Palestinian Authority, pretending it as they often do that this tunnel was rake. Fake. We were accused of judaizing the city. We will not tolerate that language. Under President Trump will push back on every single [applause] thank you. No matter the criticism leveled against us we will push back on it time and time again. You cannot possibly build peace without a foundation to truth, and for somebody to suggest this tunnel is not true. They need to be corrected. I call upon all of you, all of up to thisi, stand garbage, this nonsense that these attacks that are not grounded in reality. And lets push back and no longer should we tolerate thieui ir falsification of history. [applause] host thank you. The second thing that surprised me, if you want to be outraged about tunnels, wheres the outrage about the tunnels coming from gaza, the tunnels coming from lebanon . Its remarkable. [applause] not a word from the Palestinian Authority about the terror tunnels. Im happy to talk about tunnels. Lets talk about those tunnels. Host anything else you would like to say about the tunnels . [laughter] i call upon all of you. Truth out there. Yes, palestinians are severing but are suffering but israel is under Severe Threat from these tunnels. We need to get the word out to help the palestinians and to help the israelis. Host say we are sitting there in five years, what would you hope that this administration would have achieved in the middle east . Well, obviously, i pray for thesuccess, i pray for wisdom and the disturbance to be able to do our job properly. But and the discernment. The reality is that this is a very, very difficult topic. If we fail, i pray for the safety and security of israel. We will focus on that both and President Trumps current term and hopefully if he wins a second term [cheering] so, we will not let up on that. I hope and pray we can help the palestinian people. They deserve a better furniture. Future. Their palestinians who live in refugee camps. We want a Better Future for them. They should not be languishing in refugee camps. We want a tighter connection between israel and the arab countries around the because a tighter connection will work for the benefit of the entire region. Host thank you for your time, thank you for your work. Our prayers are with you. [applause] thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage congressman Michael Mccaul interviewed by anchor and editor in chief of i24 news mccoury. [applause] [inaudible] it is an honor to be here as well. Thank you. Inaudible] [inaudible] i have been in congress for 16 years. I think it is the one of the most intense conversations i have engaged in. I was a history major. It took me back to the cuban missile crisis. Where we had to decide options on the table. What would be the appropriate response to not just tankers being shot in the strait of hormuz but rather the United States military asset worth about 150 million. It was very intense. One miscalculation can lead to a larger war. There were various options on the table. I will tell you, not to breach any confidentiality, but there were options to strike, particularly the surface to air tosile vehicle that was used bring down the United States thrown. Drone. That was one option. The Intelligence Committee will tell you if we kill iranians on iranian soil, it will only galvanize support for the ayatollah against the United States and israel. I th inink the president not unlike president kenedy, took a step back, took a pause and not make a miscalculation, escalate the situation but rather use, its you could say reported that cybersecurity operations were used to cripple commandandcontrol. Michelle can you confirm that Cyber Attacks were launched . Not if i want to not be prosecuted. Michelle fair enough. But having said that, i think im more hawkish. Secretary pompeo and ambassador bolton are very likeminded. I think a response is appropriate but at the same time it may have worked out at the best because where using tools we have that do not necessarily kill but does cripple. The president above all wanted to use diplomacy first. So, secretary pompeo was dispatched to get the Coalition Partners together and were seeing that now. Theresa may, they intercepted a tanker bound for syria, and iran ian tanker that stopped them. France hasacron in condemned there now violation of the jcpoa, which they have effectively done the last couple days. They are now in violation. So, the question is does europe want to continue to do business with iran when they are in violation of the jcpoa . I think not. When he snapped back the sanctions, mike pompeo and i never agreed with the jcpao in congress because it, longterm would make sure a certain nuclearized iran. Address icbm capabilities, and it did not address the terror threat. What essentially happened was 150 billion and sometimes in cold hard cash on airplanes being sent to these terror operations. Designated a terrorist organization, which i stood for for many years, went in to their operations to spread throughout iraq, syria and lebanon and yemen. This diplomatic push to his red line, the president was clear. His red line is