We are now just hours away from what is supposed to be the start of this temporary truce in this war between Israel and Hamas. This deal does not come without criticism. Even here in Israel, there have been questions about making this deal. The former Trump National Security Advisor, John Bolton, says that it is a badly flawed agreement, and he joins us now. Thank you so much, Ambassador, for being here. You have been because essentially, if I believe this right, and tell me if I'm wrong, you think that Hamas gains more from this than Israel does. What exactly about this deal do you think is so bad?

Well, there are many specific provisions that I think are badly misguided. But fundamentally, what's going on here is that Hamas is playing a game of psychological warfare against the people of Israel and the people of the United States as well. They're trying to distract Israel from its strategic mission of eliminating Hamas and trying to focus on the question of the hostages, the question of the condition of civilians in Gaza. Obviously, this is a heart wrenching situation, and you can feel nothing but compassion for the families of the hostages. But in cold fact, Israel's strategic mission here is much more important. But if the Hamas effort can help break the morale, can help break the resolve of the Israeli forces, what they really want to do, and this is the real play, is to turn this four day pause into a permanent ceasefire. Now, I don't think they're going to achieve that at the first iteration, but they're trying to put the onus on the Israeli forces if and when they begin hostilities again. They are playing, I think, a surprisingly sophisticated psychological game here. I don't think this one event is necessarily going to be the alpha and omega, but if this sets a precedent that undermines Israeli resolve to achieve what they're legitimately entitled to achieve, the elimination of Amass as a threat, it'll be a huge victory for the terrorists.

So the flip side of that argument, and something that I was reading today from Haviv Retigurad Rayer here for the Times of Israel in Tel Aviv, he basically believes that Hamas agreed to this deal out of desperation. Why do you think Hamas agreed to this with Israel?

Well, I think on balance, in a military sense, hamas is the beneficiary more than the Israeli side. Certainly, as you heard from your previous guest, the Israelis are going to move people around. They're going to change troops out. They're going to do a number of things. They will take advantage of the pause as well. But it's Hamas that's getting pounded here. I don't think we know the full amount of devastation that the Israeli forces have wrought, but it's Hamas that needs the break. And the longer they can make that break, the better off they'll be. I don't think people should forget that at the beginning of this war, the Biden administration sent military advisors to Israel that said, look, learn from our experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan. Don't rush in pell mail. Take your time. This is very complicated. Using the examples particularly of Fallujah and Mosul in Iraq, which took nine to twelve months for American and Iraqi forces to secure. We're seven weeks into this. There's a long way to go. But if Israel's resolve can be weakened and broken, they'll never get to the amount of time they really need to accomplish the stated objective of eliminating Hamas.

That is, I mean, quite an objective. They're not just saying they want to demean or diminish Hamas. They have used words like eliminate and eradicate Hamas. We heard from the Defense Minister earlier saying that after this pause, he believes it'll take two more months of fighting. Do you realistically think that Israel can achieve that goal within two?

You know, I read that comment as well. I understood that to be saying to the Israeli forces, we've got two months of intense struggle ahead of us. I didn't see it as limiting it to two months. But part of the psychological campaign, part of the propaganda effort here, is to undercut Israel's ability to get to that stated objective. For example, the Russian Prime Minister Medvedev said a couple of weeks ago that Israel as an occupying power, which it's not, by the way, in the Gaza Strip, but as an occupying power, did not have a legitimate right of self defense. Meaning, implicitly, that everything Israel has done since October the 7th has been illegitimate since it doesn't have the right to self defense. A senior, UN, quote unquote, human rights official said the same thing about a week ago. That's going to be part of the argument here, to say, you've gone far enough. You don't have to eliminate it. Just sit down and negotiate with them. You can see it coming. And what I worry about is the pause, if it begins in a few hours, is just the opening wedge to achieve that objective.

So you think that once Israel has agreed to this pause, once it starts just literally in a matter of hours from now, that basically the international criticism of Israel restarting its military campaign will be so high that they may not actually do it?

Well, I think the Israelis are pretty immune to a lot of blabbering internationally. What I worry about is that the White House is losing its resolve. There's no secret, if you read in American papers, you can see many of the pro Palestinian elements of the Democratic Party are saying they want the pause to be transformed into a truce or into a ceasefire. A lot of these words become interchangeable after a while, and that's the objective. And I think Biden recognizes he's got a severe problem because of the schism within the Democratic Party. So domestic us. Politics are going to play a role here. And if the mood can be shifted. Talking about the anguish of the hostages. Nobody really talks about the 190 hostages who are not going to be released in the next four days. This can have a significant impact. I think, really the questioning that medgedev has started off of the legitimacy of what Israel is doing is just going to be amplified. What the Israelis need to do, and frankly, what the United States needs to do is reinforce the legitimacy of self defense. Permitting Israel in this situation not to minimize the threat, but to eliminate the threat.

And the threat really is not just tamas. Ultimately, think of Hezbollah in the north. For almost the entire seven weeks, since October the 7th, they've been shelling targets in northern Israel. All of this under the watchful eyes of the mullahs in Tehran. On this is a much bigger conflict than just in the Gaza strip.

Yeah. And Hezbollah is not party to this temporary truce, of course. Ambassador John Bolton, as always, thank you for your time. Thanks for joining us tonight on Thanksgiving.

Thank you. Happy Thanksgiving.