u.s. ambassador and served for middle east policy and david rhode author of the new book beyond war which examines america s role in a middle changing east. thank you both for being here this afternoon. thanks. david, i want to start with you. these closures of these embassies have been called unprecedented. what kind of information would lead to a response like this? i think it is something very significant. some kind of intercepts from senior al qaeda leaders and no warning since the killing of osama bin laden in may of 2011. something serious they ve heard. i also think this is the reaction of the benghazi scandal. the administration does want to look like it s lax on security and not being aggressive enough. i think they re also being very, very broad in terms of shutting down so many embassies to be careful politically. if something else were to happen, of course, a lot of people critical of not having done enough. mark, i want to turn to you on this. we heard a lot over
kerry credit for pushing so hard and making these talks start again. mark, you know about dipl diplomacy in this region and hamas is not included because of their refusal to announce violence, but a strong political voice in that region. a lot of people in the palestinian territories feel hamas speaks to them. how does that play into peace talks in the region? basically carved out of this. they re not going to participate and the fact is they are increasingly, believe it or not, mara, very unpopular right now in gaza where they rule. there s an increasingly distress over the way in which they have managed their responsibilities in gaza. so, yet, at the same time, has not stood for re-election in almost five years. in so far as to who actually speaks for the palestinian people needs to ultimately be resolved before these talks get to where they are. echo what david said. the secretary of state john kerry deserves a lot of credit. let me just add, let s not forget that in a moment wh
decade about how much al qaeda has been weakened by the war on terror, but does this contradict that? do these closures suggest they are stronger than we ve been led to believe? i don t want to say it s contradicted and david has put his finger on it. the fact of the matter is we ve always known despite the killing of osama bin laden that there s been a series of franchise organizations directly related to al qaeda. they ve been in the caucuses in the north africa and the al qaeda which committed attacks in amgeria, as well as in libya. there have been, of course, the granddaddy of these franchise groups. al qaeda and the arabian peninsula where the continuous secret shadowy drone wars continue as we speak against terrorists. just the other day the u.s. drone strike took out a series of al qaeda operatives and now we something we never wanted to see again.
choices, frankly, should give all of us hope that these negotiations actually have a chance to accomplish something. now, david, you were with secretary kerry on his trip to the region in june. with everything else that s happening there, with egypt, with syria, why is the administration taking this on now? this is always a monumental challenge. it s a good question. really kerry himself, personally. i talked to other people in the white house, as well. from the beginning when he came into office in january, he wanted to push this and kerry feels he can somehow make a breakthrough. egypt they have bill burns, the deputy secretary of state there. the u.s. is very unpopular. so, some criticize this. i think it s a good step by kerry. i m not sure it s going to work. good for the israelis in the short term. they didn t want the palestinians pushing in september for an independent state. abbas has gotten 104 prisoners released and now set a timetable for nine months of negotiations. i