On Monday’s broadcast of CNN’s “OutFront,” Jack Lew, who was the U.S. Ambassador to Israel under President Joe Biden, said that President Donald Trump created “a force field where other principals feel that they’re compelled to act. He did that with so many leaders in the region. He did it with Prime Minister Netanyahu. And he does have, through his disruptive manner, a unique ability to create a sense of urgency and to avoid the wrath that comes from not doing as he wants. Right now, that’s served a useful purpose. It’s gotten us to this historic day.”
Lew said, “[T]oday’s meeting in Sharm El-Sheikh is the beginning of a long, difficult process. It took the United States and the President being fully engaged to get there. It’s going to take the President and the United States staying fully engaged to continue and reach an agreement on phase two and beyond.”
Host Erica Hill then asked, “I’ve heard similar things from multiple people today. When you say the United States and President Trump, what I have heard is, it has to be the sustained involvement of President Trump, because he is the one that actually got everybody over the line. Would you agree that it’s not just the United States, but it really has to have that element of President Trump staying in it?”
Lew answered, “Yeah. Look, I do think that it does take President Trump staying engaged, personally. I wouldn’t say only, because the details are very important. Up until this point, they’ve been working on details that we spent a year hammering through many of the provisions. They’ve made changes. But they’re now going to have to hammer out new details. And that’s not all done at the presidential level. It’s going to take senior people who have the President’s confidence and who are seen as representing the President, and then the President himself. The thing that the President uniquely can do is create a force field where other principals feel that they’re compelled to act. He did that with so many leaders in the region. He did it with Prime Minister Netanyahu. And he does have, through his disruptive manner, a unique ability to create a sense of urgency and to avoid the wrath that comes from not doing as he wants. Right now, that’s served a useful purpose. It’s gotten us to this historic day.”
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