for that we turn to daniel benjamin.was ambassador-at-large and coordinator for counterterrorism at the u.s. state department during the obama administration. he's now at dartmouth college. elliott abrams served in the reagan and george w. bush administrations. he's now a senior fellow at the council on foreign relations. and robin wright is fellow at the u.s. institute of peace as well as a contributing writer for the "new yorker" magazine. we welcome all three of you back to the program. beef talking 'little elliott about the president shifting language how he talks about terrorism extremism. what i want to ask the three of you is how much of a shift in policy is what president trump is saying in his, particularly in that speech in saudi arabia. how much of a shift in policy would that be? >> there is a shift, i would say from the obama policy which was much more open to friendship or better relationship with iran and was not casting iran as a central problem in the middle east. in saudi arabia, the president said very

we can talk to daniel benjamin who travelled extensively on air force one as bill clinton's foreign policy us. this is a pretty major trip for any new president but give us a sense of the preparation that would have been involved in head office. normally for a presidential trip you are planning for a—6 weeks, the advance people are doing it for months and it is an enormous amount of meetings and planning to get the policy message right and figuring out all of the little touches that will make a trip like this successful. a enormous logistical undertaking and it requires the intense engagement from the presidential bureaucracy. how well prepared that you think he can be given what has gone on in the run—up? can be given what has gone on in the run-up? the scandal related to russia and the administration's contacts and campaign's contacts, firing the fbi director, must have been enormous distraction especially for a president who isn't famous for his attention span. what's more, if you look at the list of people who are travelling, it isn't clear that they took a lot of regional experts, whi

daniel benjamin was co—ordinator for counter—terrorism during the barack 0bama administration.t through your mind when you saw this leek of information had happened, when you looked at the new york times and so those photographs taken at the bomb scene. what did you think was going on? first thing that went through my mind was that i had on many occasions had to pass m essa g es to had on many occasions had to pass messages to other governments on behalf our intelligence services that if the leaks that nonstop co—operation would be diminished and this was shocking and appalling. i was astonished that we had gotten to this place. i honestly have no idea how it happened. as frank gardner pointed out, there are intelligence and low enforcement apparat is, i cannot rule out the possibility that the leaks cannot rule out the possibility that the lea ks happened cannot rule out the possibility that the leaks happened on the other side of the atlantic. whatever happened if it impedes the investigation in a nyway if it impedes the investigation in anyway or in danger is that it is tota

benjamin netanyahu. the third stop will be the west bank. joining me to talk more about all of this is danielu.s. ambassador to isreal. good to see you, ambassador. you also wrote an op-ed for "the washington post" called isrealliys cheered for trump but may miss obama more than expected. what dow mean by that? >> well, president obama certainly had some well-known disagreements with prime minister netanyahu and at times the israeli public felt distanced from him from those issues particularly the israeli settlements and the iran nuclear deal. however president obama was a stalwart supporter of israeli security and on some of the most sensitive issues of isreal security such as the ability to carry out military operations in self-defense and in the intelligence sharing between the relationship. after the incident in the oval office last week where president trump passed sensitive -- apparently israeli intelligence, at least as it's been reported to the russian foreign minister, it raised the question is president trump, despite sounding very friendly and certainly he'll be welcomed warmly her

daniel, he's a former israeli ambassador to the united states. good to see you. was there anything in either one president trump or benjaminyahu has to say that stood out to you? >> i think it was quite natural for them to discuss and commend the unbreakable alliance between israel and the united states which is really a natural alliance. i think this alliance is very very important. when israel and israelis have trust in confidence in the united states and its president, then they are more amenable to move forward with the pal sten yans and make some painful concessions, of course with the expectation that they will be equally met by concessions by the palestinians. >> yeah. and there was -- i don't know how to say this, i'll just say it which is that netanyahu has taken swipes at the obama administration was he not, using terms like red line, and says he looks forward to the reae sergs u.s. authority in the region. what do you make of that? >> i would say there is a difference between the obama administration and the trump administration with the evident this is a much more really lisk approach right now. trump is readvi