Welcome to Meet the Press Now, I'm Gabe Uteras in Washington, where we're following breaking developments out of the Middle East, as the Israel Hamas War is rapidly escalating. The number of Americans killed has now risen to 22, with 17 Americans still unaccounted for and potentially held hostage. Israeli forces are laying the groundwork for a potential ground invasion of Gaza, while warning that violence will likely intensify in the coming days. As you can see, parts of Gaza have been reduced to rubble.
Israeli fighter jets have struck at least 450 targets in northern Gaza in just the last 24 hours. Take a listen to one of those strikes. This is footage inside Gaza, the strike near Hoxel, conditions growing more dire. The Energy Ministry says Gaza's only power plant has run out of fuel to Israeli blockades and has been shut down.
Meanwhile, hospitals in Gaza say they're overwhelmed with an influx of patients. Let's look at the desperation outside a medical facility earlier today. The aid organization Doctors Without Borders calls the situation catastrophic. At the same time, the rocket fire targeting Israel continues.
NBC's Elson Barber and her crew recorded this video of rockets being intercepted over the Israeli city of Ashkelon in the south and in the north. Israel's military is reporting that an anti-tank missile was fired from Lebanon, fanning fears that this conflict could expand to a second front. All of this comes as a death toll in the wake of Saturday's brutal attack by Hamas tops 2300, more than 1200 in Israel and more than 1100 in Gaza. Later this hour, we expect President Biden to deliver remarks at a roundtable event with Jewish community leaders.
The White House says the president and vice president spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu again this morning. The president also reiterated his support for Israel earlier today while speaking from the Rose Garden. As I said yesterday, my commitment is real security and the safety of the Jewish people is unshakable. The United States has his way back and we're going to be working on this all through day and beyond.
According to a readout of yesterday's call between Biden and Netanyahu, the Prime Minister compared the brutality of Saturday's attack to the Holocaust with entire families murdered in their beds, dozens of children executed and soldiers beheaded. NBC News has not verified those accounts. All of this comes as Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is on his way to the region right now. He spoke to reporters from the tarmac before leaving.
We stand resolutely against terrorism. We've seen the almost undescribable acts committed by Hamas against Israeli men, women and children. Every day, we're learning more and it is simply heartbreak, not since ISIS, have we seen this kind of depravity and we will continue to stand very resolutely against it. NBC News has also learned that U.S.
officials are investigating whether Iran provided advanced training to Hamas ahead of Saturday's attack, but two sources tell NBC News that intelligence suggests Iranian leaders were surprised by the attack. We've got our team covering the story from multiple angles. Joining me now on the ground in Ashkelon in southern Israel is Ellison Barber. The latest on the scope of the attacks and Matt Bradley is live for us in Lebanon.
We'll begin in Israel with Ellison. What have you been seeing in the last few hours? Hey, Gabe. A little before nine o'clock local time, we started to see volleys of rockets coming from the direction of Hamas.
We're just about two miles away from the border with Gaza, the northern border. We started to see those rockets fired by Hamas from Gaza heading this way. We can show you some of the video that our teams captured here as they just lit up the night sky. There were a series of these that happened kind of just in a bit of a wave with lulls in between.
The first round that went, and then there was another, and then there was another, and then there was another. It's been relatively calm here for about an hour and 45 minutes or so now, but this is a situation that quickly seems to change. You see how many came back. Most of these appeared to be intercepted by Israel's air defense earlier today.
The ones that we saw, the majority we saw appeared to have been intercepted by Israel's air defense. We also saw Israel firing some of the rockets of their own into the direction of Gaza, but we do understand based on statements that have come from health officials with a passion on that there was a hospital in the city that was struck by some sort of rocket fire that happened this afternoon. Another thing we've been seeing a lot of Gabe is traffic on this main road. If you go further down from where we are standing, not that far, you would reach in a few minutes drive, a little more than probably 15 minutes drive, you would reach the border with Gaza earlier today.
We were trying to head in that direction. We were stopped at an Israeli military run checkpoint. There was a heavy military presence there. There was also what appeared to be a fairly large buildup of Israeli tanks and Israeli vehicles.
We could see from the road through trees on the way before we got to that checkpoint. At least a hundred of those sort of stacked and built up in that area. We were told we couldn't pass that checkpoint and we couldn't film any of the equipment pass that checkpoint or any of the Israeli forces that were in that area, but all of it seems to suggest that we are inching closer to seeing some sort of large ground defense into Gaza. Israel's military leadership today.
They have reiterated that they are prepared to do what they believe needs to be done next. They say they have hundreds of thousands of troops along the border with Gaza. Gabe. And Alison, just incredible to see that Iron Dome in action there.
And you mentioned the possibility of a ground invasion. Do we have any better idea of when that might happen? Right now, right now, it really is a situation where you're looking for clues or listening to what is being said. Israel is really politicians.
They have been clear and saying that they are ready for what comes next. One thing that happened today that was very notable and could suggest that things could move quicker as we look ahead in the coming hours and days is the fact that you do now have this unity government. That's something that Israeli civilians that we talked to over the past couple days have said they wanted to see take place. They wanted to see Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu joining with the opposition and creating a unity government so that they could address this threat.
That was announced that has happened as of this morning and there also is a war cabinet. So all of that seems to suggest that Israel is moving including all the things that we have seen here today is moving in a direction of soon being prepared to launch an even more aggressive assault on Gaza and Hamas. Gabe. Alison, thank you.
I want to turn out a claim to me. Give us a bit more of a visual picture of the geography here. I mean, we know Israel is a massing military asset, you know, the Gaza border as Alison just mentioned. So what is Israel's strategic objective here and what would a ground invasion look like?
How many troops are we looking at? Yeah. So if you zoom in to where Alison is that what you see is very much a battle between certain locations. This here is Ashkelon.
That's where Alison is at. That's the rocket that you saw going into Gaza. So you're seeing coming out of Gaza and Gaza city in that area, rockets coming out. Those are the ones being hit by the Iron Dome separately.
This is the corridor right here that the IDF, Israeli Defense Forces went through and cleared yesterday. They secured that area. What you're seeing now is they built up a military zone. They're essentially going through, blocking this off from all Israelis.
And that is the first thing you would do is call the cord on. You would cord on that off the area up into the gates of the border there to make sure that all Israelis are out of it. I'm sure part of this is what is rocket fire? What could a breakthrough look like if Gaza built its way through?
They're staging themselves in a way where it looks like they're preparing for some sort of offensive operation. This would be the first step clearing the area around Gaza. The next step would be actually figuring out a breach point which they would go in. And this isn't just an unfolding situation at the southern border of Israel.
There's an increasing talk about where refugees might head and where they're Egypt will accept them. Walk us through those dynamics. Yeah. So one of the more serious things that's going on already is here at this point, the Rafa Gate, essentially a bridge to Egypt.
That's a gate there that the Egyptians have held firm. But in this area, in this corner right there of Gaza, there are already hundreds of thousands of displaced persons from Gaza that have moved toward that border. At some point, if the pressure is intense enough, you've already got electricity that has gone off here. Essentially, one power plant that runs on fuel, the blockade has turned it off.
You're likely to see refugees moving down towards Egypt in an even more forceful way or trying to move to other parts. Imagine if you're the Israeli military and you go on the offensive, you breach some of the gates probably here between two of the major built up areas. What would you see? Well, likely you'd have to try and secure that portal because refugees would push through it.
That would put more people in that military zone. So there's a pretty dire situation here. And that's not to mention the other things that could pop up either in the West Bank here, where there's been lots of protests and skirmishes over the summer and into the fall or to the north where we've already seen shots fired back and forth between Hezbollah and the Israeli defense forces. And Clint, we've often heard about how densely populated Gaza is.
Talk to me a little bit about how difficult it could be for the Israeli military there given the fact that it has so many tunnels and really so many people living so closely packed together. How difficult would this operation be for the Israelis? The toughest kind of combat is urban combat. We would say whenever a attacker is going against defenders, they need 10 to 1.
In other situations, in open areas, that's 3 or 4 to 1, 10 to 1. And Gaza, it could be 10, 20, or 30. And the reason is Gaza is so populated, so heavily dense in terms of its construction. You're doing a fight that's up, meaning many stories high in the air, then you're fighting on the ground and in the streets.
And most importantly, and most dangerous, which is really unique to Gaza, is the subterranean complexes that run throughout that area. Hamas has been there for a long time. You're looking at booby traps, you're looking at explosives, you're looking at forces being deployed on the ground that can maybe come up to your rear area. Add to that 150 or more hostages spread throughout this entire area.
Two million people, you're looking for 150 hostages. This is just a very complex scenario that they're going to be facing. And Clint, very briefly, before I get to Matt Bradley who's 11 on, we're hearing reports of Israeli of Israel sending tens of thousands of troops to its northern border. Why is that so significant?
Yeah, so the key point of all of this is what everyone is wondering about is we'll expand to a regional conflict. Here is Hamas in the Gaza Strip, but up here in the southern part of Lebanon, the northern Israeli border in 2006, there was a war between Israel and Hezbollah. Hezbollah, Shia militia, Shia terrorist group, it's backed by Iran. Separately, there have been shots fired from Syria and rockets fired into Israel, northern Israel could be another front here with Syria and militant groups that are there.
So this could easily become a one, two, three, maybe even a fourth front that Israel would have to be engaging on in trying to secure their territory. If you went and looked today, you would already start to see the buildup of forces along. What is the goal on heights? Clint, thank you so much for bringing all that down for us.
And I want to bring in Matt Bradley, who is in Lebanon, or we've been seeing that simmering tension along the border with Israel. Matt, what's the sense there of when or if this conflict might expand? Well, we don't know, and we've been speaking with people not who are part of Hezbollah, but people who are somewhat adjacent to Hezbollah, and they say, oh, we're ready to fight. And that's hard to imagine, because the fact is, is that the last time they fought was back in 2006, it almost broke Lebanon's back, and it really hurt Hezbollah's popularity in this country.
But there's a lot of bellicose language, a lot of bravado that we're hearing. It's unclear whether Hezbollah has much to gain by joining in on this fight, and whether Iran has much to gain by putting pressure on Hezbollah to join in. And the fact is, is that if Israel does, in fact, intend to totally destroy Hamas in the Gaza Strip, it's possible that Hezbollah might want to preserve itself as the only, the last remaining militant group that's backed by Iran that has some kind of power in order to resist Israel. That's something that Iran, as the main patron of both Hezbollah and Hamas, might want to preserve.
There's not a lot of calculations where you can see Hezbollah seeing a benefit from moving in, but at the same time, they could lose a lot of credibility within the wider sort of resistance axis, as they might call it, those Iran-backed groups that are resisting Israel. If they decide not to engage the Israelis and not to try to come to the defense of Hamas, they could be accused of being weak or worse of being collaborators. So this is something that Hezbollah is going to be thinking about, there's going to be a lot of talk about this in Tehran, and there's going to be a very, very difficult decision in the coming days and weeks ahead for Hezbollah leaders in terms of what they're going to do right across this border that's just behind me. So Matt, it sounds like you're saying it's basically up to what we're on, right?
Whether Hezbollah engages? It is, and it isn't, you know, that's a very simplistic way of putting it. There is autonomy for both Hamas and Hezbollah. Nobody knows except those who are actually in those organizations and in the government in Tehran just how much autonomy both of those groups enjoy.
They are beneficiaries of lots of money, lots of weapons, particularly in the case of Hezbollah, a lot of political cover. But the fact remains is that they are both distinct from Iran, they do seem to make decisions on their own. There's no reason to necessarily believe that Iran has total control over both of those organizations, and there's plenty of reason to believe that Iran does have some control over those organizations. It's got to be somewhere in between game, but it's unclear exactly in both cases how you would parse that out.
Matt Bradley, live for us in Lebanon. Matt, thank you. I'm coming up. We're expecting to hear any minute now from the president and second gentlemen as they meet at the White House with Jewish community leaders will bring you those remarks live after the break.
Plus, chaos and conflict on Capitol Hill as House Republicans remain divided after narrowly voting to select a candidate for Speaker of the House. Trouble is he doesn't appear to have enough support to become Speaker of the House. At least not yet. You're watching.
Meet the press now. Stay with us. And welcome back as we mentioned. We're waiting for President Biden who's set to speak at a roundtable with Jewish community leaders.
As we noted earlier today, the president and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu held their fourth call since Hamas's brutal attack on Israel. The president reiterated America's continued support for Israel as it defended as it defended itself in this war. And it comes as the White House prepares to submit a supplemental funding request to Congress that includes money for Israel, Ukraine, Taiwan and the border. Let's bring in now, Elia Benjamin, Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy of Israel.
Elia, thank you so much for joining us and Prime Minister Netanyahu is about to wipe out Hamas. So what does that look like? What is the end goal? Thank you, Gabe.
Thank you for hosting me. Hamas, as everybody now realizes, something that Israel's been saying for quite a number of years is a terrorist organization behind all of this. And what we're out to do now is to destroy the Hamas military machine and to take them out and in a way that they will not pick their heads up ever again and they won't harm any Israeli ever again. And Elia, I know there's concerns about the hostages in Gaza right now.
I know you have said and the Prime Minister has said that the goal is to crush Hamas. But what happens to those hostages in the meantime? We are very concerned about hostages and we are calling the entire international community to do everything they possibly can to release, to bring Hamas to release these hostages who were taken as hostages from Israel, walked across the board and took them into Gaza. We are going to do everything we have to do to take Hamas out, to take this machine that is out of all this terrorism that they're conducting towards Israel.
And at the same time, also going through the release of the hostages, there's no contradiction between the two of them. And Elia, as one of our previous guests described, Gaza is a very difficult battlefield. It's very densely packed together. There are tunnels on the ground.
How can you go in there and crush Hamas, as you say, and still save these hostages? It's true. It's, I'm not saying it's an easy task. I'm not saying that it's not a complex one at all.
It is. But this is war. And first and foremost, the idea is to crush Hamas and to push them back into their holes in the best way that we know how to do it in the Israeli Defense Force is no real situation. We will do the best that we possibly can in order for civilians not to be hurt and not to be harmed in any way.
But at the end of the day, the main goal is really defeating Hamas and winning this war. And at the same time, as I said earlier, to see and we've got efforts going out internationally as well, to see how we can bring Hamas on their knees also in terms of releasing these hostages, these innocent people who are just taken captive for just being Israelis. And Aliyah, I know it is very early in this war, but should we expect the Israeli military to stay in Gaza and occupy the area? I don't think we have any intention of Israel ruling another entity again.
We've done that. We've entered there. But we left with the belief, hope, that we would have a neighboring country that would go a neighboring area that we could actually live with peacefully. But the opposite has happened once Hamas took over and ousted the Palestinian Authority defective from there.
And what we've seen over the past was in our 20 years nearly, is terrorism coming out of coming out of Gaza. What we want to do, and I'll go now with first and foremost, to restore common security to the citizens of Israel, especially those living around Gaza, and to make sure once and for all, and not just putting a patch or a band-aid on the situation, but once and for all, to make sure that Hamas and other terrorist organizations, by the way, never threaten and harm anybody in Israel. Would you like to see U.S. boots on the ground?
We are very appreciative of Hamas, of the United States assistance. President Biden came out with the strongest statement that I have ever heard a U.S. President come out with since 1973, in terms of having Israel's back in such a way, in such an unequivocal manner. And this is something which is not taken from granted, we hugely appreciate this, in such an amazing way that there was stress and the support that we are getting here from the United States, from the U.S., across the board, across the spectrum, in Congress, in the administration, from the streets, everywhere, is amazing.
And the support that we are seeing with words, with threats and with messages going across is exactly the message that the enemies, and I'm saying enemies should be hearing and they are hearing in a very clear manner. Israel does know how to fight on its own. Israel has done it before. Israel is doing it now.
And we will continue doing it, of course, having the support in the back of the international community and first and foremost from the U.S., as we have now, again, as other countries understand what we are facing and other countries understand that it's not just an Israeli issue. This is something for the free world to deal with in total, to fight against terrorism and not to allow it to pick up its head anymore. And, Eli, what do you say to people who are questioning the Israeli government's ability to protect its own people? How can the new unity government restore trust in the government?
So one of the things that Hamas maybe did not take into consideration when launching this assault in this war on Israel, and let's just remember that it is Hamas that decided to declare war in such a way. What it didn't take into consideration, perhaps, is that in cases like this, Israelis come together and Israel comes together. We close ranks and there is no daylight between left and right and religious and secular and so on and so forth. We are all in this together and we all resolute to go about this together.
And when we have our backs against the wall, that is exactly where you as an enemy do not want us to be, because we have nothing to lose. We have everything to gain. We will win and we will crush you from us. Elliot Benjamin, thank you so much for joining us here.
I'll meet the press now. And we'll bring you President Biden's remarks live when they have up next. Can congressman Steve Scalise win enough support to become speaker? Steve Scalise, speaker Steve Scalise, excuse me, the House majority leader just won a key vote in the fight for the gavel, but the real hurt always yet to come for live on the hill with the latest next you're watching me the press now.
And welcome back, we're expecting to hear from President Biden in just under two minutes right now. I want to go to NBC White House correspondent Monica Alba who is standing by Monica. What are we expecting to hear from the president this afternoon? Well, he's going to be speaking at this meeting that is held with key Jewish community leaders that we also expect second gentleman Doug Emhoff to be speaking at.
And this is a little bit more of a domestic focus of just how intense this has been for the Jewish community here in the United States, many of whom, of course, have many loved ones, family, friends, relatives over in Israel right now who are connected to this after the violence committed by Hamas in these terrorist attacks over the weekend. So the president will be offering a little bit of an update on the situation. Of course, we've learned that death toll has gone up to 22 people and it's possible officials say they're bracing that that could go up even more. And I think we're also going to hear a sense of just what many in the Jewish community have to deal with when it comes to anti-Semitism, when it comes to hate crimes, what we've seen, and that you see right there on your screen is second gentleman Doug Emhoff likely speaking to his own experience as a Jewish American.
And then the president will also just be directly speaking to the Jewish community about how the White House is staunchly standing and supporting Israel in this moment and will continue to stand by them according to officials here. Gabe. And Monica, let's listen into the second gentleman as he introduces President Biden. The images that we saw will be seared in our brains forever, rockets falling on cities.
People dragged from their homes and shot dead children, sheltering from bullets, bodies, lining the streets. And all the while, we see videos of these terrorists cheering on these atrocities. The toll on Israel and the Jewish community is hard to imagine, but we can't imagine it because it's happening. And I know many of you have sent texts and calls this weekend checking on other ones.
And I know too many of you received heartbreaking replies. We know today that at least 22 Americans won't be coming home. I know you're all hurting. The entire Jewish community is hurting.
I'm hurting. We grieve with you. We stand with you. But thank God we have the steady leadership of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris during this unthinkable time in our history.
They're moral compass, they're calm, empathy are what we need in this time of crisis. And we saw that yesterday when President Biden, with Vice President Harris and Secretary Blinken by his side powerfully addressed the nation and made clear to the world that Israel has the United States on wavering support. Our President and Vice President are making sure Israel has what it needs to defend itself. We are grateful for their leadership and support for Israel at this exceptionally difficult time.
We also acknowledge and address how these events will impact us as Jews, why we're here to have a discussion. I know many of us feel a deep fear that these attacks will unfortunately and already have led to a rise in hate and anti-Semitism. We're already seeing it. That's why this discussion and the work you and your organizations do is so vitally important.
Almost a year ago, I sat right in the spot in this very room, and many of you were here with me that day. And then we called attention to the epidemic of hate that we're facing. And following that meeting, we took action. And in May, Biden Harris Administration released the first ever national strategy to counter anti-Semitism.
The plan includes over 100 meaningful actions we are taking right now to fight back against anti-Semitism and hate. And each of you played a role in crafting this strategy. We could have done this without you. And thank you for the work that you've done that you're continuing to do.
And as we're going to discuss later, myself and the Biden Harris Administration officials are working with federal, state, and local leaders to implement this plan across the country. We're going to continue to bring people together, and importantly, we're going to build coalitions to fight back against hate. We cannot do this alone. The story of the Jewish people has always been one of perseverance and resilience.
In dark times, we come together, and we fight back, and we also seek to build our world. Last year, before my trip to Poland and Germany, President Biden took me into the Oval Office. He told me how his father had taught him about the horrors of the Holocaust, and how he later traveled to Dachau with his children and grandchildren to teach them those same lessons. So I know firsthand how important it is to President Biden to preserve our Jewish history and to make sure that hate has no safe harbor in America and the world.
As an American Jew, I am so grateful that in this moment of tumult and pain, we have Joe Biden as President and Kamala Harris as Vice President. It's now my honor to introduce a true advocate for the Jewish community. Please join me in welcoming President Joe Biden. First, I came first of all to say thank you.
Thank you to all of you in this room. You've not only cared, but you've been breaking your neck the last couple of years to deal with this overall issue of anti-Semitism, and I know many of you are personally impacted by what's happened in Israel. There are thousands of dual citizens, maybe some of your relatives are there. And Doug, I want to thank you for all the work you've done on behalf of our administration to combat anti-Semitism.
And I apologize, I've been on the phone around the clock with our friends around the world, discussing what's going on in Israel, and I want you to know that I want to thank you as well for all of you as well for working, the work you're doing to bring comfort, and this moment of grief for those of you who are grieving as well. And you'll read this weekend in synagogue that Torah teaches us that God made stars to quote, give light on the earth and separate light from darkness. Give light on the earth and separate light from darkness. You know, it's been hard to find that light during the darkness of these past few days.
But a terrorist group like Hamas brought not only terror, but sheer evil, sheer evil to the world, evil that echoes the worst and matches. In some cases, it succeeds the worst atrocities of ISIS. More than 1,000 civilians slaughtered in Israel. By the way, I've been speaking with a number of Israeli leaders, a number of leaders around the world, leaders in the region as well.
And, you know, among those who have been victimized, this evil who have been killed are at least 22 American citizens. This attack was a campaign of pure cruelty. And that's just hate and pretty cruelty against the Jewish people. And I would argue it's the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust, the deadliest day since the Holocaust.
One of the worst chapters in human history that reminded us all of that expression I learned from my dad early on, silence is complicity. I mean, silence is complicity, it really is. And I want you to know, I think you've already figured it out, I refuse to be silent, I know you refuse to be silent as well. To hear of my senior staff, you all represent a voice that America has to hear.
America's not kimpy silent. You know, we not only reject the terrorism, but it goes beyond that. It goes beyond rejecting terrorism. You know, I spoke with Prime Minister Netanyahu for, I don't know how many times, but again this morning.
And already, we're surging additional military assistance to the Israeli Defense Force, including ammunition, interceptors with plenty of siren dome, and we move the U.S. carrier fleet to the Eastern Mediterranean and we're sending more fighter jets there in that region. And made it clear, made it clear, to the Iranians, be careful. We want to make it real clear.
We're working on every aspect of the hostage crisis that there's been including, deploying experts to advise and assist with recovery efforts. Now, the press is going to shout to me, and many of you are, that, you know, what are you doing to bring these folks home? If I told you I wouldn't be able to get them home, folks, there's a lot we're doing, a lot we're doing, I have not given up hope, I'm bringing these folks home. But the idea that I'm going to stand here before you and tell you what I'm doing is bizarre.
So I hope you understand how bizarre I think it would be to try to answer that question. In the days ahead, we're going to work closely with our partners in Israel and around the world to ensure Israel has what is an easy defended citizen to the cities and to respond to these attacks. As I said yesterday, my commitment to Israel's security and the safety of Jewish people is unshakeable. The United States has Israel's back, and I have yours as well, both at home and abroad.
You know, you can see the pain in some of your faces I walked into this room. You okay kiddo? Well, your fear for family, friends, back in Israel. Worry about kids being targeted at school, about going about their daily lives.
You heard by the down plane of a mosque of atrocities and blaming Israel. This is unconscionable. I've asked members of my team, including Homeland Security Secretary Muayorkas and Attorney General Garland, to work intensively with our Jewish community partners. So many of you here to set up security around Jewish life in America, identify, prevent and disrupt emerging threats that occur.
You know, we're also going to condemn and combat anti-Semitism at every single turn, at every turn. You know, the past few days have been a solemn reminder that hate never goes away. But hold on a second. I used to think you could defeat hate, that you could make it, all it does is go underground.
It just goes underground. It doesn't go away. It only hides until it's given a little oxygen, a little bit of oxygen. And that's why I've secured the largest ever-increasing funding for physical security for non-profits, including the Synagogues, Jewish community centers, Jewish day schools.
And it may release the first-ever national strategy to counter anti-Semitism, but the input from many of you in this room, many of you in this room, help right that, it's the most ambitious comprehensive to combat anti-Semitism in American history, in all American history. And we're aggressively implementing it, but we must all do our part, and forcefully speak out against anti-Semitism and push back against attempts to deny or distort the facts. To make clear, there is no place for hate in America, not against Jews, not against Muslims, not against anybody. And we mourn the act, you and so many leaders have across the country showing us what thousands of years the Jewish sisters have shown us, the enduring strength, I mean, this is certainly the enduring sense in the spirit of the Jewish community, if you use a point of personal privilege, you should say, in the Senate.
That's why I took my kids, everyone when they turned 14 years old. One at a time, put them on a plane and took them to duck out. I wanted them to see that you could not not know what was going on walking through those gates. You could not fail to understand as a country what was going on.
And that's a fact. It had a profound impact on my children and my grandchildren, so I thought taking a 14-year-old grandchild did not make a mistake. I took them one at a time. I got three more to go, and folks, it's important, you know, the miracle of Israel is Israel.
It's just you itself, hope it inspires, the light it represents to the world. And folks, I was asked in one of my very frank conversations with Beebe and with Herzog. So why do I feel so deeply about this? It's not about the region.
I truly believe we're the no Israel, no Jew in the world will be ultimately safe. It's the only ultimate guarantee, the only ultimate guarantee, the only ultimate guarantee. And folks, because of you, and I mean it sincerely because you're speaking up because of the intensity and the intellect and the brilliance you bring to this cause, I think we have a chance to end this in a way that is, it makes it very difficult for you to repeat it. I want to thank you for your leadership, and as I said, there's a lot to talk about, but I'm really quite frankly concerned as to, it's hard to talk about this without detail, and it's contrary to our interests to let out the detail of what we're going on.
I mean, this is just round the clock as you understand, you fully understand. But you know, I've known Beebe for over 40 years, a very frank relationship, and I'm well. And the one thing that I did say that it is really important that Israel, all the anger and frustration that just cannot explain it, that exists is that the offering by the rules of war, the rules of war, and there are rules of war. And I believe Israel is doing everything that's power to pull the country together, stay on the same page, and we're going to do everything in our power to make sure there's a succeed in God willing to bring home those Americans who are in harm's way.
I'm going to let you all have the private conversation you've been having, which you should continue to have. But I just came to basically, I really mean it from the bottom of my heart, I give you my words of Biden, thank you, thank you for the intensity of your support. It matters. It matters that Americans see what's happening.
I mean, I've been doing this a long time. I never really thought that I would see and have confirmed pictures of terrorists be hitting children. I never thought I'd ever, anyway, but there are countries in the region who are trying to be of some help, including Arab nations, trying to be of some help. So anyway, from my faith, from my faith, my faith that the core of every human being is a spark of humanity and decency, and it's got to be touched, it's got to be spoken to.
That's what you do. That's why you're here. It's not about, you know, revenge, it's about decency, just basically decency, just basic decency, treating people with a sense of quite a safe, but I know we can overcome this. I know we can overcome this.
Look, I don't know anything about the kind of losses talking, but I know a little bit of like to feel loss, lose people you adore, get a phone call saying, they're gone. I get that part. Not the same, but I get the part. And what I've learned is that as we persevere, we can grow, and the day will come when the memory of that person or those persons bring a smile to your lips before it brings a tear to your eye.
It will happen. It will happen. But God, it takes a long time sometimes, and when it's borne out of something that has been anything from a mistake to a vicious, vicious attempt, you know, it varies in the degrees. I'm not saying I know the same, but I just, look, I mean, I'll never forget, I won't go into that.
Anyway, I just think that if we stay true to our values, pursue with every inch and every bit of our energy to get this right, we can bury this again and bring people back, bring people home and bring them together. I think we can change the Middle East, but then again, I have been referred to as a congenital optimist, and I'm not going to answer any questions for you guys right now, but my team here knows when the pressure's gone, they'll talk more directly to you. But even then, they're not going to be able to tell you all that we're doing and all that's going on. So.
We say thank you. 80 years ago this week, 80 years ago this week, a group of 400 rabbis came to Washington, hoping to meet with Frankly Donald Roosevelt, and appeal to him to ask the rest of you to choose with the University of New York. And he refused meeting with President Roosevelt, they refused in the streets of White House. And the faculty here here today, and you've spoken as President of the United States, so clearly in support of the trail, so clearly in support of your people.
And so, and welcome leaders and representatives of the Jewish community into the White House for this discussion shows what dramatic distance we travel in the United States, how we the Jewish community are blessed to live today in the United States, and we thank you for your leadership and your more admirer. President Biden wrapping up remarks there in front of a roundtable of a Jewish community leaders, a powerful speech right there talking about how he was working around the clock, talking with his very counterparts, and also mentioning that it's been hard to find light in the darkness of the last few days, saying he's known Benjamin Netanyahu for 40 years. President of course, saying this as he confirmed, yes, as we learned today, that 22 Americans have died in the conflict in Israel. I want to get right to Monica Alba who was watching this speech.
Monica, he talked about again the sheer evil, that's something he's reiterated over the last day or so. What's that got to you from these remarks? An emotional speech there, Gabe, and I think one of the main takeaways is the president saying there that silence here is complicity in the face of some of this sheer evil and brutality that was seen the president even mentioning photographs of beheaded children, which is something that we're hearing from him discussing for the first time and the president saying that silence is not an option when you see this kind of brutality and these kinds of atrocities committed by Hamas as terrorism, plain and simple. The president also saying that he has directed his Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice to work with the Jewish community here in the United States to partner with these kinds of leaders in the face of potential hate crimes or further rise in anti-Semitism, something that this White House has been working to combat and has specifically put groups and resources together on in a significant way in the last year or so.
And then finally, you did have a very strong message from the president there that he is trying to do everything he can and his power to get those American hostages home but that he's not going to be talking about those plans in any tangible way because that would be counterproductive to what they're doing in this most sensitive manner to try to get people out so that he still has faith, he says that he can be able to do that but that he's just not going to be able to discuss what might be happening. And I think that's really significant because it's clearly taking a little bit of a toll on everybody in this White House and folks who you talk to, many of whom, there's only one or two degrees of separation between them and family members or relatives or close friends who do live in Israel like much of what we just heard in that room from the second gentleman himself and from the president acknowledging that reality too. Gabe. Monica, how about the White House?
Monica, thank you. And I'm joined now by Democratic Congressman from Illinois and member of the House Intelligence Committee, Roger Christian Worthy and Congressman, your colleagues on the House and Senate Intel had strong reactions yesterday after receiving an intel briefing on the war. Can you characterize what you heard and also if you have any immediate reaction to what we just heard from the president right now? Well, I think what the president conveyed echoes the sentiments of a lot of us and I'm glad that he made the remarks that he did.
As for what happened yesterday, I think all of us are still shaken by just the sheer brutality and savagery with which Hamas attacked so many innocent civilians and others. The president alluded to the beheadings, the rapes, the shootings, the murder of innocent people in their homes as they were filming these murders also goes to the fact that they are trying to inculcate a sense of fear among everyone in Israel and elsewhere. And so I think that we have to kind of band together as a civilized world and deal with this situation and help the Israelis as they respond and to prevent further attacks. Congressman, this has been framed as a failure of both Israeli and U.S.
intelligence as a member of the intelligence committee. Are you confident that the intelligence community has a handle on current threats? I think they're working on it, but I am very concerned because there were oversized to say the least. And I think that at this point we have to go back and figure out what those holes are with regard to our collection of intelligence and then using lessons learned from that apply it going forward so that we can at least start to anticipate what's about to happen next.
It's very crucial at this point that we also work with our partners, friends and allies around the world because many of them also have collection efforts with regard to Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran and others. And Congressman, did you receive any information about how exactly this was allowed to happen? No, and I think those are some questions that we still need more detailed answers to and we're expecting further detailed briefings. Right now, we are also trying to think about what is it that Israel requires in the days and weeks ahead.
Of course, what's happening right now in Congress doesn't help matters. I think there's a little bit of chaos in the other caucus and that is slowing things down with regard to further deliberations. Congressman, what's the latest information you have about those Americans that are still unaccounted for? Well, two of them actually come from the Chicago area and so we are very concerned about their whereabouts, of course, the whereabouts of all these others and of course the hostages themselves regardless of where they come from because they're being used as pawns, as you know.
And you know, many of them are just little kids, they're toddlers. Many of them are very elderly. Many of them are, the vast majority of them are innocent civilians and not soldiers, not wearing a uniform of any kind, not that anybody should be taken hostage, but this is a situation where our hearts go out to their families and we and the U.S. government have to do everything we can to help the Israelis in identifying where these hostages are, who they are, and providing any and all assistance to try to retrieve them and rescue them ASAP.
Congressman, we understand the White House is preparing an aid request that covers Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan. So should aid to Israel be packaged with other military aid? Well, they're separate issues, but on the other hand, all three of those regions are priorities right now, as you know. And so I suspect during the legislative process, there are going to be different permutations of how this comes about.
But I think all three of those need to be funded as the ranking member of the Special Select Committee with regard to the Chinese Communist Party, I can say that we should not forget about Taiwan's needs even at the same time we're dealing with the other two, although Israel is very pressing this moment as well as Ukraine. Congressman, you said that they should all be funded, but the question was, should they be packaged together? I'm going to let the leadership handle that because I don't know exactly how they're going to be tied together. It could be that a portion of the funding for each of those priorities needs to be tied together from a timing perspective.
At the end of the day, I think a lot of it is going to be negotiated at the same time, along with government funding, quite frankly. And so we've got to do all of those things simultaneously. Congressman, would you support U.S. forces going in if it meant the return of American hostages?
I don't know. I have to look at the specific scenario. Obviously, the Israelis are on the ground right now. We should provide any and all assistance to them as they try to retrieve hostages.
And that might mean intelligence. That might mean other technical means of helping them. But I need to see the exact scenario before I can comment further. And Congressman, new NBC News reporting today reveals that the U.S.
is investigating whether Iran gave training to some Hamas militants. Does U.S. posture towards Iran need to change in the wake of this attack? Well, I think that Iran is broadly complicit in what's happened right now.
I have not seen specific evidence that they directed what has been carried out. I don't know. I haven't seen intelligence with regard to the issue that you just raised about training for this particular attack. But our posture has to be one of vigilance with regard to Iran.
They are a bad actor in the region. They fund Hezbollah. They fund Hamas. They fund other proxies that go after our interests, as well as in a sense.
And we have to view them as such. Congressman Raja Krishnamurti, thanks so much for joining us. And thank you for being here at this hour. Kristen Walker is back tomorrow with more Meet the Press Now.
And the news continues with Hallie Jackson right now. Hey, it's Kate Snow, NBC News anchor and host of The Drink. This month, Demi Lovato is my guest. The global superstar tells me that she is the happiest she's ever been right now.
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