Foreign. Welcome to be the press now. I'm Kristen Welker in Washington where we're following breaking news in the war between Israel and Hamas. Amid new signs that Israel is preparing for an imminent ground invasion of Gaza and fears growing of another front of this war opening on the Israeli Lebanese border.
Right now the Israeli military says a quote extensive attack is underway targeting the Hamas terrorist organization inside Gaza. And this afternoon Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a surprise address saying quote, we have no choice but to fight. And the attacks on Hamas were quote only at the beginning. I met today with the US Secretary of State and we are guaranteeing the continuation of the, of the war with more artillery, more ammunitions coming to Israel.
We're going to eradicate Hamas and we're going to bring victory. It comes after the Israeli military ordered the entire population of northern Gaza to evacuate south warning the United nations is calling impossible. This is footage shot inside Gaza today and it shows leaflets falling from the sky. Those orders apply to more than 1 million people in the densely populated Gaza Strip including key population centers like Gaza City.
The UN is pleading with Israel to rescind the warning of devastating humanitarian consequences. Hamas meanwhile is telling Gazans to ignore the warnings and stay put. But some residents have already begun to fleet heading south by car, even by foot. And with borders on all sides closed, it's unclear where those evacuated can go.
NBC News has now confirmed an airstrike hit a convoy of evacuating killing 70. NBC News also spoke with a Palestinian surgeon working in Gaza who described the heroic conditions. We are running out of electricity, running out of water and whole neighborhoods have been wiped out from the map and the whole families have been wiped out from the history. No one can leave Gaza, no one can enter Gaza.
There is no crossing borders, nothing left for anyone to do. It's a huge big cage that we are, that we are trapped inside and someone from outside is just keep on bombing, non stop bombing and there is nowhere else to go. Just a horrifying account there. Well already more than 400,000 Gazans have been displaced, that's according to the UN as Israeli strikes have leveled entire neighborhoods.
This is new footage from inside Gaza shot by our NBC team showing the devastation on the ground. Speaking From Qatar today, U.S. secretary State Anthony Blinken acknowledging the growing humanitarian crisis and once again urging Israel to do everything it can to avoid civilian casualt peace. Let's not lose sight of why this is happening.
Israel is conducting operations in Gaza because Hamas carried out terrorists attacks. It killed in the most horrific ways. 1300 of his people, Hamas terrorists slaughtered, raped, mutilated, tortured, burned, innocent civilians, from babies to the elderly, men, women, boys and girls. Now efforts to get humanitarian aid into Gaza are complicated by the fact that mosque continues to use innocent civilians as human shields and is reportedly blocking ropes prevent Palestinians from moving to southern Gaza out of harm's way.
We know the humanitarian situation is urgent. We're actively engaged with partners including Cutter to get aid to those who need it. As Israel continues to amass its military along the border in preparation for a ground invasion, it continues to strike targets in Gaza. Richard Eagle's team on the ground shot this video of an Israeli tank firing into the enclave earlier today.
And now it appears Israeli forces have begun to enter Gaza with IDF saying it's conducting localized raids inside the Gaza Strip in an effort to locate hostages. At least 120 hostages remain in Gaza following this weekend's attack by Hamas. The death toll in the conflict has risen with at least 1300 kill in Israel and 1800 in Gaza. 27Americans are among the dead.
Joining me now, northern Israel by the Lebanon borders. Foreign correspondent Josh Letterman. Courtney Cuby joins us with what a ground invasion might look like. And Kelly o' Donnell has very latest from the White House.
Thanks to all of you for starting us off on another incredibly somber day. Josh, I want to start with you in the region. What more do we know about those localized raids? What can you tell us?
Well, this is a big development, Kristen, because while the Israeli military has conducted hundreds of airstrikes in the Gaza Strip since the terrorist attacks on Saturday, as far as we know, this is the first time they've actually gone on the ground, on foot into the Gaza Strip. And the military says that in these, these localized raids they were not only trying to offer Hamas terrorists and weapons in the Gaza Strip, but also to search for and locate evidence that will help the Israeli military to free those hostages that are now in the Gaza Strip. As far as we know, they were not able to obtain and free any hostages during this particular set of raids. But this does seem to signal that we're moving and closer to the more large scale ground incursion that has really been signposted by the Israeli military for days now with the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu making a very rare Sabbath evening national address tonight where he really girded Israel for the long fight that is coming, telling the public here that they need to stand united, that this is going to be hard, it's not going to be fast.
But Israel knows what it means to Win, and he says it will. Kristen? Yeah, just a really stark message there by Prime Minister Netanyahu. You're absolutely right.
Josh, let's just go back to the hostages for a moment. I mean, can you contextualize just how much of a concern is there for the hostages, given not just the impending ground invasion, but obviously the firing that we're seeing back and forth? I gotta tell you, Grayson, this is on the mind of every Israeli right now. There's just not a good solution to this.
I spoke for quite a while yesterday with the relatives of hostages, many of them Americans, that are in the Gaza Strip right now. I asked them, look, what do you want the government to do? Should they hold off on going in on this incursion to root out this terrorist threat, given the fact that there are hostages that could very well be in harm's way? If the military goes in with an incursion that is likely to result in a large number of civilian casualties?
The Israeli military, they say they're doing everything they can not only to minimize those civilian casualties, but in the process to try to locate and extract those hostages. We heard efforts from the United States, including from Lincoln, to try to secure some type of exchange to work with other countries. But right now, there's not a good solution for how Israel can both go to Gaza for what it feels is an operation it needs to do to restore its own national security and also try to minimize the prospect that some of those hostages that are now in the Gaza Strip could fall victim to that incursion as well. And, Josh, of course, you're in the northern part of the country, and the IDF is saying that it's striking Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.
And we've been talking about this throughout the week. The concern about this war expanding to multiple fronts, potentially Syria as well. What is the risk factor there? It's very high.
And while we've seen some sporadic exchanges of gunfire over the last several days between Hezbollah and the Israeli military, they have been fairly limited, minor in comparison what we're seeing with air strikes in the Gaza Strip. But over the last, I'd say six or eight hours, it seems like that's really picked up. And we've heard from Hezbollah's leaders today saying they're not going to sit this one out, particularly as they see Israel on the verge of a likely ground incursion. Hezbollah now threatening to get directly involved as well.
And that has communities like Nahariya, where I am at, just about seven miles south of the Lebanese Bor alert right now. They have seen Hezbollah rockets fall and cause casualties and deaths here before, and they are bracing for a conflict that could potentially spiral beyond the Gaza Strip to include this border, to include the west bank, to include Israel's border with Syria. And that is exactly what Israel and many of its allies are trying to contain tonight, one of the many concerns in Israel and all across the world. Josh Letterman, thank you for your fantastic reporting.
Please continue to stay safe. Courtney. Q. Let me turn to you at the Pentagon and let's pick up on where I left off with Josh of these localized raids.
What are your sources of the Pentagon telling you about that and this potential ground attack? I mean, everyone is just waiting for when this ground attack starts. And there's a lot of different opinions on when it could actually begin, but the common word that we keep hearing is that it's imminent. So what we'll often see in a military operation is before something starts, before a major ground offensive, before major air attack, there's often the US Military called shaping operations that can take a number of different forms.
One is airstrikes or artillery strikes going into a place and it's literally shaping the battlefield for the larger operation that's to come. That could be what we are seeing here with these smaller units going in. They could be trying to go in, gather intelligence, figure out where strikes need to or where the large assault needs to go and get a better sense. Remember, this is Gaza that we're talking about here that they're going into.
It is it has been closed off, it is walled off. It is extremely difficult urban terrain and urban warfare. Literally what I keep comparing it to, and many of our viewers are probably familiar with, was the fight for West Mosul in Iraq. And why I say that is because it was very congested.
ISIS at the time was very dug in. They had boobatrack buildings, they had snipers hide up in these high rise buildings. And it was extremely difficult urban warfare. And because of it, it takes it's literally block to block.
It's extremely difficult and time consuming combat and it's something that needs to be very well played out. And I will say also, you know this well, Kristen, the Israeli defense for the idea, they're extremely well trained, they're extremely well equipped and this is the sort of thing that they train for in their careers. Yeah, absolutely. It's hard to imagine the level of fear in that region right now.
And court following up on that point. I mean, there's a concern about getting citizens out of the Gaza Strip, which UN Is saying is not realistic. But there's also this question about Hamas leaders. They try to blend in with citizens.
Is there a sense that they're doing that and that they potentially already fled by now? So there's an assumption that they are not only trying to blend in with population, as they have and as they do in Gaza, but also there's a real concern about Hamas using civilians as human shields. That's been a tactic that they use in the past. There's an assumption that that will also happen in this ground offensive or ground invasion whenever it really begins.
But you bring up an excellent point, Kristen, that is the extensive tunnel systems we've heard over the years. Hundreds of kilometers of tunnel systems exist under Gaza. We don't really have a good sense of exactly how big they are right now and also how they may have been impacted already by the ongoing airstrikes that we've seen. This will take over the past several days.
But the question that we have been asking now for some time, and we don't really have answer to, frankly, is is Hamas still actively using those tunnel systems right now to hold the hostages, to move people around, to move equipment around? Are they able to continue to resupply themselves? Remember, one big use of those tunnel systems historically has been to move weapons and equipment and fighters into Gaza. We just don't have a good sense of that.
The reality is Israel has been well aware of those tunnels for some time and presumably has pretty good intelligence on the Marty, Kristen Yeah, Kelly, Donald, obviously they're watching all this very closely, the White House, and we know that President Biden just spoke to the family members of those 14Americans who are still unaccounted for. Kelly, what's there in that regard? Well, the president has been trying to do two things. Keep very engaged on the issues related to Israel and at the same time keep a public schedule that is dealing with his own administration's economic message.
Biden on he's just been in Philadelphia and he was asked by the pool group of reporters traveling with him what the greatest concern he has about the ground incursion invasion that may be coming. And his answer was one word, death. The president, of course, was confronting the emotions and reality for more than a dozen American families that have missing members of their families. We've been told that that call with those families happened before the president left for his day of activities in the Philadelphia area, and each family had a couple of members of the family represented.
And the president talked about wanting to make certain that in his church, about why he wanted to do this call to be certain that these American families understood that their president was concerned, aware and wanting to be connected to them at such a difficult time when there are huge questions about the fate of their loved ones. The president also at his event today in Philadelphia, which was again about his economic agenda, he addressed what's happening in Israel, and here's part of what he had to say. My direction, our teams are working in the region, including communicating directly with the governments of Israel, Egypt, Jordan and other Arab nations and the United nations to serve support the humanitarian consequences for Hamas attack, to help Israel. You know, we have to we can't lose sight of the fact that the overwhelming majority of Palestinians had nothing to do with Hamas, and Hamas is appalling attacks and they're suffering as a result as well.
So the administration is trying to make the point that there is a need for humanitarian help, there is a need for safe passage. There are many innocent people who face a very treacherous, frightening situation that could be deadly. And so there is a message that sounds somewhat like restraint to Israel. And at the same time, officials have been clear that they are not telling Israel how to conduct its own military operations.
They are not a part of that. But they're trying to emphasize the need for democracies like Israel and the United States to follow the rules of war and to be mindful of the humanitarian consequences, even when there is moral clarity, as the secretary of state said about this conflict, that Hamas is responsible for terrorist attacks on the Israeli people and Israel has a right to defend itself and to respond. Kristen? Yeah, and Kelly, just following up on that idea, I mean, paint a picture of because we've seen the secretary of state in Israel this week, the defense secretaries there.
We know that President Biden's had several conversations with Prime Minister Netanyahu, talk about this all hands on deck approach that we are seeing. Well, certainly they want Israel to feel the full weight and extent of US Partnership and that Israel would not be alone in this. At the same time, it is advice, counsel, guidance from a friend. A friend, as in the United States, is a friend to Israel and also trying to demonstrate to others in the region that is always implicit in these interactions, that they don't want to see other adversaries of Israel capitalize on the current unrest and vulnerability that exists and make this a larger, wider war.
So by having principal officials like the secretary of defense, the secretary of state going into the region, that sends that signal, having the president talking about it each day does as well. And they want to try to be mindful of what civilized nations do and at the same time a war in every way is a horrific set of circumstances. All right, Kelly o', Donnell, according to qb, of course, Josh Letterman beforehand, thank you all so much. And as we mentioned, Israel is warning Gazans to evacuate.
Though many have nowhere to go and face deteriorating conditions. The shelling continues. Here's a glimpse into the grim reality facing many civilians. Three people living in Gaza share their experiences with NBC News.
So as you can see, all citizens are just preparing themselves to leave and no one has a place right now we're just going. If you have a car, just run. No one knows where we're going but we're all evacuating. All my neighbors have left the neighborhood.
No one is left but us. And we're ready to run where no one had any idea. We're going to the north of Gaza, which isn't near at all, which isn't safe at all. Just pray for us and hopefully we'll come back home.
We will come back home. As I'm speaking, there's everywhere around the hospital. The building is shaking every minute or two minutes. I don't know if I'm going to see another day and I hope my family is going okay.
I've been witnessing the escalation of war and treating injuries as much as I can. Seeing deaths in front of my eyes, seeing massacres, whole family being wiped out from the, from the history right from the day one. All the surgeons in Gaza have been called to the hospital to help because we were not enough. We couldn't handle this amount of injuries and it's just heartbreaking.
I actually like joined the general surgery in order to just be away from the children and not seeing them suffering and I ended up seeing them in these wars right in front of me dying or injured or crying or being anonymous. I have multiple two young babies, one in eight months and the other is nine months and they are just unknown. They're anonymous. They came out of the rubble and no one knows what who are they or what family are they belonging to.
It is just unimaginable and our thoughts are with all of them as they are suffering through this horror. And of course what is happening in Israel in the Middle east is something very large over the crisis on Capitol Hill. And we do have some breaking news in that regard where Congressman Jim Jordan just won a closed door vote with this Republican caucus sneaker vote. Ali Vitali joins us from the Hill.
Ali, what's the latest here? They do have a new speaker designee in this case it's Jim Jordan, who won, which we expected. What we didn't expect was that his margin would be so slim, coming out with only 124 votes. According to the members that we've spoken to as they've been leaving this meeting.
The person who jumped into this race sort of spur of the moment, the congressman from Georgia, Austin Scott, got 81 votes. It's notable because the whip operation there had a very short amount of time and certainly was not nearly as organized. It didn't have the lead time that Jordan had, having been whipping for his speakership over the course of the last week. Really.
Nevertheless, this presents yet another inflection point for this conference. Many people expected that Jordan would not just win, but win by a much larger margin. He seems to only have picked up about two dozen votes from the time that they did this vote on Wednesday. And that vote, of course, was won by Steve's lease.
We know how that's speaker did turned out, however short lived it was. But this is now a moment for Republicans to decide and I think that they are doing another ballot right now. I think that it's about whether or not they should go to the floor and whether or not members would vote for Jordan if they put this on the floor. But that's sort of the next question.
We always knew that they would clear the threshold of electing someone by a majority, a simple majority behind closed doors. But it's a much different game when you actually go to the House floor and try to hit 217, which clearly Jordan, just like everyone else who's trying to get his job into party without it short of. Well, it is so fascinating to hear you talk about that very narrow margin that exists. Ali, could we in fact see a full vote and talk a little bit about Jim Jordan?
Because as you say, Representative Scott from Georgia threw his hat into the ring, quite critical of Jordan, concerned that if Jordan were to be speaker, there could be deep budget cuts, particularly of the Pentagon at this very critical moment. Yeah, deep budget cuts at the Pentagon and other pieces of the Jordan Persona are also a concern, especially for those members who are concerned about the fact that he bucked subpoenas from the January 6 committee from his proximity and consistent contact with former President Donald Trump. Jordan, of course, a long time ally of the former president, concern over the role that he may have played on January 6th. All of those are key pieces of the Jordan resume as much as members are also looking at his conservative bona fides as a selling point.
This is something that for moderates makes a little bit more difficult for them to get on board. Nevertheless, we haven't heard a lot of protests from them, at least not publicly in terms of who they would be supporting if not Jordan and if not, Scott. I think the striking thing here, though, when you question whether or not Jordan should go to the floor is there were questions about if Solis made a tactical mistake by not going immediately from this closed door meeting, rushing it to the floor. But that's also why some members said they didn't want to vote for him.
They didn't like the speed with which he tried to parlay the momentum from behind closed doors onto the full House floor. Lot of opinions here, not a lot of shy wallflowers within this conference. And when you have just a cluster of them between four and five who want to make noise, that's where you start running into problems. And so whether it's police, whether it's McCarthy, whether it's Jordan and frankly whether it's someone else, they're all going to have these numbers problems.
And it's an open question how they ultimately proceed here because there is pressure for Jordan to try to take whatever momentum he has and put this on the floor and have people put their names to a vote. But there's also desire to not continue embarrassing the party and making it look like a chaos conference, which of course, it very much has been over the course of the last few weeks. Thank you for rushing to the camera for us for that breaking news. Come right back if you get anything more.
I really appreciate it. And right after the break, we're going back to the Israeli Gaza border live. Plus, I'll speak to the family member of someone who is believed to be being held hostage by Hamas. Do stay with us.
You're watching the press now. Welcome back. As Israel prepares for a potential ground offensive in Gaza, we're seeing increased military activity along the border. And joining me from the Israel Gaza border with the very latest is NBC's Ellison Barber.
Ellison, thank you so much for joining us. Give us the very latest. Ellison, what are you seeing from where you are right now? Have you seen an uptick in military activity?
We have throughout the evening, Kristen, and we were a little while ago even closer towards the Israel Gaza border. And we were told by Israeli forces that we had to move back because things were moving. Things were starting to ramp up. There were helicopters flying overhead.
They told us that we needed to leave that area for our own safety, move a little bit back. But you keep an eye on the skyline behind me. You'll probably start to see the flashes of orange. It looks like lightning when it happens here and there, but it's not lightning.
That is Gaza and that is missiles, mortars, bombardment happening inside of Gaza right now. Israel's Defense Forces, they say that they have carried out some limited raids into Gaza, saying they're focused on trying to do some targeted strikes on Hamas militants and looking for some of those Israelis who have been taken hostage. They have not so far announced that they have started a full ground assault into Gaza, but we expect that that could happen at any minute. When I was speaking with an IDF spokesperson yesterday, I asked him if it was fair this time Yesterday or about 7pm your time yesterday, if it was fair for us to characterize the ground assault into Gaza as imminent.
He said, we have been very clear on what our intent is. This will escalate. We plan to make sure that Hamas can no longer operate in any way shape or and they can no longer launch any sort of attack like the one Israel saw over the weekend. What that means for a lot of civilians in Gaza, Palestinians, is that their lives are under an increasingly dangerous situation in the south, they have been told to in the north, rather they have been told to evacuate to the south, but really there is not a lot of space options for people to get to safety.
The border that leads out to Israeli territory on the north, that is closed. That has been closed. Israel says that's because Hamas militants struck it over the weekend until people hostage there as well as killed other people. The crossing into Egypt is not open and Egyptian officials have said that part of that reason is because an Israeli airstrike damaged that border crossing.
So people are essentially trapped. And as Israeli forces dropped leaflets over the north part of Gaza telling people to evacuate and giving them a 24 hour notice, Hamas was telling people to put from our teams, our producer inside. People feel like they don't know what is the right choice and they have no good options. They have seen since Saturday just a constant escalation of Israeli airstrikes on Gaza.
And because of the density and the way that Gaza just is, that means that a lot of civilians have been impacted. Israel has acknowledged taking what we traditionally consider civilian structures, mosques, homes. Only they do that. They say that Hamas is using those to carry out their operations to store weapons.
The reality is that civilians on both sides of this are being seriously impacted in the death toll of civilians will likely rise significantly within Gaza. Kristen, it is all just so unimaginable. Ellison, thank you for your tremendous reporting. Please stay safe.
We really appreciate it and President Biden today spoke with family members of 14Americans still unaccounted for and were believed to be being held hostage by Hamas. The president spoke about that call with the families publicly just moments ago. Take a look. They're going through agony not knowing what the status of their son's daughters, husband's wives, children are.
You know, it's gut wrenching. I assure them my personal commitment to do everything possible. Everything possible. Return every mission American to their families.
We're working around the clock. Secure the release now. Among those who participated in the call were family members of Judith and Natalie Ratnon, who live in Evanston, Illinois, just outside of Chicago. Judith and Natalie were visiting relatives last weekend when Hamas fighters captured the kibbutz where they were staying.
They have not been seen since. I'm joined now by Sarai Cohen, Judith Rotten on sister, and Natalie Ratnon's aunt. She was not on the call today with President Biden, but her family members were. Thank you so much for joining us.
I want to start off by just, sorry. Telling you how sorry we are. Our thoughts are with you and your family right now. How are you holding up amidst all of this?
This? Well, we're doing everything in our power just to be doing everything we can to have a sign of life from them. We're devastated. We want to know that they're alive, and I have to see that.
I to say I watched the show until now when I was waiting to be on air, and I have a lot of sympathy to the civilians in the Gaza Strip. However, Hamas terrorists are exactly like isis. And I don't know if my niece Natalie is alive or not. I don't know if she's been raped or not.
I don't know if they're alive or not. And. And I feel like our side should be told. You know, I thank you for the opportunity.
We really just want a sign of life from them. We are working with American authorities, as with Israelis authorities, but it's been seven days now that we know nothing about them. Well, we appreciate your sharing your story and your bravery and speaking out. Sorry, I know that you weren't on that call with the president, but do you have a sense of what his message was?
What did he say to your family? And are you satisfied with the support that you're getting from the Biden administration right now? Yes, actually, my brother was in the meeting. And I have to say that President Biden took the time to speak to each and every one of us, each and every family, which was very encouraging.
He was Very sympathetic about our situation and promised that he will do everything in his power to bring back Natalie and Judith, American citizens back home. We were in touch with all the American authorities and Israeli authorities, and we're very much encouraged by their work. However, we still have no sign of light from them. What are US Officials telling you, Sarai?
What is their message? What has their message been to you? Actually, from the Israeli authorities, we just heard a couple of hours ago, three hours ago, that an Ali and Judith are officially. It's known that they've been kidnapped and they're in the Gaza Strip.
However, they have no idea, no knowledge if they're dead or alive, injured or well, but we know for sure that they've been kidnapped. And the American authorities are telling us that they're working on finding out where exactly they are in the Gaza Strip and what can be done in order to bring them back or know anything about the situation. But the Hamas, as for now, is not giving the American authorities nor Israeli ones any list of the captured American citizens or about their situation. What do you want people to know about your sister and your niece, Sarai?
I want them to know that they're. They only came for a vacation. They want to be back home. I really hope they know that we're doing everything to bring, to get a sign of light from them.
And I. I want them to feel that all, everyone, the American authorities and Israeli and especially us, their family, is just doing really everything in our power to reach out for them. Yet any sign, any sign whatsoever, dead or alive, does the fact that there seems to be this impending ground operation give you some hope that they will be found? Yeah, it does.
I. I really don't know. You know, I'm not a political person and I. I do have sympathy for the civilians in the Gaza Strip, but I want to get them home.
I want them alive. And is that what it takes? I just feel that if they want, you know, other hostages from Israel, just give them, give it to them. Free them if we can, if we can prevent suffering from each one of the sides.
I'm all in it. But I have one goal and one goal only, to get a signal of life and get Nali and Jews back home. Well, sir, I come. We can't thank you enough.
And again, our thoughts and our prayers are going to be with you and your family and all of the hostages at this incredibly difficult time. Thank you for sharing your story with us. Thank you very much for having us on. And coming up amid the escalating war abroad tensions and Security concerns are on the rise here at home as mosque calls for a global day of anger in support of the terrorist attacks in Israel.
We will delve into all of that. You're watching the press. And now, welcome back. Amid tensions in the Middle East, Jewish communities around the world are on high alert today after a former mosleer called for a global day of anger in support of last weekend's brutal attack.
France's prime minister raised the terrorist alert level after a teacher was stabbed and killed and two other people were seriously injured at a school in northern France. French officials say that attack was without a doubt connected to the violence in the Middle East. And here in the US Three law enforcement officials tell NBC News there's been online chatter about attacks, but none of the online threats are specific. Incredible.
Still, law enforcement agencies across the country are stepping up patrol synagogues, Jewish businesses and other potential targets. Here in Washington, crews put up barriers around the Capitol. And in New York, the NYPD has ordered all officers to report a uniform today as a show of force against any potential threat. Despite the actual police presence, many Jewish schools here in the US and elsewhere around the world were closed as a precaution.
Joining now is Martin Fletcher, former Tel Aviv bureau chief for NBC News. Martin, thank you so much for joining us. We do hope that you are staying safe. I want to read you something that Ben Roads, former deputy national security advisor, posted on X just a short time ago.
He wrote, the decisions being made now are going to impact millions of lives, reverberate for generations and risk all kinds of escalation. The US should have learned from 9, 11 the profound cost of being guided by anger and fear. I hope that is what we are telling the Israeli government. What do you make of that, Martin?
Anger and fear pretty much sums up the prevailing motions in Israel today for sure. And so, yeah, the United States responded the way they did and they ended up in the war that they did. Israel in the short term is heading exactly the same direction. There is so much fear and anger in Israel today.
There is such a sense of vulnerability, of surprise and shock that the vaunted Israeli army and intelligence completely failed. As we know from the reporting the last few days, there were families that were under attack, communities under attack for hours in some places to the south, seven, eight hours before anybody with a gun came to help these civilians who were being massacred by the Palestinians of Hamas. So Israel now is a nation in shock, united in this demand go into Gaza, finish Hamas once and for all. The reality is something that is a bit Different, I think, because we've seen Israel's mini wars with Hamas over the years.
I think there's been five or six mini wars in the last 15 years. They didn't achieve much apart from delay things to slow Hamas down by a couple of years. Now Israel wants to change that. They want to destroy Hamas.
The question then becomes, what takes the place? And then, of course, it becomes a big mess. As America found out in Iraq and Afghanistan, you just get bogged down. Israel was bogged down in Gaza for many, many years, for decades.
They finally abandoned the place in 2006, and now we're back to where we were in those days, only the situation is much worse today. Yeah, I think you ask the critical question, what happens after all of this fighting? I should correct myself, of course, you are now in New York, but of course, no one knows this region better than you do. Martin, as Israel prepares to go into Gaza, we're reporting on this potential ground invasion.
What are the potential implications? We've been seeing these images from Gaza, the fact that they're getting messages, should they evacuate, should they stay? What are your biggest concerns as you watch this unfold? Well, as everybody's saying they've got nowhere to go.
It's not like. It's not like Israel's trying to get on the right side of history by warning them, as they do. By the way, when Israel bombs homes in the past anyway, they have something called, what they call the door knocking procedure. They would actually telephone the families in the house and say, we're going to bomb you.
So that's what they. To give the civilians time to get away in order to reduce civilian casualties. Israel doesn't want to kill civilians, but that's what. That's the situation today in Gaza.
So when Israel says, get out of town, get out of Dodge, a million people, go south, where are they going to go? Where? When literally? Will they be in the beach?
Will they be in the fields? It's not like there's any hotels or there's no way to go. So Israel just trying to say the right thing before they do what they consider is the right thing. And the problem is that right now Israel has a moral high ground.
A lot of sympathy for the world for the disgusting atrocities that these mass terrorists committed on these innocent civilians. Everybody with their right mind is supporting Israel and saying, yes, you've got a right to defend yourself. But what's going to happen in a week when the pictures come out of this smashing of Gaza, the hotel's overflowing with victims. You know, the moral high ground now is a slippery slope.
And in a few, in about a week or 10 days, it could look a bit different and support for Israel may start to diminish. That's what I would imagine would happen. The other problem, of course, is that when Israel says we're going to go in and we're hoping to find the hostages, that is a very slim hope. There was one hostage, you know, Gilad Shali, who was held by Hamas in Gaza for five years, and Israel never found him.
In the end, they got him back by swapping him for a thousand Palestinian prisoners. So if they couldn't find one prisoner, one hostage in prison, they haven't got much hope of finding 150 in a couple of days. So it looks grim for the hostages, I'm afraid to say. Hopefully there'll be negotiations of some kind that will get them out, but it's a slim hope.
That is a grim perspective indeed. Marna and I just wonder, we've been talking about throughout the week the possibility that this could become a wider war potentially with Lebanon and Syria. How much of a risk is there for that at this point? There's a huge risk, but I don't think I would imagine from what I understand of the region that it's not the plan of Hezbollah to go to war with Israel today.
Hezbollah does basically what Iran tells it to do. Hamas, not so much by a long way, but Hezbollah is basically Iran's proxy army in the region, armed to the teeth, 150,000 rockets, something long range and very accurate, facing Israel. But what they are Iran is they're there in order to go to war with Israel if and when Iran goes to war with is does Iran really want to blow his buttercard in order to help a mass? I doubt it.
All right. Martin Fletcher, as always, thank you so much for joining us. We will be in touch with you in the coming days. We really appreciate it.
And still come deep divides. We are live on the campaign trail in New Hampshire as the war in Israel puts foreign policy center stage in the 2024 race for president. The panel's next. You're watching me the press now.
Welcome back. As former President Trump lambast President Biden's handling of the situation in the Middle East. His former ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, is praising Biden's response, posting online, quote, while I have been and remain deeply critical, the Biden administration, the moral, tactical, diplomatic and military support that has provided Israel over the past few days has been exceptional. As one living in Jerusalem with children who are Israeli citizens.
I am deeply grateful. I pray that American support continues in the difficult days ahead. Meanwhile, Mr. Trump has come under fire from his own party for praising Iranian back terrorist group Hezbollah and criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Joining me now is NBC Joshua Burns from Nashua, New Hampshire. And Dasha, you've obviously been covering the reaction in the fallout to Trump's really controversial comments saying that Hezbollah is, quote, very smart and criticizing Benjamin Netanyahu. And this is really the first time that we're starting to see the gloves come off for some of these candidates. What are the big headlines here?
Yeah, that's exactly right, Kristen. We actually had a chance to speak to some of these candidates directly as they have been here in New Hampshire filing for candidacy to get on the ballot in the first indemnation primary state. Take a listen to what a couple of them told us. Now is not the time to be attacking our ally.
Prime Minister Netanyahu is somebody that I become friends with. He is managing one of the most difficult situations Israel's ever had to. You may have a personal vendetta or beef with him, but is that really the time to be out there doing that and be attacking the Israeli defense minister? I don't think so.
This is a dangerous world. I don't want to hear from him how great Hezbollah is. I don't want to see him congratulate the Communist Party anymore. I don't want him hitting Netanyahu.
He's going through everything. Regardless what you think about Netanyahu, this is not about Netanyahu. This is about the people of Israel. Also, Kristen, Mike Pence earlier today notable because he was the Trump's former vice president and his former running mate calling the Trump's words, quote, reckless and irresponsible.
Kristen so interested because she listened to Kihei there. She's really been gaining traction. Of course, she's a former unnoticed ambassador and she is leaning into not just in this moment, but we've seen her in the first and second GOP primary debates lean into her expertise when it comes to foreign policy. Talk a little bit about that as a part of her strategy.
Based on my conversations with voters on the trail. I mean, she's gaining traction. We're not just seeing it in the polls. Yeah, you can really see today when she was giving her speech after filing for candidacy here that she is really in her element and she's feeling very strong right now.
She talks about these issues with ease, with comfort and with real clarity. She feels like she knows what she's talking about here because she has experience. She talks about her experience with the UN Dealing with Israelis, Palestinians dealing with Iran. She talks about her husband who is deployed on active duty right now.
And she talks about having visited these areas where this is all going down right now. So you can tell that she feels like this is a moment to be able to capitalize on. Kristen, Dasha Burns, as always, thank you. Turning now to our panel, Wall Street Journal senior political correspondent Molly Paul, Democratic strategist and CEO of consulting firm skdk, Doug Thornell and Sarah Chamberlain, president and CEO of Main Street Partnership.
Thanks to all of you for being here at the end of what has been a very difficult week for everyone. So thank you. Molly, let me start with you. Let's just talk about President Biden's response because this is an area where he is quite comfortable foreign policy.
This is also one of his key campaign promises, really restoring America's strength and stability on the world stage. What do you make of his response so far? Well, it is very interesting to see it, you know, praised by all of these Republican candidates. Right.
I think it hasn't been true for a long time in American politics. The old idea that politics stops at the water's edge. But American support for Israel is probably the closest thing you will still get to a unifying issue between the parties. And the exception to that, of course, is Donald Trump, who has always bet that no matter what the position is, his voters always hate the Democrats more than they hate our enemies abroad or love our allies.
And so that is what he's betting on here. And he's taken this very exotic position that you see him being pretty much universally condemned for. Sarah, it's so interesting is how many times have we had this conversation. Donald Trump has said something that a lot of people find to be completely outrageous.
It doesn't seem like it's going to impact him in the primary with his core supporters, but is there a potential impact if he were to win the nomination? And the fact that it highlights the stark, divine Republican Party, this isolationist wing that is really led by Trump. So Trump be right. It's probably not going to hurt him in the primary.
But in general, it's deadly. There's a lot of Jewish people that have voted for Republican and actually have voted for him that are unhappy. His own family is Jewish. So it's shocking to me that he would do this.
I think he made this very personal and doesn't care for the prime minister because he came out and called Biden the president elect So I think it's personal. I think that people in the general are going to start to move away from Trump even more. Doug, they're saying it's deadly in the general election. What do you make, though, of the response that we've seen from his GOP rivals?
And this is arguably some of the strongest condemnation that we've seen from Nikki Haley, from Ron DeSantis, from Tim Scott, for that matter. Yeah. And it's, you know, if you're going to run for president in a primary, you have to prosecute a case against the front runner. And they've all been unwilling to do that.
It looks like they're trying to get in a little guts here in terms of calling him out. But the reality is, is, you know, I think they're still trying to figure out how to do that. And foreign policy and national security within Republican Party these days is not what it was 12, 14 years ago. And, you know, one of the things I will say about this week and about Biden's speech is that it was one of his best moments, I think, forceful, strong.
I think if you read a lot of the Israeli publications, there was a lot of praise for that speech. A lot of people watched it. It was that leadership moment that right now Donald Trump and I don't think any of the other Republican candidates for president have been able to meet. And so it was a really important moment for the president.
I think it was an important moment for this country, was important moment for Israel. Now, one of the messages we heard from the president was to Congress, Molly, which is asking them for, quote, unquote, urgent action on the issue of giving aid to Israel. We know that that's going to be up for discussion once they have elected a speaker of the House. But apparently we're now just learning that they are going to break for the weekend.
Jim Jordan won the votes in this conference by a very narrow margin. I mean, do you think the speakership, how does this end? Nobody knows how it ends, including Jim Jordan, including the entire House Republican Conference. But yes, just as we were beginning this panel, they were being released for the weekend to try to go home and go off.
So we're about to head into week three without a Speaker of the House at a time when, you know, unfortunately for everyone involved, you do need a functioning House of Representatives in order to do to meet all these very urgent needs, to provide the aid that the administration is asking for to Israel, to provide the next tranche of aid to Ukraine and in only about a month to keep the government funded. So while the House is busy just completely falling apart in a giant flaming ball of chaos, there needs to be a Speaker so they can do all these things. Sarah, I was asking Matt Gaetz last weekend why he did this without a plan. And I wonder if the timing of this even got him off that it's lasting this long and now this urgency given this crisis in Israel that no one could have foreseen when this initially unravels.
So the Republican partnership has 90 members and they're tired and they don't. They no longer care if Matt Gaetz what Matt Gates thought when he did this. They are tired. They want to get this resolved.
I'm actually thrilled that they're going home, having spent a lot of time with them last night. And I think maybe if they get to go home, sleep, relax, spend some time with their family, that maybe when they come back next year, we can get there next week, we can get this reason off. But you're right, the vote was not close. Let me just ask you, though.
I mean, I have to talk to Republican sources. They're worried this is going to cost them control of the House. I mean, is that what you're hearing? Very concerned.
And the 17 of the 18 members that live in Biden districts are members of the Republican Main Street Partnership. We do not have San Santos, but they're very concerned. I mean, you see chaos down here and most people don't understand there is no bills you can bring to the floor. They can't do anything.
So President Biden called for that, but the reality is nothing will be done in the House until we have a speaker. Realistically, do Democrats jump in to save the situation or. No, I don't think that's. I think it's the job of the Republicans to pick the speaker.
That's the, it's the. They are the party in charge. There's no scenario, you think, where Democrats say this has just gotten beyond the point of no return. We've got to jump in here and help just bring stability.
Well, the next vote will be for speaker. So I would be surprised if you have House Democrats not supporting King Jeffries. He's got universal support. Right.
So it's really the job of whoever that nominee is to gather all that support. And to Sarah's point about the challenge of Republicans face in the House, they're losing the best fundraiser in Kevin Carthy. You know, if they go with Jim Jordan, is that going to be someone who can go into these 18 districts that Republicans represent that Joe Biden won? I mean, is he really able to campaign in some of those places given his positions on a lot of issues?
So, yeah, it creates putting aside all the terrible optics that exist, there are some structural and process things that are going to happen here with a new speaker that are going to be really costly for Republicans. So what about that? It will be costly. But at what point did the Democrats say, okay, there's three or four of them willing to walk off the floor to make a new speaker for the Republican Party?
I mean, I think some of them have my remorse for not doing it a couple weeks ago to say, Kevin, because really what this comes down to is that this the Biden's administration and Joe Biden has to run for president very quickly. What is your reporting around how much concern there is inside the Republican Party about this potentially costing them the majority? There's quite a lot of concern. I've been on the hell a week reporting on this cast.
A simple thing today, I believe it was Steel man from Arkansas said, you know, the American people gave us the range to the House. I would not be surprised if they look at the and decided to take it back. Wow. Okay.
Well, we are still covering this Congress in the state of Fris. Thank you all. Appreciate it, Molly G. And Sarah and thank you for being with us this hour.
NBC News will have live special coverage of the Israel Hamas war this weekend from 8 to 10pm both tomorrow night and Sunday night. And fit Sunday to Meet the Press on your local station. The news continues with Hallie Jackson right now. He was a young Marine.
She didn't care about convention. They made a life together. Then one night the Marine died. And then the death investigation took a wild, unexpected and utterly bizarre turn.
I'm Josh Makowitz and this is Trace of Suspicion, an all new podcast from Dayline. Listen to all episodes of Trace of Suspicion now wherever you get your podcasts.