>> al jazeera america presents >> yeah, i'm different. i wanna do what god asks of me. >> 15 stories one incredible journey edge of eighteen coming september only on al jazeera america >> . >> the humanitarian ceasefire blows up in a flurry of rocket fire and air strikes. the u.s. and u.n. seem helpless in slowing the fighting between israel and gaza. i'm antonio mora, welcome to "consider this". that and more straight ahead. >> israelis were told to prepare for a long campaign against hamas. >> earlier a hospital clinic in

gaza came under fire. >> we hope to find the magic formula in which the violence can cease. >> an international peace team abandoned their efforts to reach the site. >> they have been turned away again. >> we are sick and tired of being interrupted by gun fights. >> we urge russia to think again about its continuing support for the separatists. >> a new plan unveiled for the department of veteran affairs. >> the house and senates worked through the weekend. >> this bill makes certain we address the crisis. >> two americans trying to fight the ebola outbreak in africa... ..have come down with the same disease. >> they worked in the same center. >> it will be months before we get a grip on the endem ib. >> we begin with binyamin netanyahu warning of a

protracted campaign in gaza as hopes for a longer ceasefire fades. >> translation: stamina and anticipation are required to continue the struggle against a murderous terror group conspiring to destroy us. >> after a short ceasefire violence resumed, claiming the lives of nine more children in gaza. israel and hamas blamed each other. and an attack on the hospital. there were no injuries there. secretary of state john kerry is back in the u.s. and was on the receiving end of anger from israelis, who considered his last ceasefire proposal to be skewed in favour of hamas. john kerry is pushing for incremental progress. >> we hope to find the formula by which the violence could cease for a long enough period of time to find the sustainable ceasefire allowing you to move

on from there. >> joining us from gaza is nick schifrin, al jazeera cochbility good to see you. today was supposed to be a day of celebration for a muslim holiday. instead we saw an escalation of the fighting much the nine children killed in gaza, the hospital hit on the other side, five israeli soldiers killed and 20 others injured. hamas shot rockets making it to northern israel. binyamin netanyahu said we have you prepare for a long war. things seem to be getting worse. >> they are getting a lot worse, and just in the last hour. we have heard a level and sound of a barrage into gaza city that we have not seen at all in the last few weeks. flares have been up over the middle of gaza city. the leadership of hamas's home has been targeted by an air

strike. we have heard more drones and strikes from the sea, into gaza city in a long time. behind me it is pitch-black, not because there's nothing there, but there's a blackout. every sign that we have is that israel is escalating deeper into gaza. some 250,000 people in three areas were told to leave the home, evacuate, and the journalist was told not to leave the hotel. that is happening tonight. a huge escalation from israeli. >> the cabinet rejected john kerry's latest ceasefire plan and the palestinian authority. the newspaper said the draft proposal was everything hamas could have hoped for. the times at israel says jerusalem regards kerry as dooup lis to us. how bad is this straining relations.

>> basically neither side trusts the intermediary. u.s. secretary of state john kerry got so bad in israel, not only those two lines, but one person said that john kerry is a friend of israel, but with friends like these we'd rather talk to enemies. what kerry is trying to do failed. the diplomacy failed. israel is escalating. hamas vows to continue to fight. doesn't mean dip loam as yea will fail. both sides at the moment don't want it to end. israel, because it wants to attack the rockets and rocket launches that launch from here into israel. and go after the tunnels that fighters use to get from gaza into israel and hamas seems to have a lot of pressure to continue fighting. a lot of people are urging hamas to keep fighting. they insist there's no accuracy fire until two things - one, the border restrictions are relaxed, and, two, the israeli siege is lifted.

israel is not willing to do either of those. there's no sign that the violence is going to go down, the mediation or diplomacy will work. if anything, the violence is increasing. >> nick schifrin, good to see you, be careful. >> for more on the diplomatic efforts we are joined here in new york city by professor ben mir who spent the past 17 years involved in negotiations with israel and neighbouring countries. as a professor of global affairs at new york university, he's an expert in conflict resolution and middle eastern affairs. the u.s. struggled to get anything more than a 12 hour humanitarian ceasefire, and now binyamin netanyahu is saying prepare for a prolonged conflict. is there anything the u.s. can do to stop the violence? >> at this point, very little. you have to look at hamas's position, and the israeli

position. hamas cannot afford at this point to stop the fighting, unless they get compensation on the blockade. >> because the price they have paid is too high. >> and if they concede without getting something in concern, it would be political suicide for hamas. >> what about israel? >> from israeli perspective, they have thousands and thousands of rockets, and they want to put an end to this. i think both are engaged in delusions. over the years they never understood that neither hamas can destroy israel nor israel hamas. >> it's time to rerecognise the basic fact. >> what do you say. there's an editorial in the new york times. the whole these sis was they argued that to save gaza hamas

must be destroyed. but today others, like you, have said not only that hamas can't be destroyed, but if hamas were to be destroyed, islamic jihad or other elements could destroy hamas. >> you can destroy hamas, decapitate the leadership, destroy the rockets and the tunnels, but hamas is grass-root movement. so you cannot go and kill hundreds of thousands. that is the problem. israel needs basic bitter facts on the ground, and need a formula by which they can ease the blockate. and in return hamas no longer will use the rockets. >> i know you proposed that too, that is yale needs to agree -- israel needs to agree to a deal

leading to the easing of the blockade. let me put myself in the israeli position and say why should we do that. if, with the blockade in place, we have seen hamas with many more rockets and weapons than what israel believed they had, and more tunnels going into israel. if we ease the blockade, it will get worse. >> then again. it's not sustainable for hamas or israel. israelis think in terms of what is going to happen, for how much longer can you maintain the blockade. or how much can you maintain the occupation. as long as this continues, we are going do see more and more of these kinds of occurrence, and that is not good for his rail and the palestinians. >> you wrote that the entire situation is a tragedy because hamas and israel are guilty of hubris transcending bounds and defying reality. are they guilty of hubris - one

more guilty than the other. >> i think equally guilty of huber ours, because they are refusing to see the reality, or that they coexist, whether they like it or not. and they must choose the quality of that coexistence. this is where both sides need to recognise and begin a new process, or instruction is on the outcome. >> how are que going to get to the new process if everything is on edge, and we are seeing so many people dying, but a harsh criticism of secretary of state john kerry's last proposals. horets came out strongly against kerry. so did israel. 8-0 against the proposal. now he seems to be backtracking and talking about disarmament by hamas. >> on the one hand the united states suggest that hamas is a

terror organization. then comes john kerry, trying to cree at a balance -- create a balance between a terrorist organization and israel. that. >> many israelis. be na as this -- that as it may, the united states is in a bad spot. they'd like to see an end to this. it's not good for america and israel. the longer this tips, the worst it will get. time has come, when do you draw the line. i think the united states has a major responsibility. unfortunately there's a lack of understanding in the part of the state, of the dimension of this conflict. we have not been dealing with this, we've been dealing with issues. you have to deal with that. as long as we do not deal with the mind-set, perception, we

will not solve the conflict. >> in the meantime people keep dying. >> that's right. >> my pleasure. >> for more, we are joined from the studio in washington d.c. from a professor who teaches at the school of foreign services in qatar. the death toll in gaza near 1,100. 10% are refugees in their own land. so many thousands injured. hamas waffled on the u.n. call for a humanitarian pause saying if israel's operations continued in gaza, they will not agree. why not agree to a ceasefire, then deal with negotiations over the blockade, instead of continuing to see civilians dying. >> you hit on it. >> if the operations continue. we are witnessing now an escalation in israeli action and aggression across the gaza strip. we have seen a massive heal.

children in a -- hole. children killed, united nations facilities destroyed with civilians inside. the catastrophic death toll. really we need to turn our perspective to what israel is doing in terms of the acts of aggression, and its inability to accept an attempt at a ceasefire that would bring about a comprehensive solution for this prop -- problem. >> that's easier said than done. israel fired rockets, including when there's minor pauses. there was a possibility of having stopped all this. there was a ceasefire proposed before israel went in with ground forces. hamas had a chance to stop this. >> that ceasefire was not an

agreement arrived at by the parties. it was an ultimatum issued by israel, delivered by the egyptian government of abdul fatah al-sisi, and is just as responsible for the debilitating siege. so i don't think that there was anything on the table realistically that would have offered a solution. now this goes behind hamas. this is something of an issue for the broader palestinian movement. we have seen this with the palestinian authority, and mahmoud abbas who came forward making statements saying that this cannot end without an end to the siege. we are seeing more broad support across the palestinian national movement than we have seen previous to this. >> despite hamas working at a serious disadvantage, you told the "new york times" that hamas surpassed expectations.

and it's likely to come out in a far better position than the last three years or decade. do you still think that. hamas failed the governing - until now, there's a stronger international cry for a demilitarized gaza, something that palestinians disagreed to 20 years ago. >> there's an international cry for a lifting of the blockade. the last decade has seen a degradation of the human civilian life in gaza. we have seen the devastating toll it has taken on the population. it's what's been described as a slow death. the israeli military wants to put the population of gaza on a diet, by preventing importation of basic food, medical supplies and equipment; not allowing the civilian population to leave. if this current situation results in a lifting of that siege, this will enable a much

better political situation for the population of palestine, that israel stride to keep divided as much as possible. we have seen that hamas tried to enter into a unity government in which it essentially turned over the keys to gaza, to the palestinian authority, saying they didn't have to be part of the ministries, and cap itulated on a number of issues, and after israel launched the aggression, in recent weeks, that hamas's position gained and became stronger. if we traced the chronology, looking at the developments for the last year, it leaves us without doubt that israel has, by trying to torpedo the unity government, empowered hamas in a way no one could have envisioned. >> c.b.s.'s charlie rose asked the hamas leader what it would take for his rail and a palestinian state to -- israel and a palestinian state to coexist, and he responded saying

this ... >> translation: when israel practically commits itself to withdraw from gaza completely and the west bank without settlement, and if we have capital and the return is there, then we will reach peace. >> even if israel made all those cop sessions, which -- concessions, which you know is highly unlikely, if he would exercise israel's right to exist, he says no. how do we move forward with hamas refusing to recognise the right to exist of an israeli state? >> again, i think the issue of recognising a right to exist is a mute point. the recognition is there, in the past, in the truces and in the discussions on the question. it's not so much the right to exist for a state as a blanket statement. what palestinians rejected is

the occupation that has happened. the continued ex-propriation of lands. a lot of issues are the ones that i think - that palestinians have related to recognise. this is really the issue that needs to be exposed because in the end we are talking about a civilian population without a state of their own, under foreign occupation, and that occupation is not something that anyone under the occupation would recognise. that's really the point at issue. after the state defines the borders, which it has not done, it enveloped all of pol -- palestine. it led to an impasse, where we construct conditions upon which should the palestinians meet or achieve the conditions, only upon that will they achieve the rites. it's obtaining the rights that will lead them to recognising a state of their own.

once they have the state, we would see better opportunity for these questions to be resolved. >> as a result of the impasse, it continues. >> good to have you with us. thanks. >> coming up, international monitors turned away from the wreckage of the malaysian plane as the fighting intensifies. we'll look inside the peculiar daily life of the man many believes is at the center of all of it. vladimir putin. >> and harmeli aregawi tracks the top stories on the web. what is trending? >> a dating website admits to lying to users about compatibility. the site says it's for the good of the customers. more coming up. while you are watching - let us know what you think. join the conversation on twitter at aj "consider this". >> every single one of these buildings shook violently. >> for continuing coverage of

the israeli / palestinian conflict, stay with al jazeera america, your global news leader. vé

more fighting in eastern ukraine kept international officials away from malaysia airlines flight mh17 on monday.

australian and dutch police joined international monitors in an effort to reach the crash scene where 298 died, when the plane was shot on july 17th. but for a second day fighting near there forced them to turn back, much to the frustration of monitors for the security and cooperation of europe, the o.s.c.e. >> on that side there are still body parts missing. there's bodies there. there's a job to be done. we are sick and tired of being interrupted by gun fights despite the fact that we agreed there should be a ceasefire. >> meanwhile, russia's foreign minister sergay lavrov blamed you grain, suggesting that rush awould defy u.s. and western european sanctions. that came before reports new sanctions target the finance, defense and energy industries would be announced as soon as tuesday.

for more, let's go to donetsk and eastern ukraine. good to have you with us. the u.n. high commissioner for human rights issued a report on monday focussing on flight mh17, and human rights abuse, including many people that have disappeared in eastern ukraine, and the u.n. is pointing the finger at the pro-russian separatists. >> yes, it was a damming report based around the findings of the passed month, up until 16 july. and clearly afterwards, on the 17th tlsks the malaysian airliner crash. now, the u.n. has said that this crash and what happened could be classed as a war crime, and there needs to be a full and proper inquiry. other reports in the report included more than 1,000 students died in fighting since mid-april. thousands have been injured. hundreds of people detained. some people have been executed

or disappeared. and a lot of the infrastructure this region has been destroyed. so clearly the u.n. is very, very worried about an escalation in the fighting, leading to the fact that the investigators again are unable to get to the crash site where there is heavy fighting right now. >> ukranian officials say they have gotten some information from the british about what the black boxes show. how much have we learnt? >> well, if you remember those black bombs for flight data monitors and recorders were handed over to the malaysians who gave them to the british at farm borough to analyse. the ukrainians kalt out with strong evidence that seems to suggest that surface to air missiles brought down the airliner. now, what they are saying is that the flight data recorders appear to show that shrapnel from the missile hit the aircraft leading to a loss of

air pressure, and then the aircraft broke up mid air, leading to it falling in the eastern ukraine fields. investigators on the ground will want to get to the debris as soon as possible to confirm this, to look at the shrapnel, rem plants of it on the debris and work out if this was, indeed, what happened. >> there's a lot of fighting in the area and finger pointing on both sides as to who is responsible for the fighting. >> well, it's difficult to say really, i mean, the ukranian forces are advancing and push, trying to take separatist areas, and around the crash site and donetsk. where we are is a strategic location for the country of ukraine. in the past few hours we heard the sound of our artillery. they are fighting on all fronts.

separatists and ukrainians, blaming each other on the game of war. the real focus is on russia, and what it will do. there has been calls for help. military help. financial help for the russians, and then the ukrainians are trying to block the supply roots from russia to the area where the separatists are fighting. all eyes on russia as to what they do next. >> pleasure to have you with us. >> for more on the man accused of masterminding the conflict, i'm joined from london by ben juda. he work nooecks week magazine's cover story, entitled "the pariah", and also an author. good to see you again. falling out of love with vladimir putin - has the country fallen out of love with him. his poll numbers are phenomenal.

>> you look at how the russian elite or middle class fits in, they have gone from seeing vladimir putin as the guarantee of stability committing them to globalisation, putting their money in the west, the property in london, and children in british public schools, becoming a man who is the source of that stability. poll numbers - i find it strange the way that people talk about vladimir putin's poll numbers. it is about democracy when you have polling. in oerk you know -- in america you know the poll rating of the democrats, because people have a choice, the republican party. in russia you only have a poll rating for putin, because there's no other choice. what happens is people phone up 1,000 people, and phone up old women at home and say do you approve or disapprove of vladimir putin, of course

they'll say yes. >> let's go down the list of some of the things that you have found about how vladimir putin lives his life. it's a bizarre portrait that you paint. he's a night owl that lives a removed detached life with no real family life, few contacts - friends, beside a few old cronies. he sleeps very late. he has breakfast afternoon, a long swim. he reads the briefing books but divides his day up into 15 minute units booked way in advance, but keeps his ministers for three or four hours and will watch them on closed circuit television as they filming it while they wait. he never uses the internet, or rarely does. this sounds, especially the late nights, like stalin. and other behaviour seems more like an old-fashioned t sar than a ruler of the 21st century.

>> the reason i spent a long time investigating what vladimir putin does every day is to see how he makes decisions. what is remarkable isn't so much what he does as to what he doesn't do. there's few consultations, cabinet meetings, there's no negotiation or dealing with the parliament. there's no haggling or bargaining about political activities. if you imagine what president obama or david cameron's political life is, is involves working with other people. vladimir putin doesn't. looking at his route each it helps us answer whether or not he's a dictator. >> you wrote how he pretty much lives in a palace outside moscow. he doesn't like to go into the kremlin, when he does, they shot the highways and create massive

gridlock and you describe him as a guy that is motionless, joyless. other than enjoying hockey playing. it's what basketball and golf are to president obama, but in limited ways. it seems there's absolutely bizarre sheltered existence. >> he's a very self-pitying man. he believes he's worked so hard for russia, he struggled. he's not appreciated by the people, he's demonized by the west. psychologically thee draws a distinction. anything good that happens is because of him, anything bad is because of the bureaucrats and governors screwed up again. >> but he isolates himself further because there's other things that seem like he lives in an alternate universe, and to some extent the russian glost

is. we have sergay sergei lavrov threatening saying more military aid from the west to ukraine would be a grave mistake as russia pours military aid into ukraine, and he's talking about ukraine being the aggressor in this situation, and that ukraine is making the site of malaysia flight 17 insecure, when we have seen pictures of the pro-russian separatists controlling the site and taking the black boxes. it seems that he's in this other world. >> i question i looked into this piece was when did vladimir putin last go for a walk without body guards. and the answer is 1997, before he game the head of the f.s.b. it's easy, as a politician in britain, to become distected

from the people, life outside, conference, meetings. but what is different about vladimir putin, is it's gone on for double the length of the average career. >> another topic before you go, is the whole issue of ukraine and the sanctions of russia. >> last time you talk, it's whether sanctions could be imposed. monday we learnt that the u.s. and western europe - whether they have agreed on new sanctions on the finance, defense and energy industries. what changed. >> i didn't believe it was a possibility. that russian forces would blow 200 europeans out of the sky, which changes thinks somewhat. until you have a the mh17 crash, putin - he had chechen blood on his hands, he had georgian blood on his hands.

he didn't have dutch blood, british blood, german blood on his hands. the difference since we last spoke is across western europe, the tabloid press has started to become angry about what they view as passivity from cameron, towards and you can hear it bub lipping up in the rugby club -- bubbling up in the rugby club, and the cricket clubs, how come no one is standing up and doing anything about him. as britain, france and netherlands work towards an election, people are conscious that looking week towards vladimir putin can lose votes because of the mh17 crash. >> we'll see what happens. good to have you with us.

thanks. >> thank you. >> switching topics to something becoming increasingly rare on capitol hill. a compromise. after six weeks of talk, a bill to end the crisis in veterans care was announced monday. the 17 billion bill was supposed to end months long delays delays that have seep veterans die whilst receiving care. it includes $10 billion so veterans can seek care outside the system. $5 billion to hire doctors and nurses and 1.5 billion to open new clinics. i'm joined by someone who covers the senate role call. talk about the compromise, jeff miller was looking for $10 million, bernie sanders, senator, $25 billion. they chair the veterans committees in the chambers, how did this work out politically. >> politically they ended up

splitting the difference. really you have to go back to thursday of last week. when it looked like the deal was - or any potential deal would fall apart. you had public spas between congressman miller. they convened a congress meeting that the democrats basically didn't attend. it became clear to all sides that the bad blood, whatever bad blood needed to stop. and something needed to get done. as soon as john mccain told me, you just couldn't have gone home to the august recess, facing the wrath of a lot of people. >> part of the solution is veterans can get care outside the system. or if they live 40 miles from a v.a. facility. if you allowed vets to go

outside the system. it would be expensive. they have capped the amount. >> there's a $10 billion cap on the amount of money in this legislation. the sponsors of this deal say they don't think the amount of money will be expended in the near future, but because of the scoring roles, they have to put the cap in. if the budget scoring people are right, and it's in excess of $10 billion, there'll have to be another round of legislative manoeuvring to get more money. $12 billion, is coming from emergency funding. it's added on to the deficit. $5 billion from the federal affairs. that might cause some problems with the deficit. >> at this point, there'll be chatter, in the next couple of

days when the formal estimates are out about the money added to the deficit. the general consensus is this is an emergency. there was literally veterans who died waiting to get care, apparently according to all sorts of reports. that's the kind of thing most people on partisan aisles thinks is an emergency. this gets through, both the house and the senate. >> do you think what you have done in the senate to deal with corruption will be enough. >> it's up to the veterans affairs, bob mcdonald, who will be confirmed probably tomorrow by the senate. if he gets through, if m mr mcdonald is confirmed, it will be up to him to do the firing that needs to be done.

just because you have the authority to do the firing doesn't mean it happens. >> he's getting the power to do it. thank you, good to have you on the show. thank you for explaining this all for us. >> time to see what is trending on the web. let's check in with harmeli aregawi. >> facebook was under fire for experimenting with users emotion eggs, okay cupid reveals it has been playing with users profiles, in a blog title "we experiment on human beings", they said they hid photos, told users they were an excellent match, when they were only 30%. some users were september and expressed the frustration. he said:.

>> a take away from the experiment, when users told their compatibility was higher than it was, they acted accordingly, and had meaningful conversation - four or more messages. let us know what you think. users see value in this. >> i can't imagine liking to be fooled. >> the algorithms may not have been accurate to begin with. >> thank you. >> agree to disagree. >> straight ahead - an ebola outbreak in africa killed 700 people. how worried should we be about the virus coming to america. also - having a positive body image could hurt you and ending prohibition in marijuana, a member of a paper's editorial board explains why.

the deadliest outbreak ever of the ebola virus is making its way through three nations and making 1200 people, and leaving 670 dead. two americans helping with the outbreak, one a doctor and an aid worker are among the latest to be treated for the virus. it has no cure and is known to be killing many. how does the virus spread, and can it make its way to the united states. >> we are joined by dr william scha finishing fner, the -- schaffner the past president of the national foundation for infectious diseases. let's start with the virus, how it spread, why it has been so

bad. >> well, this virus is spilt through contact, one person to another. exposed to the infocted person's bodily fluids. this can happen during health care. it can happen during funeral proceedings, as the body is prepared for burial. and it's those circumstances that are the most risky. the reason the outbreak is spreading is previous outbreaks were refined to yurl oat breaks. now it's more likely to spread and difficult to contain. >> so it can't be transformed through the air, but can through sweat being transmitted or if you touch something that someone else touches. >> easy on that.

we call it casual, not intimate contact. >> i'm talking about health care workers exposed to vomit, saliva, and in preparing a body for burial, there are customs, local customs that are hard to influence, where the body has to be bathed and all the caf itties have to be cleaned out. it's that intimate contact where spread occurs. >> this is the - the big outbreaks are big in comparison to what they have been in the past, sierra leone, guinea. now health officials are concerned about a man that travelled from liberia by plane. given what you said about how the viruses is transmitted, how concerned do we have to be about someone like that in a major

metropolitan area like lagos, nigeria, and international flights anywhere in the world. >> there's a super concern that there would be more widespread transition of the infection in west africa, and if it gets into other urban areas, it would be more difficult to curtail. as to coming to this country, people in emergency rooms, the doctors and personal, the infectious disease doctors, we are all on the alert. we were on the alert because of the m.e.r.s. virus that could come in from the middle east. we are asking a lot of people who are sick with fevers, have you travelled, where have you been, and have you been into a risk apolice, they are put into

isolation and the workers use the protective equipment. >> what are the changes. what about the fact that the incubation could be as long as 21 days. because health workers are have a high infection rate because of that contact with the people sick, people are getting to be afraid of doctors. how concerned are you that this could be a tipping point where ebola starts to become a more serious disease that doesn't have the mini outbreaks every once in a while. >> this is the largest outbreak. exactly as you say, it's paradoxical. the people that note the most. who help the most are shunned out of fear. also because they are trying to persuade people not to go through the elaborate

procedures. cleansing procedures prior to burial. they are embedded concepts that the doctors and other public health people are greeted with hostility. let's hope this can be controlled quickly. we hope the best for the american doctor and aid worker. we appreciate you joining us. >> my pleasure is it time to repeal federal laws banning marijuana. now the "new york times" editorial board says yes. overweight boys and girls don't see the weight as a problem. that could be a serious issue. data dive is next.

today's data dive looks at body issues. a new c.d.c. report shows obese and overweight teens think their wait is fine. it includes a vast majority of overweight boys and girls. a healthy self of image is important. heavy kids who don't see an issue can face big problems, because they won't take steps to deal with the weight. obesity can lead to health issues, including coronary heart

disease, cancer, type ii diabetes and strokes. kids may feel the weight is no big deal if families are heavily. children with obese parents are twice as likely to be overweight, and those with an obese sibling are five times like i to be overweight. younger girls with an obese older sister are eight times likely to be owe bees than with an older sister who is fit. boys with an obese older brother are 11 times more likely. with adults gender is a different role up to 8 in 10 women are dissatisfied with what they see in the mirror. me are pleased or don't care. the media plays a big role. over the past few decades the standards of female beauty in film and tv magazines are

tougher to achieve. top models weighed 8% less than the average woman. today 23%. >> the media ideal can be physically reached by less than 5% of the female population. coming up, the "new york times" editorial board calls for the end to the federal marijuana prohibition. a bold stand or is the paper echoing feels held by the american public.

america mobile app, available for your apple and android mobile device. download it now the nation's newspaper of record, the nooms , is known -- "new york times", is known as the grey lady but has come out in favour of green, as in marijuana. "the times" board is calling for removing the federal ban on the drug arguing that states should

decide the issue themselves. polls show half americans support legalization. with congress in cid lock and a president -- gridlock and a president running out of capital. what is the chance of a prohibition ending soon. >> let's bring in "new york times" board member. great to have you with us. the majority of the country support marijuana legalization. why is the board taking the stand now, and what rehabilitation have you been getting. >> i have taken tremendous rehabilitation. the issue is moving, moving in a way that hasn't moved about the past. colorado and washington started illegal market this year, recreational marijuana. alaska, they take a vote on this in november. this is the appropriate time for us to take a position and explain ourselves. >> we have the states legalizing

marijuana, and hast the states have legal marijuana, if you include medicinal use. why make the move now and advocate changes at the federal level when we are just looking at what the effects are. why not wait and see what happens in colorado and washington before pushing for legalization. it's not legalization, it is to remove the ban. to make it easier for the states to experiment. what we are saying is the federal government should let the government decide. what they have done is turned a blind eye to what is happening in washington and in colorado, and we think it's not a tenable solution for the long term. it would be better if marijuana is no longer schedule one of the substance control act. it makes it harder for the

states to do what they are doing. >> if the states have the freedom to do what they want. you'll probably have conservative states that will not legalize. won't that create its own issues when it comes to where people can buy marge are, how it can be produced, when it's legal and when it's not. we think the result of alcohol provides a parallel and all the states have a regulation in some form or other. some states are hostile to prohibition and others. it creates issues with whether marijuana is transported from one state to the other. we think that can be regulated and dealt with through the proper means, through the proper regulatory means. >> there's more benefit in

getting rid of prohibition and letting the states decide or figure out which is the best approach for them. we think it's acceptable from a conservative state to say we don't want legal mahmoud ahmadinejad in the market. >> it compares marijuana and tobacco. it mention all the three substances. you say that on the balance it falls on the side of removing the ban. i think it's correct. experts studied the issue saying that marijuana is less addictive. there are not reported deaths tied to marijuana use. it's less toxic than other substances. we think the harm has been overstated for many years, it's proven not to be quite as

dangerous. we know you are not advocating lifting bans for people under 21 because of concerns over how it may affect is developing brain. you see it has not caused deaths. you get some anti-marijuana people who argue that we are seeing issues in colorado with edibles and getting into the hands of children and using drugs and driving. no concerns there. >> no, there are concerns there, and the series will look at the issues in the forthcoming pieces that we are doing. they are legitimate regulatory means to tackle some of the problems. you know driving while stoned. used by children. there's ways that states can make sure to minimise the damage. particularly between uses for marijuana. >> you dismissed it.

most studies argue the pointing saying there's not much evidence, but there are some saying it may lead to greater use of prescription drugs. and you are not concerned there. >> no, i don't think that the evidence that we have seen suggests that it is a gateway drug. the evidence is perhaps also suggested that, you know, perhaps the biggest gate way drug of all is alcohol, which is illegal in this country and available to teens and adults. so seen in that proper context, we don't think that there is as much of a concern for gateway drug issues, as some of the opponents claim. >> any chance that the federal government will lift the ban? >> not this year. not in the next year or two. but i think that as public opinion moves on the issue, and as we see more states doing this, the federal government will act. it's a matter of time.

>> pleasure to have you with us, from the "new york times". that's all for now. the conversation continues on the website. the conversation continues on facebook or google+. you can find us on twitter at aj consider this. see you next time. >> hi everyone. this is al jazeera america. i'm john siegenthaler. egypt tackles the head of the hamas. and deep mystery, giant craters appearing out much nowhere in siberia. we'll ask jake ward about it.