host: welcome back to washington journal. we are joined by the editor-in-chief of breaking defense, aaron mehta. welcome to the program. guest: thanks for having me. host: there is an initial tranche of u.s. military support heading to israel, some has already arrived. can you walk us through what those things are? guest: the biggest thing that israel has asked for and the u.s. is kicking their way already is iron dome interceptors. iron dome is israel's missile-defense system primarily aimed at things like rockets, which you see hamas using significantly over the past couple weeks. iron dome has a pretty high success rate, considered the gold standard for this kind of interceptor. host: explain iron don't, how it works. is it an american system or israeli system? guest: it's an israeli system with american funding. there are different layers to

this. it was co-funded by the u.s.. u.s. has taken some of that technology back, put that into our own military. the system is linked to a different networking tools, different radars, sensors. primary floor intercepting smaller weapons. israel has different layers for higher-level ballistic missiles. iron dome is the go-two system -- go-to system if a missile is launched. they intersect in the sky ideally and the rocket is taken out, and everyone is safe. host: you say it has been performing well but not 100%. guest: not 100%. what we saw on saturday since the attack happened, ever since, waves of hundreds or even thousands of rockets launched at once. the idea is you scramble sensors, to many rockets for the interceptors coming in to take

out, and things get through. iron don't has a very high success rate but things can always get through. the more rockets that are launched, the market get through. that is the basic rule of missile-defense. you can only take up so much if there is a way of coming in. host: there has been a carrier strike group sent and stationed into the metairie -- mediterranean. what does a carrier strike group comprised of, what is out there, what are its capabilities besides deterrent? guest: there are five other ships with different kid abilities. one of those is missile-defense kid abilities. the reason they operate as a group is you want to protect the carrier. that is what they are geared toward, protecting, assisting the carrier. it also has quite a number of aircraft on the carrier itself. at the end of the day, the goal with sending the carrier stryker, we are going to message the region that we are here, a

message to iran. don't do anything, stay quiet. message to israel, we have your back. there are other aspects at play here including gathering signal intelligence. a lot of intelligence gathering capabilities. the potential to resupply israel if needed. the carrier has a lot of munitions. you can take a helicopter and fly over to israel if needed. there are a number of different things that it brings on a tactical level as well as a posture of saying, we are here, we are watching, and we are ready to aid israel if needed. a message is being sent to everyone in the region to say let's keep this as isolated as possible. host: there have been rumors that a second carrier group could be headed to the region. what are you hearing about that? guest: it will be heading to the region but that was a planned limit for several months actually.

the question is how long it ends up staying in the region. that is something that we will see in the next couple weeks. i would expect it to stay for a while, given that that have been put forth by the administration as, this is our posture, messaging tool. i expect they will want to keep that there for a while. host: i will invite the listeners to participate in the conversation with the breaking defense editor-in-chief aaron mehta. you can call us on our lives slid up by party. republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8000. we also have a line if you are active or former military. (202) 748-8003. you can also use that same line to text us. it looks like israel is getting ready for a ground war in gaza. the president has promised

unwavering support for israel. what would that mean as far as military support for israel? guest: i think you will see two things. it has been reported there are some special operations advisors on the ground in israel from the u.s. that is most likely because there are reports of u.s. citizens having been taken as hostages. it seems unlikely that those special operations forces will involve actual operations. acting as advisors, monitoring the situation. i think that is already happening, will continue to see that. in terms of material, munitions for the iron dome. that needs to be replenished. precision guided munitions used in these airstrikes that we are seeing across because already. and then we will see how this ground war, if it happens, how it goes. israel has, pretty consistently,

across many presidents, prime minister's, has avoided going into gaza full-scale. the strategy was we could contain it, we can use technology to monitor it, use targeted airstrikes as needed, but will not go full in. everyone agrees the fighting will be horrific. casualties will be horrific. it is something that everyone has worked hard to not go down that path. i think the politics in israel in the wake of this attack, the emotion of this attack, lends this toward being an all-out assault in gaza that we have not seen in many years. the u.s. will be monitoring that closely. we have seen some signaling from the u.s., that they expect israel as a nationstate, to conduct itself appropriately and to try to avoid civilian casualties. how much pressure the u.s. can put on israel in that regard remains to be seen. host: do we have all of those

weapons given the amount of aid we have sent to ukraine, still planning to send to ukraine? do we have ammunition to send to israel? guest: great question, one that is being asked on the hill. the u.s. has been very open, as we are sending aid to ukraine, our stockpiles are taking a hit. production has not been keeping up. we have had to increase reduction. are these the same weapons that israel would need? different munitions for different systems. israel's munitions are more advanced than what we are setting to ukraine frankly. israel has much more advanced weapons. f-16's, something that ukraine doesn't have yet. it doesn't have to be a decision where we take a decision of supporting ukraine or israel overall. there will be some overlap. how that gets handled is a

question that the pentagon has to figure out, biden administration has to figure out, and then sell to the american people to keep on doing it. host: let's take some calls. dayton, ohio. democrat. go right ahead. caller: i wanted to give someone some woke information. i heard two or three times that israel is the chosen state by the lord, and that is not so. they talk about israel in the bible. israel was a man, not a state. they are saying that jewish people believe in jesus, and that is why they are calling people antisemitic. but jews do not celebrate the birth of jesus. jesus was born 2023 years ago, and he was given that title by

rome, not the israelites. host: helen in california. republican. go ahead. caller: i just read two articles from academics who have actually worked with this issue for a while. one of them is brian katz, the other is hannah. the big question they ask in these articles, why now is iran so emboldened to support hamas? iran is also trying to bring in hezbollah, too, to make a joint effort to go after israel after israel sent troops into gaza. i came across this interesting raise they use called "the axis of resistance." it is bigger than just gaza and israel.

it seems you have an alliance between iran, russia -- very strong alliance -- and also with china and north korea. what is going on is, russia and north korea are beginning to give iran access to nuclear weapons. in may 2023, it was reported there was a new surface to surface ballistic missile that could fly under the radar with nuclear warheads. i am kind of extrapolating, going up to a place i don't want to, but this is not about gaza and israel. this is a bigger picture. this is about an axis of resistance, and we are pushing back russia, china, iran, north korea. they are pushing back. host: let's talk about iran and their possible involvement in this.

the carrier is out there. could that provide missile defense for anything that could possibly come from iran? guest: that is where missile cap abilities are more important. you are not using those capabilities to take out a bunch of rockets coming out of gaza. it is there to make sure that if iran watches something toward israel, it has its end could abilities. israel has its capabilities, but the ship would provide reader cabability. there was a report early on, a hamas spokesperson told media early on that iran not only condone this but organized the attack. quickly we saw other reports coming out citing western intelligence sources, saying we don't believe that iran was actually involved in planning this. iran says that while we support hamas, we were not involved in this. other news outlets saying, as far as we can tell, it seems

like the iran political leadership was not involved. iran's military could do things on its own. it's impossible for us to know. we will hear what they did and did not know. but there is clear signaling with iran saying we are not looking to escalate this at the moment. that is the messaging the u.s. have been putting out, to make sure iran doesn't take the next step, by putting out the carrier, putting out statement we have seen. host: tim is a democrat in wisconsin. good morning. caller: good morning. i am pretty sure it is inevitable that the israelis will go into gaza and wipe out hamas. they already stated that they are going to, that is going to be a mess, and a lot of people are going to die unfortunately. i wonder if we can still keep ukraine afloat and israel hopefully.

i know the carriers are already there, another one might be coming. i think the bigger threat is hamas -- it is inevitable, but it will be a mess when they go in. hezbollah, on the northern border, if they start getting into the mix, start shooting missiles, they have much more high tech equipment that hamas does, are we going to get in? bomb hezbollah and take them out? we cannot stand down if that happens. what do you believe will happen, sir? guest: the hezbollah-lebanon situation is one that everyone is watching closely right now. there was a lot of concern especially over the weekend that if hamas cap going, hezbollah would join in and would become a two-front war for israel. while there have been some

exchanges across the border with lebanon, there hasn't been anything major. in this region, major could be defined as ways that others wouldn't. a few missiles is not setting off libor with lebanon and israel. right now, that messaging point, hezbollah is not eager to jump in and join the fight. whether that is because iran told him not to do that, the u.s. has made clear, whatever influence they have on hezbollah, seems to be tamping it down. we will not really know what the real reason is. right now, several days into this, it seems hezbollah is not eager to jump in aside from just token aid to hamas. that is understanding that the israeli bear has been poked in a way that hasn't been done in 50 years. everyone is trying to make sure, as horrible as war in gaza would be, as horrible as the situation

is, that it does not spread further. host: rich in fairfax, virginia. independent. caller: real quick. in 1983, i was in beirut. our battalion left. the battalion behind us came in. they brought in the uss new jersey, they started shelling. seven weeks later -- and we are coming up on that next week, the 23rd of october. they blew up the marine corps barracks. erdogan said this the other day although no one picked it up. what is an american aircraft carrier doing off of the coast of israel? we are heading for that again. if we get into this -- and i am really saddened by all of this. i wish we would play down

america's support of what we are doing and let it go on behind the scenes. this crisis in gaza is only going to get worse, the longer these people don't have food and fuel. they will attack us. someone just mentioned it. it was not the politicos in iran, it was their military that helped set up that disgusting attack on the marines. i don't know if you could add that to the conversation. guest: the biden administration, pentagon, people in washington are very aware they don't want to get involved in a shooting war in the region. that is something they are working hard to avoid. the point of having the carrier there is presence, to keep people calm, to keep people from doing it attack like that. will that work or not?

hard to say. i am sure the security around the carrier group is on high-level alert for the kind of rubber boats with explosive attacks that we have seen from iranian groups in the past. everyone is aware there is a risk to have u.s. forces there, but the calculus is, if we show the flag, show strength, that we are there, that can keep things from getting inflamed further. host: israel has always said it has high tech, relies on its technical could abilities for intelligence, surveillance, security at that gaza border. what are you learning about the failure of that? guest: it's been very interesting. our reporting in israel filed a report earlier this week about what happened. ' israels strategy with gaza is we have a bunch of surveillance, high-tech laser fences, cameras, radar, and we will be able to

know what is happening. the hamas attack was incredibly well coordinated. they targeted to systems first. they used a drone to take up cameras. they knew where the military quarters and command was, commanded -- targeted the commanders first in the first wave of the attack. while the high ticket abilities that israel invested in failed, the question is, was it a matter of intelligence that led to the failure or the technology itself? the israelis will have a massive hard look over this over time. the consensus is, we will figure that out later. we have to deal with this situation now. host: joni. independent in north port myers, florida. caller: good morning. i don't think there is any reason for the massacre by hamas of the israelis. the israelis are far superior to

hamas. i remember after jimmy carter left office, president jimmy carter, he was the first want to bring up the fact that the israelis were stealing land from the palestinians. in fact, the whole is really border is on palestinian land. they have continued to take and take from these people. they probably did not pay attention to it too much because they were so many israelis already fighting and protesting benjamin netanyahu's presidency -- whatever they call it. i don't think america should give them one dime. we can give them support as far as weapons, but i think benjamin

netanyahu has only been charged with taking money from the israelis. he has become so far right, like trump, he is trying to get out of his own legal problems. host: any comment there, aaron? guest: there is this aspect of why the attack happened now. the symbolism of the '73 war, but there's also been a lot of political chaos in israel because of netanyahu's new government to effectively strip power from the supreme court to have a say over his decisions. this has like two giant protests over the last year in israel, a lot of it driven by reservists in the air force, you are considered elite and heroes in israel. they publicly resigned, saying that if netanyahu goes through with this, we will not be in the

military anymore. there has been a lot of protests in the streets, instability inside the government and country. at one point, netanyahu fired his defense minister and then brought him back two days later. that instability, the sense that israel is vulnerable now, absolutely played into this decision to launch the attack. host: another decision we are following is senator tuberville's hold on military nominations, advancements. what is going on with that? he said he has dug in despite hamas' attack on israel. what kind of impact could this have on the current situation? guest: the senator has argued that he does not have a hold, if the biden administration wanted to push its members through, they could. technically, that is correct. we saw it with the chief of the army in chief of marines

informed a few weeks ago. at the same time, the congressional research service put out a report said it would take 89 days of doing nothing in the senate to clear that backlog. that backlog is only grown since that report came out. while the senator is technically correct, his hold is slowing everything down to the point where the senate could not do anything, including keeping the government open in a couple of weeks. what is the impact on israel? hard to say specifically. there are officers that were supposed to be enrolled, impacting the situation here and in ukraine, that are not there now. anyone that has had to do two jobs at once to fill in for somebody else knows that it is not easy. the same is true for the military. host: douglas is a democrat in st. paul, minnesota. douglas, you have to mute your tv. nope.

thomas in spring hill, florida. republican. caller: good morning. i was wondering if the biden administration is serious about taking steps to prevent the american people being terrorists. we have open borders, everyone coming in from chinese nationalists to illegals from other countries. does he plan to use homeland security, national guard? there may be soft targets. if you look at the black lives matter movement, anti-american, pro-marxist, they are pro-palestinian. the lgbtq immunity is pro-palestinian. they are protesting. are they going to keep an eye on these groups as well since they were so concerned about what to premises groups? what steps will he take besides eating ice cream and taking a nap? host: border security? guest: border security in this

congress matters the most because it is an issue the hill is focused on. we have seen attempts to get ukraine funding through including -- i imagine that as the biden administration puts forth aid for israel, which it said it would, package to the hill, host: what about funding for ukraine and israel. what are you expecting? guest: there is talk that funding may involve israeli aid. without a speaker of the house, it is hard to have these negotiations because it is unclear who biden and the senate are supposed to negotiate with. host: velma in kentucky, go ahead.

caller: the previous caller is ignorant of what the bible says when she talks about israel. murder against the jewish people has been going on decade after decade, century after century. we don't tell other countries that are being persecuted, restrained yourselves. this is not the first time the jewish children have been massacred. it is not about territory, it is about hatred for the jewish people and israel wants to destroy hamas, not gaza. they have given and given, i don't know what else they are expected to give. much of the world and some people want total extinction of the jewish people. host: one last word from you, aaron.

guest: this is a fiery issue for a lot of people, an emotional issue, especially reports about atrocities from the last weekend. we saw the president talking about it himself, some tough things to see. . . john kirby was crying the other day talking about some of this stuff. this is a bad situation all around, bad for the people of gaza, bad for the people of israel. the best case we hope for is this resolves itself as quickly as possible. host: