children who were each able to hug their family for the first time in 7 weeks friday night. the second wave of hostages could reportedly be released within the next hour. stick with fox news throughout the day as a we'll continue to monitor the latest on this very important situation. todd: and we've within watching this hour, we believe there was a chance during the a.m. eastern chance --9 a.m. eastern time chance of the release could happen, obviously, that's going to carry over into the 10 a.m. hour. fingers crossed. rachel: yeah. and that some american americans will be are released. joey: yeah. a lot of families hoping and praying, some with word that their family is coming home. todd: continue to monitor fox news. guy, it's been a pleasure being with you on a saturday, let's do it again tomorrow -- rachel: back tomorrow. see y'all. joey: bye-bye. david:ed and you are looking live at the egypt-gaza border where a second round of israeli

hostages are expected to be released by hamas momentarily. it is day two of a ceasefire if that so far has brought 13 israeli women and children out of captivity. we're going to be talking to one man who's fighting for his brother-in-law to be next and no americans released as of yet. so how close are we to bringing them home? general jack keane on that. and then there is this -- [inaudible conversations] david: president joe biden facing intense pressure over his handling of the israeli-hamas war including from some in his open party. and one day after protesters tried to shut down black friday shopping, we're watching as more protests are expected across the u.s. good morning, everyone, i'm dade asman in for neil cavuto. welcome to a special edition of "cavuto live." first to israel, where we await

the release of more hostages being held by hamas. alex hogan has the very latest. >> reporter: we are expecting to see 13 or 14 israeli hostages released today, that number has been changing in reports today, but that would also impact the number of palestinian prisoners that israel then releases in exchange. all of this taking place, we'll continue to monitor if we see that live footage of those hostages being released as we're also getting new footage of family reunions. these are the photos of all of the hostages that have been released so far since yesterday. 13 israelis, doro nonasher, danielle and her daughter, amelia rued mundter, her daughter keren and grandson, adina moshe, hanna perry and naffe adar. 10 thai hostages and 1 filipino

also released yesterday on top of the 50 hostages expected to be released in this 4-day ceasefire. more thai hostages are also expected to be released today. now, this is the moment that we have been waiting for for weeks, but these family reunions, a 9-year-old running through the hospital straight into his father's arms who picks him up, spins him around, his brother picking him up and spinning him around before hugging his e her. and another' union -- reunion with a man who called for the release of his wife and two daughters, the four of them finally back together. one of those daughters in that video talking about how when she was being held hostage, she was constantly dreaming of coming home. thousands of people took to the streets yesterday outside the air base where these hostages were originally brought welcoming them home, cheering in this nationwide moment of celebration. as the hostages come home today, there's a slightly different

plan of action. instead of going if to the air base where we saw yesterday they were met with doctors and psychologists, instead today they will be brought directly to the hospital, and that's because doctors say these victims are in much better health than expected. meantime, today as we await the moment that we see new hostages being released, we're hearing the reports on egyptian tv that both sides have agreed to extend the ceasefire even longer. while we've had no official confirmation on that from the israeli perspective, it is worth noting that israel has said for every 10 additional hostages released, that would transition and turn into 1 extra day of ceasefire. so that would definitely be a moment of hope for the families here who are still waiting to bring back their loved ones. david: those pictures of the reunions just break your heart. i mean, it's really, really driving home what those families are going through or have been going through. alex, thank you very much. so the white house saying they are doing all they can to bring american hostages home.

so far no americans have been leased. lucas tomlinson is in nantucket, massachusetts, where president biden is spending this holiday weekend. lucas. >> reporter: and, david, white house officials say they don't expect any american hostages to be released today but say they remain hopeful some will be released in the coming days. speaking here in nantucket yesterday, president biden said that he thought the first wave of hostages released went well, then was pretty candid when he was asked when are those americans coming home. >> we don't know when that will occur, but we're going to be expecting it to occur. i don't trust hamas to do anything right now. i only trust hamas to respond to treasure. >> reporter: president biden said weeks of u.s. diplomacy helped get those first hostages field, over 200 remain and up to 10 american citizens. white house officials are hopeful 3 americans including that little girl, abigail adan who just turned 4 years old

yesterday, will be coming home soon. hamas refused to she release her to celebrate her birthday. white house officials don't expect any americans to be released today. president biden had this message for a hamas: >> hundreds more trucks are getting in position as well ready to enter gaza over the coming days the support the innocent palestinians who are suffering greatly because of this war. that hamas if has unleashed. hamas doesn't give a damn about a them. >> reporter: now after a making that speech and taking some questions from reporters, president biden did some shopping here in nantucket. he had lunch, but he was greeted by protesters as you showed off the top, and they later followed the president and his family including hunter biden to the christmas tree lighting ceremony in nantucket. we'll show you more in the next hour, david. david: lucas, thank you very much. so what can, what and when can we expect to see the next round of hostages released?

israeli denecessary set member danny danon with me now. great to see you, thank you for being here. first and foremost, the condition of the hostages that have been released so far, particularly the children. how are they doing? >> thank you for having me, david. so we examined the hostages who arrived yesterday, and their physical condition rem tyly -- relatively is good, but you can imagine the mental situation after almost 50 # days in tunnels. you know, we have some elderly people who were without their medicines, so they will take the time with their families, they will take it day by day, and we are very worried about the people who are staying behind in captivity. and also to learn about the news of people who died during the massacre on october 7th. so for some of them, that was the first time they had to face very, very sad news. david: and are you trying now to get the children out first? i would assume that's your

priority. >> indeed. so now our main concern is to bring back the children and the mothers. we hope that they will happen in the next few days. as you know, we have a lot of hostages in the hands of hamas, this vicious terrorist organization, and we are determined to do two things, to bring all of the hostages back to israel and to destroy hamas. very simple. as long as a it takes, we are determined to do that. so now we are focusing on bringing the hostages, but after a few days we will resume our military act ativities. -- activities. we will go everywhere that is needed until we find the little sheep and eliminate hamas. david: danny, you're a diplomat, and you're a very good one. we dealt with each other when you were here in new york. but how do you deal with monsters who kill and and kidnap children? i mean, just in terms of the diplomacy, how is it possible for you to practice diplomacy with these people?

>> it is very hard, and we don't deal with them directly. we have negotiators who are in the middle in mainly qatar and egypt, and we know that we are dealing we evil. but because there are babies in captivity, because we have women, you know, we do whatever we can to bring them back. but at the same time, you know, we remember the goal, and, you know, one of the generals which i met yesterday, he told me, danny, can you assure me that after the -- we will continue with the military operation. and i told him i have no doubt. you have my word, and the cabinet guarantees that we will continue with the military operation despite this pause. we are doing can it in order to see those children back with their families. david: how close are you to achieving your goal of wiping out hamas? >> well, unfortunately, you know, we are not are chose. we have a lot ahead of us -- we are not very close. we are operating very slowly in

gaza for two reasons. we want to minimize casualties or -- for our forces and to civilians, that's why it took a while to maneuver with our ground operation. same would be in the other areas of gaza. we will try to convince the population to move out, and then we will -- after hamas. we could have finished the job by now, but the number of casualties would have been very high. i think that is the right approach, to move slowly, cautiously but to be determined to finish the job. david: you have been in wars with hamas before, and they have violated ceasefires. any signs that they are doing is so right now? >> so you're absolutely right. in 2014 during a ceasefire which was initiated by the u.n., they kidnapped israeli soldier and many times they broke the ceasefire. we have seen minor incidents. as of now we continue with the pause, and i hope it will continue until monday evening.

there's still a possibility for extension, but it's -- [inaudible] david and even though you have more work to do against a hamas, are -- has enough damage been done so that once the pause is over, they may not be able to get back on their feet? or is that too the optimistic? >> no, we have to go all the way. when i say all the way, if you look at the map of gaza, we are operating now in about 2001- third of the territory -- one-third of the territory. so in order to complete the mission, we have to go south, we have to go to where the leadership be hiding in the southern part of gaza. it will take some time, but once we will see a regime change, it will be good and safe for us but also the people in gaza. once there will be another regime in charge of gaza is, you know, it's like eradicating the nazi regime. it takes time, efforts casualties, but we have to do it. david: danny, god bless. good luck to you. appreciate you signing us. >> thank you very much --

appreciate you joining us. david: my next guest is hoping for good news about his brother-in-law who was kidnapped from a kibbutz on october 7th. moshe joins me now. thank you for being here. you're in new york, you work in new york, but you're in close contact with your family. what are you hearing? >> yeah. i moved here in september, so a month before the attack, on september 7th. we had a very difficult day yesterday, it was a lot of mixed emotions between being joyful because of the foot footage of seeing hostages being released -- david: particularity the children. >> especially the children. also the elderly. i see my parents, my grandparents in those photos. but also despair because my brother-in-law is still a hostage, and so many are still hostages. a teafd david that's a picture of your brother-in-law. >> holding there my niece, 2 and

a half years old. day e david now, were other members of the family either kidnapped or hurt or, god for bid, killed? >> all of my immediate if family was targeted during october 7th. they lived in a kibbutz on the border. we were lucky. it was a lottery. nobody was killed. my brother-in-law was kidnapped, my for and two nieces were held cap captive by hamas terrorists, were able to be rescued eventually. but i could have been sitting here without a family today. and and i'm lucky that i'm not, but so many other people, members of my community, my neighbors, people went to school with me, my teachers, etc., lost so many of their relatives. david: what is happening now in the region of this kibbutz? is the kibbutz completely closed? is anybody involved in farming or working at the factories or other things along there, or is

it all a buffer zone now? >> yeah. this area in the northwestern has been almost immediately -- completely evacuated. people were displaced both in the south of israel and also in the north because of hezbollah. there are about a 300,000 the israelis displaced right now across israel. but there is a -- that is going on right now through voluntary activities, farming activities and also some resumption of factories in order to insure that the economy can resume, and this is part of our victory over the terrorist regime in the gaza strip. finish. david: well, and you bring me to the last point. in spite of what happened on october 7th, all the her record of that day -- horror of that day and what's happened since, are you optimistic that you can begin again in the same area so close to gaza? >> we are rooted in that region of israel, and i'm sure the communities will be able to

rebuild what was lost on that day. a lot of was lost, a lot was burned figuratively and literal arely, but we're rooted there, and we will return there. but for now what we focus on is to insure that all the hostages return, insure that we're reunited with my brother-in-law. and after that we'll hopeful by be able to complete the operation in the gaza strip and, of course, return to that region that we love. david: i know there are a lot of questions still to be answered about how hamas was able to get in on october 7th and whether there were breaches of security, but is, is israel more interested in staying united now than putting the blame, casting the blame on anybody? >> i think if you visit israel today and also witness the jewish community here in new york, the israeli community in new york, you see the spirit of unity. we see the spirit of volunteering the support others. i felt it myself. i live on my own.

i have no family here. i'm not an american citizen, and i felt that support from day one. both in my advocacy work here and both from people who just care about me. david: i'm being rushed along, but you're here in new york, these protests, these pro-hamas, indiana-israeli protest -- can anti-israeli protests, what do you make of this? >> i call for the entire public whether they have one political disposition or another to insure that they are mindful of what they say, mindful of what they write on social media, mindful of who they hurt when they rip up posters and understand that at least the issue of the hostages should be a unifying factor. this is a humanitarian plea above all politics. need to bring them all home to their families. david: god bless you and your family, and we wish you the very breast. -- best. we do hope you see your brother-in-law again. thank you for being here,

appreciate it. and then there is this: finish. >> free palestine! david: protests mounting, hostages releasing -- hostage releases unfording -- unfolding. how will it play out politically as president joe biden fights for his are reelection as democrats are divided over his handling of the israeli-hamas war. good to see you both. again, we may have breaking news that interrupts us, so i apologize in advance if that happens. doug, i want to talk about the division of the democratic party. bernie sanders spoke to the situation in israel right -- earlier this week, and he said and i'm going to quote him, the blank check approach must end e. he is, of course, referring to money from the u.s. going to israel. he goes on, the united states must if make clear that while we

are friends of israel, there are conditions to that friendship and that we cannot with come -- cannot be complicit in actions that violate international law and our own sense of decency. is this really the moment to be saying this? don't we owe it to israel? i know people would say, no, we don't owe them anything. well, we do. they are allies. we were involved in the creation of the modern state of israel. shouldn't we right now be supporting them and forget all of these conditions? >> of course, david. i mean, as i heard that, i literally, my heart sank. i am jewish, a proud democrat, as you know. but what bernie sanders is antithetical to everything or i believe that my party, which played a key role in the founding of the state in 1948, has traditionally believed in. and reflects a real deep division in my party where people on the left like bernie sanders and younger people are much more pro-palestinian.

and i dare say, pro-hamas than i would have ever imagined could have been the case. david: yeah. but just to stay with you for a second, he's not a fringe if character. i mean, he is the chairman of the budget committee. he plays a very important role in dispensing funds -- >> i didn't suggest and juan want to suggest, david, that he is. and this is what's so scary. there are wide segments of the democratic party, the squad but beyond the squad, the far left, younger e democrats under 30 who are anti-israel and pro-hamas. that weakens our country, it weakens joe biden and is antithetical to everything i grew up as both a democrat and an american believing. david: well, mean while, noel, the house republicans have put a pay-for in their own israeli package, taking money from the irs' supersizing that the president wants in order to pay for israel.

is that, is this the right moment to do that? >> well, i mean, i'm going to go out on a limb and say it's a great bet to take away from the irs. i don't think democrat or republican is a huge fan of the irs, of taking something away from the county of the irs -- the department of the irs as it compares to giving aid to israel i think on the republican side would be extremely popular. and with the division that you're seeing between the liberal fraction of the democratic party and the old guard and the old school democrats such as doug schoen, you are seeing leadership with biden. he's old school enough to remember that israel is our friend, and he's act aing on that. not very popular with the democrats with liberal battle cry of the pro-hamas, pro-palestinian movement which is what you're seeing in the streets, you know? disrupting the macy's day parade, disrupting black friday

shopping, disrupting anything they can. it's a huge movement, and it's more of the liberal battle cry. some of these people, not all, but a lot of these protesters, i'm not even sure that they intellectually even know what they're out there the screaming and ranting free palestine, you know, hamas. i don't even think they know what they're really doing. all they know, they're supporting the squad, and that is what they're doing, and that's why it's a liberal battle cry. it will be interesting to see if this translates into money, will some of these people fund various super pacs, or will it transcend into voting which i feel a lot of these people will not probably vote for biden. david: noel, forgive me for interrupting, but we are looking right now at live pictures from the west bank. we're not sure what precisely this is, whether these are prisoners who have been are released or who are now being taken to the hospital or whether it's a protest. we're still waiting for exact,

an exact description of what it is we're seeing, but there is activity on the west bank now, and we will keep you informed of that. doug, while we are trying to discern what's going on there, i just want to ask you about other questions that might be befuddling the president right now. dean phillips, he's a congressman -- was a congressman from minnesota, he is, and he's said he's not going to run, he's going to go full bore against president biden for the position of the party's nomination. do you think be successful, or do you think that biden will pull off the nomination without much trouble? >> i think biden will, david, pull off the nomination without much trouble. but when you have dean phillips, when you have third and fourth party candidacies like robert f. kennedy jr., cornel west, jill stein, the poll from biden --

the pull from biden in the polls, even if minimal, it could be enough to cost him key states and, ultimately, the electoral college. so the signs we see of all the activity both in the party on issues like the war in the middle east, hamas' brutal incursion in israel as well as el the political -- as well as the political fallout and division really spell a bad omen for president biden and his team understands that quite well. david: yeah. noel, i owe you one. i'm sorry, but because of all this breaking news, we have to move on. again, we think what we were seeing there at the prison, if you want to go back to that live shot, was, were prisoners being released, but we're not exactly sure of that, whether it was that or perhaps a protest outside of the prison. we will try the get to the bottom of that. but, noel, doug, thank you both

for being here, appreciate it. meanwhile, israel is facing a very delicate, very tenuous situation as it kind of works through the ceasefire. general jack keane on how he thinks that's going to be doing. he's coming up next. but first, pro-palestinian protesters trying to shut down holiday shopping here in the u.s. is that backfiring? [inaudible conversations] have fun, sis! ♪ can't stop adding stuff to your cart? get the bank of america customized cash rewards card, choose the online shopping category and earn 3% cash back. [♪] we come from people we can be proud of. [♪]

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david: all right, we are getting word now from white house officials that despite positive movement on the hostage as and we are likely to see some released in the next couple of hours, it could be even sooner than that, none of those released are expected to be hostages. this coming from white house, a

white house official to fox. so so there's good news and bad news. there's going to be a lot of that split decisions, i think, happening over the next couple of hours as we continue to take you through developments in the middle east. meanwhile, there were scenes in new york yesterday of to-palestinian, anti-israeli protesters hoping to disrupt black friday shoppers all over the country. alexandria of is in washington. so did it work? did the protesters get their way? >> reporter: yeah, in some cases certainly blocking doors to some stores and definitely snarling photographic. these protesters reason just using this holiday shopping weekend as an opportunity to gain attention, stores, crowds and deals, many want people to physically stop shopping. as i mentioned, in some cases it may have worked at least for a period of time. anti-israel protesters stalled traffic in cities including new york yesterday demanding a ceasefire in gaza. that's despite that ceasefire deal currently in place between

israel and hamas terrorists in order to exchange hostages. >> just because you stand with palestine doesn't mean you stand with hamas or terrorism, but you can't use that as a justification for collective punishment and bombing this whole area of, you know, innocent civilians. >> reporter: other protesters we heard from, they do not fault hamas terrorists. additional protests are planned in new york city today calling for a permanent ceasefire and decolonization of palestine as demonstrators are calling it. cutting off all u.s. aid to israel was also a focus in los angeles where pro-palestinian rallies disrupted traffic and shopping at the grove shopping plaza. these were not just pop-up events. in chicago, it was more of the same, all part of a nationwide call to action titled shut it down for palestine, forcing beefed-up security and law enforcement all around the country, all around this weekend not just yesterday. we had more localized groups popping up around the d.c. area as well at the popular tyson's corner shopping center in

virginia yesterday, causing a traffic backlog there. and d.c. itself, traffic on georgetown's m street, it was blocked for hours yesterday. the goal, disrupting business as usual, david. david: alexandria, thank you very much. if shoppers were scared off yesterday, they have a funny way of showing it. adonely analytics says americans spent $9.8 billion online shopping on black friday. that is an increase of 7.5% from last year during that black friday. that's just the start of what some expect to be a record holiday shopping season. retail watcher hitha herzog joins me now. great to see you. >> good to see you too. david: what have you seen so far? do you think it's going to be a great holiday shopping season? >> i think every season we say it's going to be a great holiday shopping season, but something really interesting is happening with the consumer, and that's credit card debt. so if you remember the earnings that just came out with the banks, wells fargo reported that around 15% of people, credit

card balances were increasing. and for jpmorgan it was around 88, and citi it was around 4 -- 8. people are definitely spending on their credit cards, and i think that is what is fueling this boom of shopping. david: but at the same time, i saw one stat that 25 president of americans -- 25% of american shoppers still have debts left over from last year. and with interest rates on credit cards going all the way up to 29%, that could hurt. >> oh, or absolutely. and i, if you remember back in july, we saw that the consumer had almost in collective a trillion dollars of debt on their credit cards. and you're right, with the interest rate rising, poem are not paying those off -- people are not paying those off in full. i was looking at a study, about 50% of poem say they -- people say they pay their credit cards off in full, the other half are carrying over balances. that's just going to increase. what we have to look at is

what's going to happen in january when people are opening their credit card statements, what that's going to look like. but they are definitely shopping out there especially online. you seeing especially small business saturday right now according to data, 60% of small businesses are shopping on amazon. so they don't have to go out and shop. people are just doing it online. david: hitha herzog is, thank you so much. well, back to the israeli-hamas deal as more families await news of their loved ones, how does general jack keane think things are going so far? he joins us next.

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david: fox is getting some breaking news now from the middle east. a qatari delegation has arrived in israel to meet with israeli intel officials. the group is discussing a possible extension to the current agreement which presumably would include elongating this ceasefire or pause in the fighting. fox news' senior strategic analyst general jack keane with us now on how this might affect things. general, good to see you, thanks for being here. you know, we're glad that people are discussing a way to end this conflict, but at the same time would a continuation of the pause or what some people are calling a ceasefire interfere with the israeli mission of destroying hamas? >> oh, yeah, certainly. as does the current temporary ceasefire. listen, the strategy that's

unfolding here from hamas for a couple of things for our viewers to you said -- to understand, hamas has a never if focused on killing the civilian population in israel to the degree that they have done in this last operation on 7, october. it's always been the idf. they've never, as a matter of principle, taken wholesale hostages. and iran, i think, has their fingerprints all over this operation because they have been in the hostage business for 43 years, and you know that, david. david: yeah. >> so the taking of the hostages, what's the strategy here? two things. one, they want to preserve their regime. they knew if israel would have to enter gaza because of their brutal, savage attack. they also knew the sense of violence and the massive campaign they would conduct would be likely larger than anything they've seen. to hedge against that, they took the hostages. for two reasons. one, to preserve the regime so at the end of the day they'll keep hostages so that the leaders and some of their infrastructure will be able to

stay in place. they will declare victory at that point if that occurs despite months of, despite months of operations of the israeli military, and the second thing is to delay as a much as possible to give them opportunities to reposition, to rearm and reorganize. and they are doing just that. the israelis have a decision to make, would they like to get most of this in terms of host an release over now -- hostage release over now and then be able to get on with the campaign or do it intermittently over a series of several months i and that'll be their call in terms of its impact on their operation. david: but you know what must be killing the israelis now is the fact that they are seeing the hostage taking is actually working for hamas, working for iran. of course, we -- it really began before october 7th when we

essentially released $6 billion or unfroze $6 billion of iranian funds for 6 hostages. i think that kind of whenned their appetite for -- whetted their appetite for hostage taking. then you now have the hostages being used for bargaining chips and getting them a pause in the actual fighting from israel. so they see how beneficial it is to them for hostage taking. that's a very dangerous situation for the whole world. >> yeah. they're just in a very tough spot. i mean, they've got to get their hostages back. the history of israel and getting hostages back, the whole country has been behind that movement just when it's a single hostage. it pales by comparison, you know, their intensity and emotion about a hostage being taken is really quite something. so they knew from the beginning that the objective to get the hostages back was job sw one. but the clear are issue here is

time is on the side of a hamas, and they are playing for time. they know full well the longer they're able to drag this out, the larger the widespread condemnation internationally of israel will increase. the isolation of israel geopolitically will increase. the pressure will mount on the israelis as a result of it. and in their minds, weaken the government is what they're hoping for and possibly a change in that government. they know they're not going to destroy israel by virtue of this operation, but they certainly want to make israel more vulnerable and more weaker going forward. the israelis, i think -- go ahead. david: i was just going to say, on the other hand we do see the pulling back of the curtain. all of the stuff that the pro-hamas propaganda and a lot of their mouthpieces over here and in the rest of the world were saying about there not being any tunnels under hospitals, etc., we now know that isn't true. and it's not just coming from

the israelis. our own trey yingst spent a lot of time this past week in the tunnels that were right under the shifa hospital. we know, we have independently confirmed on our own that, in fact, everything they were saying about the tunnels under the hospitals were true. so that has, that has damaged the propaganda effort of hamas to a certain extent, no? >> yeah, to a certain degree. they found them under a mosque last week and also under schools. so, yes, they're verifying what has long been expected. and u.s. intelligence services, you know, interestingly, have also released information that the shifa hospital was indeed a command center underneath it at least, you know, for hamas. but what the israelis need prosecute united states here, david -- from the united states here, david can, they need us to stay firm and stay, stick to our resolve to support them to see the end of this operation in

terms of the objectives they're trying to achieve and what they've assigned their military. they know full well if they're not able to really take down the overwhelming majority of hamas' military infrastructure and its leaders, hamas will declare victory, and they will rearm, reorganize and reattack again. and the israelis want no part of it. they have said this is enough, this is the over, we need, we need a new entity to govern it, but we need to destroy the military entity first before that can the happen. david: general, you said something i want to come back to which is iran is not merely the funder of hamas and, of course, hezbollah up in the north, but they are also involved in command and control. they are guiding hamas in their actions. that's something that the administration still has not come out and confirmed. is it time for them to do so? >> oh, you know, david, it's time for the administration to

rethink their entire strategic framework dealing with iran. from day one in january when they took power, they removed the trump sanctions, some of them. they offered a hand to the iranians to get back into the nuclear deal. they have been placating this regime, and and you see the results of it. the aggression by all of the iranian proxies has increased in the last two of and a half years. that's the reality of what we're facing. they are on the march in the region, and we've got to come together to confront iran. and the administration should be helping to lead that effort, not placating and appeasing the iranians which has been the policy. david: and, you know, it's not -- they, of course, have tens of billions of new funds thanks to the biden administration not really enforcing the sanctions that were enforced to full capacity with a maximum pressure campaign that we saw during the trump administration, but some of that

money must be used for their nuclear program. they have just kicked inspectors out of any, of all of their nuclear facilities that we had left that we were able to investigate. so what is happening with their nuclear program, and is there a danger that those tens of billions of extra dollars they got from oil sales are now going to develop a nuclear program? >> well, the iranians are flush. i mean, the truth is -- flush with money, that is. during the trump administration oil production by a barrel in a single day was less than 200,000. it's north of 3.5 million today. so, yes, they have the money. and i think if they're going to move to a nuclear weapon given the policies of this administration, this is likely the administration to do it with. and we have got to be firm here. and certainly the israelis and our intelligence are watching this. can you imagine what the middle east would be like if iran had a

nuclear weapon and they were using that as blackmail? it would strengthen their proxies because no one would want to attack iran under any circumstances because they have a nuclear weapon. that's what -- that's why they want it. it guarantees the preservation of the regime. and then what does that mean? their proxies can be considerably stronger as a result of that. the conventional means that they're going to use will be more significant than it has ever been when it's backed up by a nuclear a weapon. the middle east will fundamentally change geopolitically if something like that happens. david: well, we certainly know that our arab allies are against any development of a nuclear weapon by iran; or that is, saudi arabia, the united emirates, etc. are they trying to pressure the united states to do more, maybe to get back to that maximum pressure campaign against iran at least on the economic front? at the very least, on enforcing sanctions which have become so

lax that iran is now flush with money? >> well, certainly the arabs were frustrated when this administration came in and they sort of stiffed them, they held back military assistance that was programmed for saudi arabia and the uae. they pushed back to a certain degree when prime minister netanyahu took over, we got involved in internal politics because of all that. and the arabs saw the united states, you know, pulling back. and iran's aggressiveness began to increase dramatically. and i credit the administration and certain mohamed bin sayyed from the uae who from the beginning was the initiator of the abraham accords in wanning to get back even -- wanting to get back even though he's already a part of it to move saudi arabia closer, and mohamed bin sayyed, mbs -- excuse me, mbs in saudi arabia is

absolutely moving in that direction. david, the good news is we have had senators in the country since october the 7th. in saudi arabia. and the report out of there is that mbs, the leader, de facto leader of saudi arabia, has not given up on normalizing relations with israel despite what is being taken -- likely, he's not going to make any public statement to that, but likely it's been reinforced by hamas' butchery and the fact that they're a terrorist organization that nobody in the arab world can control, and they're trying to destroy the very state that the arabs are attempting to have normalize normalized relations with. that is the tension that is in the arab world in dealing with hamas as part of the palestinian movement. david: yeah. and i've also got to ask you about the attacks on u.s. troops that are in the region, particularly in places like iraq and syria where we have these what many people have described

as pinprick counterattacks that have certainly not deterred the iranian proxies from continuing with those attacks. what should we do with regard to that? >> well, i know the mesh people look at -- american people look at that and just scratch their head and say why -- what's happening here? why do we let these people continue to attack us? what's behind our reluctance, the fact that if we attack the source like these are proxies trained by the irgc, if we attack their training center or we attack some of their bases as reagan did in the mid '80s or we attack their leadership as president trump did in 2020, they believe -- the people who are making the policy decision -- that that could possibly lead to a war with ranch and that freezes them -- with iran. that freezes them and paralyzes them from taking that action. history of 43 years of dealing

with iran would suggest that is not the case. that is why they have proxies. that is why they use them. and when we have gone after them for supporting those proxies in the case of reagan and in the case of trump, that has achieved escalation dominance while they may reattack one time, it shuts them down. and that is, that is the escalation the administration is paralyzed in not taking. that is what they should do. to continue to just hit the proxies will like ally not stop them at all, and iran doesn't care if you take rockets, missiles away from proxies or even if you kill them. they have paren my more, and -- plenty more, and they'll get back into the with fight. and that is really the essence of what is taking place here. david: by the way, what's happening live on the right side of the screen, you're looking at a live shots of ofer prison on the west bank. it's another region of concern for israel right now as it

appears to be -- and, again, we're just speculating right now. we're not exactly essure what's happening. but -- sure what's happening. but it appears to be certain prison inmates are being released into the hands of compatriots of hamas, perhaps not hamas specifically, but some of their combat outs. general, i just want to play for you a sound bite from david friedman who spoke earlier here. he's former u.s. ambassador the israel, and he was talking about the pressure from the united states to continue, for israel to continue with its pause if until either all the hostages are released or until some sort of formal ceasefire's been declared. go ahead and play that from david friedman, the former ambassador. >> if pressure continues within the biden administration to handcuff israel, if that continues and israel is somehow restrained after this four or five-day ceasefire ends from finishing off hamas, we're

talking about a mistake by america of, you know, afghanistan january proportions, you know? if they keep israel from finishing this job, not only will israel be on the losing end of this war, but all of us, all of us in the free world including america will signal that we're in big trouble. david: that's a pretty sobering statement. do you agree with him? from yeah, i do. and i think what israel's facing they haven't really faced since 1948 when they were fighting for their independence after they were established as a nation. by the u.n. and all the arab countries invaded them. they didn't have the military that they have today. but their whole sovereignty was clearly at risk. israel sees this for what it really is, and they have got to stop hamas here. and they know that. and this is going to take time, and they need their number one ally to support them.

i'm convinced that if the united states pulls away from israel, the implications of that will be exactly as a friedman suggests. it'll have the implications that afghanistan had. it will strengthen russia, china, obviously, north korea will become more belligerent. and most importantly, it will strengthen iran's hand. they will be able to accomplish a major objective. the reason why they're attacking our 13 bases in iraq and syria, the primary reason is to drive the united states military out of the region. they want the united states people to question why are we there? why are we still there? why are our soldiers at risk in iraq and syria? i thought that was over a while ago. that's what they want. david yeah. >> and that plays right into their strategic hand. they will check the box and say we got, we finally got it done here. we've driven the united states back from the middle east. that will be a huge strategic failure for us, strengthen our

adversaries around the world, for sure. this is a time where you find your spine, and you stick with tough issues. this is a tough thing. sticking this out in the face of hamas continuing to hold civilian casualties in urban centers which normally does not take place at all. and they do do it because they want the casualties. and that is so diabolical and sipper the -- sinister on their part for doing that. and they should be condemned worldwide for doing that as opposed to demonstrating in favor of them. makes no sense whatsoever given their horrific behavior. david: well, and particularly now that we have evidence, we can see with our own eyes that they didn't care about the palestinian deaths in gaza, because they were planted right underneath the hospital, right underneath the key civilian areas. that was, that has always been their m.o., to use civilians as a cover. it looks like they cared just as

little for fall stint january lives as -- palestinian lives as they do for israeli lives, but that's all we can -- and, again or, we're still trying to figure out what's happening at this checkpoint where we assume some of the trading of hostages, is some of the palestinian not hostage as, but some of the inmates from israeli facilities are being released to palestinians. general jack keane, we thank you for your time and patience. we appreciate it. we want to move on now, on to the phone where we have former state department official christian whiton joining us now. christian, again, we'll try to confirm what it is we're seeing on the west bank. this is at the checkpoint, the west bank, i assume between israel and the west bank. what do you think of what's happening so far and of the pressure on israel to elongate this ceasefire? >> well, david, i think what we're seeing even though it's a little bit unclear is just a very bad deal. it's terrific for the hostages, and if i were a family member of one of these hostage, i would be

elated that they are being set free. but israel is trading, you know, about a dozen -- they're getting back a dozen hostages, these are innocent civilians, in exchange for hardened hamas terrorists, murderers. and hamas is dragging this out, they're jerk ising israel around, and they're jerking the united states around. we have hostages in there too even though president biden doesn't seem to be too corps iced about -- exorcised about that fact. and they are buying more time strategically to rally what is a very effective political warfare effort around the world to rally support to their cause and to get israel to pull back punches when the best thing that israel could do and the most humane way to end this war is to end it quickly, for israel to discontinue the ceasefire and take control of all of gaza. but as general keane alluded, there are going to be political problems, there already is dissonance between the biden administration and the israeli government, and that will actually grow when it becomes

clear after combat that this is not to be turned back over to the palestinians. david: i want to ask about iran. we were talking with the general about their influence and that more than just funding hamas and hezbollah, they are actually involved in command and control. they have tens of billions more dollars because the biden administration is not -- has not enforced sanctions against their oil sales. there was one state department, i believe it was the u.s. envoy to iran who has been suspended because of the way he was dealing with some intel, suspicions that perhaps if he passed some of that intel on to the iranians he was dealing with. what can you tell us about whether the gifts that we've given iran, allowing them to sell more oil than was allowed under trump, went beyond just diplomacy and perhaps into some kind of, some kind of cutout, iranian cutout within the state department? >> right. well, this administration

entered office with a fundamental determination to engage with iran, a belief that there was just some big misunderstanding that needed to get back into the 2015 nuclear deal negotiated by obama and biden and set aside by donald trump because it actually didn't work. it didn't eliminate the iranian nuclear program, it sanctified the iranian nuclear program. it left it with advanced center refuges and all the steps it needs to -- centrifuges. i do fundamentally disagree with general keane about the course of our bases in iraq and syria. i don't understand why we're there -- the war in syria some sort of offset e to the dictator there and starting some oilfields -- david kidd christian, i hate to do this, but we are up against a hard break. we only have phi seconds more. thank you, christian whiton. we have much more on the breaking news from the middle east when we come back. lden gabs

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