♪ welcome back to "face the nation." delaware democratic senator chris coons is back with us. senator, i want to pick up where we left off. we're talking about some potentially tough votes that will have to be taken in the near term with the border, with ukraine, with israel, and taiwan. all of those bundled together. was it a strategic mistake for the white house to suggest bundling all of those, as the president did in the oval office address, when he asked for this

big, national security supplemental? >> no, margaret. i think we're at a moment where all around the world, our partners and allies need to see that we are strong. president biden's done a remarkable job of pulling together a global coalition of 50 countries who in combination have contributed more to ukraine's defense than we have, and making sure that we're pushing back on china and their predatory actions in the indo-pacific is a key part of our national security. that there's also humanitarian relief in this package critical to address the hunger that's been caused by russia's invasion of ukraine and to come to the aid of israel, and to provide critically needed support for innocent palestinians in gaza, to put all of this in one package, recognizes it's urgent we provide a signal to the world that we are still a reliable ally and partner. >> of specific to israel, there's a pretty strong signal

sent last night by prime minister netanyahu when he answered questions from reporters, and he said he's, quote, proud he prevented the establishment of a palestinian state and took credit for putting the brakes on the peace process. he seemed to be referring to president biden's vision for revamped palestinian authority when he said, among friends, it's important not to foster illusions. that seems to be casting the president's vision as diluted. is that acceptable for an ally asking for billions of dollars in aid? >> prime minister netanyahu has been an exceptionally difficult partner and i think president biden did the right thing right after the horrific attack by hamas to go to israel, to stand strong with israel, and, frankly, to send a firm message to iran to stay out of this conflict. he deployed two aircraft carrier battle groups to the region so

that israel could focus on its self-defense against hamas and not face an open attack from hezbollah on the north or houthis on the south or iranian forces up on the golan heights. what has been a real challenge is the big gap between most of us in congress and the president, who believe a two-state solution is the only way forward, and prime minister netanyahu who has done everything he can to undermine a positive vision for peace for israel. >> so you have leverage here, though, policy wise. i mean, the president has been very vocal in defending the prime minister and his choices, but president biden did say the bombing is indiscriminate. the u.s. provides billions of dollars, like $3 billion or more a year. we're looking at another 10. can't you put in some kind of provision here to force adherens to international law or u.s. law, as senator van holland is

proposing? >> margaret, there are requirements in american law. >> right. >> when we send military assistance to another country, whether it's ukraine or its israel, that they have to abide by international law. president biden and the senior members of his team, who have gone to israel repeatedly, have had some success in pressing prime minister netanyahu to change direction. most recently in reigning in setler violence in the west bank. because of elements of netanyahu's cabinet, that's been difficult for netanyahu to do, but we have imposed sanctions on those who are foe meting settler violence and president biden has pressed to get more humanitarian aid into gaza and a reduction in settler violence. this is a difficult, challenging moment, and i know you're going to move on to positive news about our economy and other things we're getting done in washington, but i am so grateful that in this moment a seasoned

and capable leader like president biden is in the one at the helm in the midst of all these challenging crises in our world. >> you are a biden surrogate for the campaign, so on that note, we are going to leave it there because we have to turn to the war in gaza and our latest from tlv. >> reporter: chasing a u.n. aid truck that crossed in from egypt this morning, hundreds of desperate gazans ransacked it and ran off with boxes. to a breakthrough in aid, israel will now allow u.n. trucks to drive directly into gaza from the kerem shalom crossing. israel's military pressed ahead with its bombardment across the 25-mile strip. >> they are without water, food, and there is a sniper inside the compound. >> reporter: a uk member of parliament said an israeli sniper has pinned down her christian family and more than 50 disabled people in gaza's only roman catholic church.

>> there's a woman and her daughter who have been killed. >> reporter: nearby, at northern gaza's last functioning hospital, withdrawing tanks and troops left behind devastation. we don't have houses or relatives anymore, said this woman. where should we go? while in the south, in khan yunis, medics say dozens of dead killed by air strikes arrived at nasser hospital over the weekend. outside, dozens of mourners buried another jurist. worked for al jazeera television. at least 64 have reportedly been killed in this war so far. in the west bank, israeli soldiers sho and killed five palestinians over the weekend with nearly 300 killed since october 7th, says the palestinian health ministry. overnight in tel aviv's hostage square thousands demanded their government made a deal with hamas, meaning now, now. >> put the best offer on the table to get the hostages back

alive. alive. >> i don't think it can be any more than it has before. >> are you angry. >> only towards my government. >> reporter: after admitting its troops killed three hostages in gaza friday, pressure has hit a new high against the prime minister to get the hostages still alive home. we are working with qatar and egypt said benjamin netanyahu late saturday n his first acknowledgement that qatar's prime minister al tani met israel's spy chief barnea on friday. two days after the war cabinet denied his offer to restart talks. here at hostage square, we are learning of more international calls for a cease-fire coming from the foreign ministers of the united kingdom and germany which is a major policy shift and adding to the pressure u.s. secretary of defense lloyd austin is expected to arrive

here tomorrow. >> reporting from israel. our producer mar juan al ghoul has the latest on the devastation in gaza. >> reporter: good morning. i am here at this between rafah and khan yunis city behind me. i can hear fire exchange and bombing on this city, which is the main target for the israeli troops. in other direction, rafah, still have receiving more and more fled people from khan yunis city and the north of gaza strip. this city it's crowded of millions of displaced people in this city. if i want to talk about journalists, journalists were gathering near kuwaiti

hospitals. they set some tents for them and their families. >> not even tents. they're just some plastic and pieces of wood that we put together trying to create what looks like it's something to protect us from the cold, even though they don't. >> two days ago, the press family lost one of their most well-known cameraman from al jazeera news channel. again hearing bombing in khan yunis city behind me. >> mar juan al ghoul reporting from gaza where he lives. our lesley stahl spoke with one of the israelis taken hostage during the hamas attacks on october 7th and held nearly two months for tonight's "60 minutes." >> as a woman, the fear of getting raped or the variety of

the act. >> things that could. >> could never get off your mind. never. it's just not an option because as long as you're there, you're helpless. you have no protection. you cannot object to anything. it could cost you your life. and that fear was not as extreme the whole time, but it will never go away. it's always there. >> for more of their conversation, tune in to "60 minutes" tonight after football. we'll be back in a moment.

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now to the economy and some good news. the federal reserve predicts slowing inflation could lead it to make three interest rate cuts

next year which means borrowing costs for mortgages and auto loans could be lowered. it also predicted inflation will fall to 2.2% a rate pretty close to meeting the fed's target. with more we're joined by austan goolsbee, the president and ceo of the chicago federal reserve. good to have you here. >> great to see you, margaret. >> or down the line i should say. you were one of the people who voted to keep rates where they are at the 22-year high. what's going to drive the decision of when to cut and by how much? >> well, what should drive the decision, in my view, about monetary policy, are we meeting the job that federal reserve act gives us, which is to say, maximizing employment and stabilizing prices. that's what we call the dual mandate, there's two sides to it. over the last several years, the united states has done very well

on the employment front and pretty badly on the inflation side. what will determine what we should do with rates is, can we get the inflation back down to target? and we made a lot of progress in 2023, but i still caution everybody, it's not done and so the data is going to drive what's going to happen to rates. >> it's not done, you say? you said back if november the economy was on a golden path. that sounded like that -- >> i said it could be. >> it could be. okay. >> i still think we could. >> so -- okay. so it is still possible to have a soft landing? in other words to avoid that recession so many had feared? it's still too early to declare vctory? >> for sure it's too early to declare victim. we've made a lot of progress. the thing to remember is, every time in the past that the fed or other central banks around the world have had to get inflation

down a lot, it has -- basically always been accompanied by a major recession. in 2023, we still get one more month of data, but 2023 looks like it's going to end up being a very substantial reduction in inflation, without a big increase in the unemployment rate. that's the golden path that i talked about. we're still above the target. we got to get inflation down to target before -- until we're convinced that we're on path to that, it's an overstatement to be counting the chickens. >> okay. so you're good news, but caution in that assessment. >> nice. yes. good news but cautious. >> one of the things, though, that came out that was not a positive statistic, the federal government said homelessness in the united states increased 12% year over year driven by

soaring rent costs and the end of pandemic assistance. how do you weigh a data point like that? >> well, that's a concerning data point, and we've got other concerning data points for sure. you see delinquencies going up on -- for both credit card debt, auto lending, and small business lending. we've got to take the economy in a totality. we have a straightforward mandate, like i say, which is maximize employment and stabilize prices. we just got to keep taking readings of the economy as we go along and i think decide meeting to meeting in a data-dependent way. >> what are your thoughts about the degree to which we need to be concerned about geopolitical risks? you still have this war in ukraine. you still have instability in the middle east beyond israel, now potentially impacting

shipping through major ports in the middle east. how do you weigh that degree of risk to the outlook that you have? >> it's definitely a degree of risk. in some sense, part of the job of central bankers is to be worried about anything. paul volker my old friend and mentor used to say, there was no silver lining he could find that was bright enough he could not find a dark cloud that would be big enough to block it out. if oil prices were to start rising substantially again, the way they have in the last few years, that would be a major supply shock problem facing the economy. if we saw expansions of wars, if we saw a collapse in china, if we saw a series of things around the world or if we got big credit crunch in the united states, and deterioration of the banking sector, all of those would be threats and those kind

of external shocks we call them, they have derailed easier soft landings than this in the past, in 1990 and 2001, so we just -- we just got to monitor those and it's the old midwest way. there is no way bad weather. there is only bad clothing. we prepare and we take the conditions as they come. >> austan goolsbee, thank you for giving us your perspective. we'll be back in a moment.

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with time running out on any additional aid for crane from congress this year, ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy made a last-minute visit to washington last week to make his case for more support for the fight against russia. oksana markarova is crukraine's ambassador to the united states and back with us. good morning to you. >> good morning. thank you for having me. >> president biden said congress is about to give vladimir putin the best christmas present he could get. how urgent is it that this funding be approved this year? >> well, time is of the essence

and time is already run out because as you know, we already do not have any programs of support except for some presidential draw down package, but nothing in the budget, nothing in humanitarian or energy support. it's great we have prepared, thanks to the big support from the u.s. and you see already all these attacks on kyiv, on other places in ukraine. they're very similar to last year, but this year they were not able to cause blackouts for a long time and that's all because we together worked so much and american people helped us to prepare for this, and it's so much cheaper to prevent it rather than to repair it. we are counting on our friends and partners here, and, you know, i believe in christmas miracles. i really hope that, you know, this christmas will show that we all civilized people, all people who believe in freedom, that we can stay the course much better than autocrats because they are uniting. >> the white house says there's

about a billion dollars left and you mentioned draw down, 4.billion. they don't want to get into what could impact u.s. military readiness, would they, do you know? >> first of all, the reason why we really need all three programs even for the defens assistance, like u.s., specific program for ukraine and foreig military sales, there is a law that we were buying, the u.s. was buying from american producers in the u.s., like drones and rockets and intercepters for the air defense and i can go on and on and you cannot take it using drought down. you need to go to industrial base in order for them to produce it. we have the draw down authority and we are trying together with your military to find whatever is there to still be used and not go below your critical readiness, but it's tough. we really all the eyes are on congress now and to really hope

that this progress that we hear about, and, you know, they will be able to find a solution and look, as the former minister of finance, i negotiated many budgets with my parliament. i understand the importance of the local priorities and i understand how important the border discussions are. we can just only pray and hope that it will be resolved and the deal they will be able to reach will allow the fast decisions also on the support to ukraine. >> the border and the lack of an agreement is holding up everything else because the idea is to package the border with ukraine aid. during the visit to the united states by your president this past week, he did give an interview to fox news, and he spoke about his meeting with speaker of the house mike johnson and president zelenskyy said, decision in december, decision in january, decision in february, the big difference is it's not about financing, it's about the morality. republicans heard your president say that and are now arguing he

was telling us it's not all that urgent. we have a few more months. are they misinterpreting your president? >> no. i think the president has been very direct and very open in all the meetings from president to vice president to senate to speaker describing how difficult the fight is, how many combat operation we was on a daily basis every day, including today, on how many drone attacks and other attacks, missile attacks, on ukraine we have. 34 drones yesterday just already 7 today. he also said that the time was of the essence, and he mentioned all the, you know, resolve that we were able to achieve not only in 2022 on the ground but 2023 in the black sea, but he was clear we need to stay the course and need money and support and especially the security assistance and we need it in

october, november. so no he was very clear, but, of course, we cannot get into the internal situation. we cannot tell people what to do. we can only ask americans to continue supporting us. time is important. >> so the white house says there's not a stalemate in ukraine, and the white house declassified intelligence saying russia lost 87% of their military personnel to injury or death since this war began. those are measured as successes. but as you know, ukraine's military hasn't made the gains that the u.s. had been hoping for on the battlefield. how do you change the trajectory? >> well, in effect, we have, so to be able to hold such a large landline and not allow russians to take any of our villages and also have the progress on the now bank of dnipro is a huge success, comparing our armed forces, comparing the capabilities. now we have a lot of success in

the black sea and i think that's what a lot of people overlook, that since june and july when the summer campaign started, we were sitting here with you discussing how we were praying for russia not to pull out from the grain corridor so that we can use it and we were completely at the mercy of them. we don't need to ask them now. we have the grain corridor because we have a, degraded their fleet so much, we got them all the way to their own parts from the crimean ports and it's a huge progress in the counteroffensive. >> thank you for being here. we'll be right back. mazing gift. laser measured floorliners... and cargo liners that fit vehicles perfectly. the cupfone to secure phones in any cupholder. and cupcoffee, when you're on the go. the pet feeding system to feed pets safely. or wow them with a gift card and let them choose.

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that's it for us today. thank you for watching. until next week for "face the nation" i'm margaret brennan. tn

new york. >> announcer: this is the "cbs overnight news." we'll have the latest from the middle east, including charlie d'agata's look inside a tunnel under gaza that israel claims hamas built for a large-scale attack. but first a powerful storm is roaring up the east coast right now. it's set to wreak havoc for millions of you ahead of the holiday season. fierce winds, even