this certainly will be a wake-up call for europe and the world that there are consequences to an escalating conflict in eastern ukraine. >> that was president obama just moments ago at the white house. i am krystal ball filling in for ronan today. >> two major international stories. the downing of malaysian airlines flight 17, as well as israel's ground force offensive into the gaza strip. >> all 298 people aboard that boeing 777 were killed. >> the deadliest aviation incident since 9/11. some of the accounts for the crash scene are really, really disturbing. >> eyewitnesses say many of the bodies found were still in their seats wearing their seat belts. >> it was sickening.

>> israel has launched a full-on ground assault in gaza. >> it's the first large-scale ground offensive by israel in gaza in more than five years. >> israel said the goal of this operation is to destroy a network of tunnels. >> one of the right wing ministers described it this way. israel now has gone from iron dome to iron fist. >> it was a powerful missile that struck the malaysian airliner. the weapons are russian made anti-aircraft missiles. >> vladimir putin is many things, but stupid is not among them. >> they've been shooting planes out of the sky already. they just shot the wrong one. >> he's empoured a group of people over whom he does not have control. he is influenced but not control. >> we have fast moving breaking developments on two major stories unfolding at this hour. the international community calling for immediate access to the crash site after malaysia airlines flight 17 was shot down yesterday over the skies of eastern ukraine. that's just 25 miles from the

russian border. the ntsb and fbi will be part of an international team of investigators heading to ukraun and president obama spoke about the tragedy confirming at least one american was in fact, killed in that crash. that was quinn lucas schansman, a dual dutch and american citizen. this appears to be his facebook page. the president also called on pro-russian forces to adhere to an immediate cease-fire. >> no one can deny the truth that is revealed in the awful images that we all have seen. and the eyes of the world are on eastern ukraine, and we are going to make sure that the truth is out. >> the united nations held an emergency meeting. that was this morning where u.s. ambassador to the u.n. samantha power stressed the need to keep the pressure on russia and to begin the investigation quickly. >> we have a duty to each and every one of those individuals. their families. and their countries to determine why that jet fell out of the sky

and to hold the perpetrators accountable. we must stop at nothing to bring those responsible to justice. >> and there is, of course, another major story that we are following today. that's israel's ground invasion of gaza. targeting the terror group hamas. it comes after a brief humanitarian cease-fire ended and efforts to negotiate a long-term truce failed. president obama just moments ago expressed support for israel. >> no nation should accept rockets being fired into its borders or terrorists tunnelling into its territory. the united states and our friends and allies are deeply concerned about the risks of further escalation and the loss of more innocent life. >> we will be covering both of these big stories. but first, the very latest an the investigation into the malaysia airlines flight 17 which claimed the lives of 298 innocent civilians. the pentagon briefing is getting

under way right now. we'll bring you any news as we get. tom costello joins us live in d.c. with more an what we know. tom, tell us first how will safety concerns impact this investigation going forward? >> i think it's a big concern. and actually, i think we need to kind of clarify the extent to which american personnel will be responding. we have one ntsb personnel and two fbi agents. and that's it right now. three people. that is not a go team as we typically know from the ntsb or the fbi. the reason is, it's a war zone. it's in a rebel-controlled territory. there are reports today of rebels firing on european observers who tried to come into the area already. and the ukrainian government does not have control over that area. the ukrainian government is the one that's asked for american assistance as part of this international team to come into this area but the trouble is this rebel controlled territory right here is vast. and they still have armaments and they are still involved in a

hot war with kiev, with the ukrainians. coming into this region is going to be potentially a deadly or a dangerous prospect, i should say. so again, ntsb sending a single person. the fbi two people. but they are probably, at this point, not going here. they're going to stage in kiev back in ukraine and hopefully wait for this international organization to assemble if -- if they can do that and if the ukrainians -- if the russian-backed rebels even allow an international group of observers to come in and try to investigate. but there's another point. let's talk about the actual hard ware that may have brought down this plane. we're talking about these buk missiles. it's a soviet-era missile in the possession of not only the rebels but also the ukrainian military. and that is what we believe brought down flight 17 as it was flying over ukrainian air space. keep in mind that if they manage to get the black boxes from the

wreckage field, those black boxes will tell them air speed, heading, altitude, and the flight -- the cockpit voice recorders will capture the moments and the conversation between the pilots. but it's not going to tell us who fired this missile. that is going to probably come from intelligence sources and also from the pentagon. so determining who brought down flight 17 is very much going to be an ongoing mystery but it is probably going to be coming from the cia and the pentagon and other international intelligence agencies. >> nbc's tom costello. thank you so much. we're going to go live to a pentagon briefing with navy rear admiral john kirby speaking at the pentagon about flight 17. let's listen in. >> and it is strange to think that it could be used by separatists without at least some measure of russian support and technical assistance.

it's strange to think they could do this without some measure of russian support and assistance. >> do you have evidence of that? >> look, there's a lot that's going to be investigated, and i think we want to let investigators do their work. i don't have an indication now that a system was brought over, and we don't exactly know who is responsible for firing that missile or with what assistance. what i'm saying is that that system is fairly sophisticated. >> what is the level of their training and assistance? does it include russian forces going across the border into ukraine to work as advisers or trainers side by side with the separatists? >> well, there have been russian -- there's been incu incursions across the border by russian aircraft. so i think we have -- we don't have any reason to suspect they haven't provided some measure of

support on the other side of that border. i mean, these paramilitary forces that we don't talk about as much anymore certainly didn't act or behave or organize like some rag tag militia. so nobody is suggesting that russian military advice and assistance hasn't somehow crossed that border. it's just unclear exactly how much and when and who. and again, that's what the investigators are going to look at. we've got to let them do that. >> are we to believe it was just a coincidence that the president announced sanctions directly on the maker of this buk system just a day before? >> i won't get into the thought process behind the president's specific decisions, but, clearly, these are another round of targeted sanctions designed

to change the calculus and president putin's decision making. what you are -- i seem to think what you are suggesting is that -- >> that you may have known there were -- >> i have no information that that's the case. >> and then the second question, what's the working theory about the intent? was this an intended military target gone awry? or was this simply an act of terrorism perhaps? >> we don't know. that's what we've got to let investigators figure out. we don't know what the motive was here. >> what is your theory? what is your working theory? >> i don't think we have a working theory at this point. this just happened yesterday. there's teams of investigators now trying to get to the site and pore through this. we have to let them do their job. >> admiral, people in this department have said before that there are about 10,000 to 12,000 regular russian troops inside the rshian side of the border, which is a build-up from a couple of weeks ago.

is that still your estimate? have those forces changed since this attack yesterday? and can you tell us about as much as you can what they are doing or what their postsurin te posture is in terms of possible incursion? >> i don't know of any major change to that presence. it's roughly still about 10,000 to 12,000 and fluctuates from week to week. the point is it's been over time a steady increase of these combined arms tactical battalions across the border on the russian side but to the southeast of ukraine. and they are close to the border. in many cases closer than those forces who were more aligned along the east. if you remember, we had tens of thousands that were along the eastern border with ukraine but not as close as these units appear to be. all they are doing is further

escalating tension. it's difficult to know what the intent is. it's a question you should ask the russian ministry of defense. but they are there. they are growing in size week by week and they continue to do nothing more than escalate the tension. >> the forces providing the weapons and support that you described a minute ago to the separatists sore that process separate from -- >> i haven't seen any indication they are actively involved in the provision of support to the separatists. i haven't seen that. but they are continuing to mass along that southern part of the border. >> two questions. that amassing of forces, does that include air defense artillery systems like the sa-11 that was used in the malaysian? have you seen air defense equipment on the russian side of the border in that build-up? >> i don't have an inventory of what they've got with them, but as i said, we assess that these are combined arms units. it's not just infantry troops but they have artillery

capability. they have armored capability. they are combined arms. and they are very ready. this is a very capable force, though smaller in number than what was aligned along the border before. >> you have an estimate of about 12,000 russian troops on the border in the russian side. obviously, the u.s. has been tracking, you know, the work of russian special operations forces, russian advisers and russian intelligence services in ukraine. is there an estimate of the size of that advisory presence inside the eastern ukraine by russian forces? is it a handful? is it 1,000 guys? >> i don't have a number for you on that. and that's less important than the fact they continue to do it. and we continue to see this support and resourcing and

advice given to these separatist groups. and we have every indication that that support is russian. we believe that there are -- there is russian support for the separatists inside ukraine, yes. >> admiral, when general breedlove was here a few weeks ago, he said the ukrainian separatists were receiving training on russian territory on using what he called vehicle-borne anti-aircraft systems. how much training can you elaborate has intensified in recent weeks and was he referring to an sa-11 type system? >> i don't know what type of system he was referring to, but we'd agree with the assessment that some separatists have received some training and these vehicle-borne systems. there's no question about that. but i don't have -- i don't have an estimate of how many or who

is doing it. i just don't know right now. >> that would raise particular alarms. you know, vehicle borne anti-aircraft systems is pretty serious. >> it is pretty serious. we've been taking it seriously and we've been monitoring the situation there as closely as we can. and we have been -- nobody in the pentagon has been shy about talking about the continued threat posed by these separatist elements inside ukraine or frankly by those combined arms forces that continue to amass along the border. >> is the pentagon or the u.s. government increases surveillance along the area along the border in the wake of this disaster? >> i would just say that we're monitoring events as closely as we can. and i really don't have any more to add than that. >> you don't want to say whether it's increased? >> we're monitoring events as closely as we can. >> going back to general breedlove's comments, were there any warnings given to commercial

airline companies or any civilian airline authorities about the existence or that this level of training for those -- >> there was a notice to airmen put out. i youthink you guys know that. it warned civilian aircraft to fly -- to take care over the skies of ukraine and to fly at higher altitudes. i'm not an expert on that process, but there was an international notice to civilian air carriers about that. >> was that prompted by what general breedlove said was the training of vehicle-borne -- >> you'd have to talk to the faa and other agencies that handle that. i don't know what prompted it but if you're going to issue a warning like that, it's based on concerns that you have about surface to air missile activity and capabilities. yeah. >> you said that you don't know what the intent was of whoever fired the missile. were there any indications there were other airplanes, perhaps

military planes ukrainian military planes in the sky at that time? and also, is there any concern, the president keeps saying if putin wants to stop this, he can. are there any concerns that perhaps this is a situation that is poised to spiral out of control and perhaps russia doesn't have the control over the separatists and if so, how are you preparing? >> on your first question, i don't know. this is ukrainian air space controlled by ukrainian authorities. i'd refer you to them to speak about what else was flying in the air at the time. we wouldn't have that here. on your second question, i think the president has been very clear about what the responsibilities and obligation of president putin and moscow are right now. which is to de-escalate the tension. respect the territorial integrity of ukraine and to cease the support for the terrorist activities. which i said continues. and in some cases is intensifying. >> even since yesterday's incident? >> well, i mean, just yesterday,

i don't know any big delta between their support from yesterday to today, but we haven't seen any sign that it's not -- that it's stopping. >> admiral, there had been previous to yesterday's tragedy, there had been two or three, at least, ukrainian transport planes shot down. does your intelligence and your knowledge indicate the system that shot down the plane yesterday was a more powerful, more sophisticated system requiring more training, or was it similar to the system that was used to shoot down the ukrainian transport planes? >> again, we're investigating this right now. it's unclear exactly what brought down the other aircraft you're talking about. i mean, we know they were shot down, but those incidents are still being looked into, and i don't have any great visibility

on what brought them down. but i'd like to just kind of bring you back to the larger point here is that these aircraft are being shot down. and while it's unclear exactly who is pulling the trigger here, it's pretty clear that it's doing nothing to de-escalate the attention inside ukraine and to bring to this crisis a peaceful resolution. and now innocent people, simply flying from one city to another, have been killed. and brought into this. so let's not lose sight of the big picture here. it matters a lot less, you know, exactly what system it was and a lot more that it happened and it needs to stop. >> do you believe that whoever shot this plane down could have mistaken it for a ukraunian military transport? >> i'm not going to get motivations, the intent, the reasoning that went into this.

that's for the investigators to figure out. we simply don't have that level of detail at this point. >> are there normally friend or foe measures on systems like this? it was an accident. would that reveal a lack of training on -- >> i don't know. i'm not an expert on that system. i wouldn't begin to get up there and dissect it. investigators will pile through this and they'll figure that stuff out. >> who are these investigators? it's an international investigation. >> does it include dod, cia, justice? >> there's no plans right now for a dod representative on this. i won't speak for other federal agencies, but i believe that there will be some other entities from the federal government, individuals going over there to participate in it. i don't have the make up of the team. it will be an -- >> do you anticipate -- >> i have no expectation that there will be a dod represent

tough on this team. david? >> the president said he saw no role for the u.s. military in responding to this. but whatever happened to that list of requests for equipment that the ukrainians sent at the beginning of this? >> we continue to review requests for ukrainian requests for military assistance. the focus of that remains an the nonlethal side right now. and the $33 million that the president has authorized of material has been getting to ukrainian -- the ukrainian armed forces and border services. so the support continues to flow. we continue to take a look at their needs and addressing each in turn. >> last i remember, it was mres. is there any -- do you have a

more complete list? >> yeah. there's been more. recent deliverez include radios, body armor, individual first aid kid kitts, sleeping mats, uniform items. over the next few months, additional items will start moving through the procurement process to include night vision going toils, thermal imageers, kevlar helmets, explosive ordnance disposal robots and some additional radios. and there's been some other equipment given to ukraine's border guards. barbed wire, alarm systems. excavators, trucks, generators, that kind of thing. communications gear. and again, all this is part of a package of more than $33 million now that the president has

approved. and that stuff continues to flow. >> haven't gotten there yet and why -- it's been a long time since they requested that. >> they are working through -- it's working through the procurement process. i don't have a tick tock on exactly where it is or when it entered the process, but it's working through there and they'll get there soon. >> is the concern here that this would have all been a proxy war between the u.s. and russians if, in fact, the u.s. were to provide lethal aid? >> look, i'm not going to get into hypotheticals here. the concern is that the territorial integrity of ukraine has been violated and continues to be violated by its neighbor in russia. and that needs to stop. >> to your knowledge, who has the black box? >> i don't know. >> i mean, is that a concern that evidence may be tampered with on the ground? >> i said it at the outset. we want all sides to agree to providing investigators safe and unimpeded access to the site so that tay they can do the kind of work they need to do to include

recovery of the black box. so we can find out all the circumstances surrounding this downing. >> have the ukrainians asked for lethal assistance, weapons, ammunition, things between the nan lethal articles you mentioned? >> they've requested a lot of material. some of it lethal in nature. but the focus has been and remains an the nonlethal side of assistance. >> they have asked for weapons -- >> i'm not going to detail everything on the -- >> all right. that was the pentagon press secretary john kirby answering questions about the downing of mh-17. joining us, a few guests to help us make sense of the latest events. lester holt, weekend anchor of n"nbc nightly news" and someone who has, for better or worse, extensively covered airline disaster. also john cox, msnbc aviation analyst and pilot and general barry mccaffrey, msnbc military analyst. thank you for joining us. lester, i wanted to start with

you. we know so far we have three americans who we are sending. one ntsb, two from the fbi. what will the role of the americans be in this investigation? >> the ntsb role is a bit odd. normally they would go with a go team and they'd look at every factor from survivablity to what actions the pilot, the health of the airplane, all those sorts of things. the real question is to confirm it was shot down and if possible find out by who. fbi will contribute to that, but from that point of view, it's a different kind of investigation. they can look at shrapnel patterns on the aircraft. i would bet that some of the video that's already come out of there that there are experts who have eyeballed that and may have seen things that will give some idea of what exactly happened. it's an unusual kind of investigation. it's not a typical airline disaster response. >> and to that point, there's been a lot of questions about where the black box may be if the separatists have potentially already grabbed it, even

potentially already given it to russia. but do we actually need the black box in an investigation like this to figure out the importance pieces of what happened and who did it? >> it would be helpful if this was a typical plane crash. if we're talking about a missile, it may only -- you'll hear maybe sounds of breakup, a loss of data depending how quickly this plane broke apart. maybe if there was still power you'd hear something the pilots said or any noises. it certainly won't tell you who fired the missile. maybe by chance one of the pilots says what's the flash off to the left side or something coming up. but i don't think it will be very useful to prove what i think they already believe they know. >> general mccaffrey, the u.s. believes that this was a surface to air missile fired from this russian-made missile system, the buk system. is that something that an amateur could sort of pick up and use or would they have needed to get extensive training from someone, whether it was the

russians or someone else, to be able to effectively operate this missile system? >> you know, it's one of the odd things about these very sophisticated systems. to some extent, they are easy to use. i mean, you can give a guy five hours instructions on some of these things and you can launch a missile and get it off toward a target. the question is, how do you operate them as part of a system where you're plugged into target acquisition radar where you know what the civilian flight paths are. so it looks as if in this case, this was likely an incompetent, partially trained crew that wasn't adequately under the control of an area defense system. and they -- i mean, nothing is more fool hearty than engaging a known flight path civilian airliner with a civilian transponder flying on an already predicted course and altitude. and they did that. so that means to me low level,

incompetence, engaged and killed accidentally, undoubtedly, a target. >> you've been drawing this tight distinction between the russians and the separatists in terms of who actually pulled the trigger. but is there really that bright line of distinction, or are there some russians who are involved with the separatists and flowing back and forth? >> no question. russians are across the border. the guy running this whole operation for the separatists appears to be a russian intelligence operative. we know they are putting equipment across the border, tanks, artillery systems. there's volunteers being rounded up in moscow and apparently put in. there's training going on in russia for separatist units. so, yeah, they are involved. i think we have to underscore, having been in and out of the ukraine several times, the eastern part of the ukraine doesn't need to be coached to be hostile to a ukrainian central government. these are largely russian

speaking people and they are alientated from this government and they don't want to be part of it. >> captain john cox is also with us. captain cox, one of the big questions is, was this a mistake for this passenger airline to be flying in that vicinity to start with? is it common for passenger jets to fly over active confluict zones? >> there was a release by the ukrainian government to the international aviation community that said there's going to be air operations, and there is potential risk of a conflict area. so do not fly under 32,000 feet. this airplane was in air space that was totally normally being utilized by commercial transports. it was at 33,000 feet. a number of airlines around the world had made the decision that -- to utilize this air space. it was common. it had been going on for months.

so the investigators will review the process that malaysian airlines looked to evaluate the risk. but as to should they have been there, with the benefit of hindsight, i think we would all say no. but knowing up until yesterday, no commercial airliner has ever been fired on by a surface to air missile at this altitude. so there was no indication that it would be any different yesterday. so it looks like the malaysian decision to utilize that route was reasonable. >> yeah, so in retrospect, obviously, different decisions would have been made. but at the time it seemed like a reasonable risk to take. guys, hang with us. once again, president obama spoke just moments ago about this crisis. and he had some tough words aimed at russia. >> my concern is, obviously, that there's been a lot of misinformation generated in eastern ukraine generally. this should snap everybody's

heads to attention and make sure that we don't have time for propaganda. we don't have time for games. we need to know exactly what happened and everybody needs to make sure that we're holding accountable those who committed this outrage. >> joining susnicholas kristof. thank you for being with us. >> sure. >> have you seen any indcations today that other nato powers are going to up the ante against russia because it really hasn't been the u.s. that's been reluctant to take the hard line here. it's really been tougher to get europe on board because, obviously, they are more economically intertwined with russia. >> yeah, i mean, we haven't seen that so far, but i would be very surprised if that doesn't happen. i think that we're going to see two things happen. one is greater toughness in europe. certainly neths lly netherland germany as well. this is something that people can identify with because they can imagine being on that plane. and secondly, i think that putin

himself is going to feel that he has to back off a little bit. this raises the cost of the kind of deception operation that he's been running. and so i think that very tragically, this is going to create more of an opening for the ukrainian government to consolidate control in the east. >> what is putin's next move in your view because as you are pointing out, he's sort of playing this double game where publicly he claimed to be for peace. saying some of the right things at least and then behind the scenes, he's really escalating the conflict in ukraine and whether or not russian forces were directly involved, whether or not this was directly a buk missile system. certainly russia has been involved in driving tensions there. so is this a point where he feels pressure to actually back off? >> i think it is. we're seeing already sort of conflicting signals from moscow. there is partly an effort through the pro-putin media to

kind of cast doubt on what happened. maybe this was just a plane that had some kind of aircraft failure. maybe it wasn't actually shot down. maybe the ukrainian government shot it down. raising all kinds of possibilities that from the outside seem pretty absurd. and those will get a certain amount of traction within russia. but at the end of the day, putin has been under pressure. he's going to be under greater pressure now and already we're seeing that in today's statement, he to some degree backed off of the kind of tougher attitude that he took yesterday. the one thing he said that was absolutely right was this would not have happened if there hadn't been warfare in eastern ukraine. the problem is the people to blame for that are not kiev. it's putin himself who has at every step of the way created that unrest and created that warfare in the east. >> lester, from the u.s. domestic political perspective, is president obama going to be under a lot of pressure here to do more in ukraine in terms of backing up the ukrainian

government potentially providing more military support there? >> if you listen to his remarks today, i think he left himself some room there. he also left himself, though. breathing room by saying we want to get to the bottom of this. we want to make this an international, a world issue. he's got some room there to certainly call upon the europeans to take a more active role in this. and as strong as his remarks were toward russia, he did allow that we don't have all the facts yet. and he didn't entirely point the finger. >> he's been very cautious here both waiting to get what he did know before coming out and making a statement and then still, as you said, reserving that fact that we don't have all the answers yet. lester holt, john cox, general mccaffrey and nicholas kristof, thanks to all of you. coming up, as the white house takes a stand over the downing of flight 17, the president also spoke out about the crisis in israel and gaza. we'll have more an that when we come back. ♪ [ cheers and applause ]

at a moment like this, i'm glad i use new tampax pearl active! [ female announcer ] new tampax pearl active is 20% slimmer, totally comfortable and 100% as absorbent as regular pearl! [ cheering ] new tampax pearl active. [ cheering ] veggies you're cool... reworking the menu. mayo, corn dogs...you are so out of here! ahh... the complete balanced nutrition of great tasting ensure. 24 vitamins and minerals. 9 grams of protein... with 30% less sugars than before. ensure, your #1 dr. recommended brand now introduces ensure active. muscle health. clear protein drink and high protein.

targeted nutrition to feed your active life. ensure. take life in.

thank ythank you for defendiyour sacrifice. and thank you for your bravery. thank you colonel. thank you daddy. military families are uniquely thankful for many things, the legacy of usaa auto insurance can be one of them. if you're a current or former military member or their family,

get an auto insurance quote and see why 92% of our members plan to stay for life. welcome back to the show. and to reset what we know at this time, a malaysia airline boeing 777 was traveling from amsterdam to kuala lumpur but was struck by a surface to air missile as it flew over eastern ukraine at about 33,000 feet. 283 passengers were on board including at least one american and 15 crew members. the question they are focusing on right now is who is responsible for bringing the plane down? that is the big question here. joining me now from moscow is nbc's jim maceda. jim, the kremlin is saug thying putin has called the malaysian prime minister and expressed condolences over the downing of

this passenger jet. but is there any sense, has putin given any indication that he takes any responsibility for this crash? >> every time vladimir putin condoles with his people or with any people from his point of view and from his supporters' pount view of he's taking another step on the moral high ground. whether it's offering condolences to malaysian or dutch officials or calling for a moment of silence at an event just after the plane crash. he looks measured and thinks sensitive, presidential. contrast that with ukrainian president poroshenko calling for war, for revenge against terrorists. so this is all calculated. when it comes to taking any responsibility for the crash, that's not going to happen. it's just not in the cards. on the contrary, putin claimed the ukrainian government and army for actually creating a culture of violence, of breaking the peace, calling off the cease-fire and launching the

anti-terror operations. that said, putin never denied that the pro-russian separatists he supports fired the missile. he never denied that. he simply changed the focus and he does that very cleverly. >> jim maceda, thank you for that report. to help dissect this diplomatic disaster, we have eli lake and jonathan alter, a political reporter and msnbc contributor. jonathan, the president's critics have been quick to go ahead and weigh in. let's take a listen to what congressman peter king had to say. i'm sorry. we don't have that bite, but he was, obviously, very critical. folks saying he's been behind the 8 ball on the republican side, some leveling that criticism that he hasn't backed up the ukrainian government enough. are we going to see a lot of pressure on the president here to do more in ukraine as a result of this situation? >> there will be some of that pressure, but the focus really should be on vladimir putin.

i think the way these things tend to get analyzed in the united states is that's, you know, it's our president who has messed up. especially if you are a republican critic. and it's putin who is the crafty wily russian president who has everything under his control. actually, this is a terrible setback for vladimir putin. it exposes a kind of transparent but nonetheless hard to expose double game that he's been playing where he's been claiming he wants a cease-fire. he wants peace in eastern ukraine. but, meanwhile, he's shoving as many weapons across the border as he can, aiding the russian separatists. so that game has now been exposed. the europeans who just a couple of days ago, including the dutch, were extremely reluctant to join with president obama in imposing sanctions on russia are now -- they are going to come under very intense pressure to join with president obama.

so my point is that the president is in a strong position now in terms of the way he is confronting this particular crisis. >> also a bit in that he just levied additional sanctions even before this incident. >> and just very quickly, he also -- the press conference today indicated he knew more than he was saying, so i think they might have a couple of aces up their sleeves in terms of going before the court of world opinion. at the u.n. perhaps and laying out what some of our intelligence sources have provided in terms of details. >> already indicated happened here. i want to turn to the middle east because we have two big stories that we're covering here. obviously, israel launching a ground offensive in gaza. and you have a new piece in the daily beast that is examining the foreign aid that the u.s. gives to israel. and you cite some washington typically pro-israel folks who are saying now they think it's time to reduce our aid which is

very unusual. are you seeing that as a growing sentiment here? >> i think the issue is that israel has had such a boom if its economy and it's just discovered natural gas that the idea that the u.s. should subsidize a quarter of israel's annual defense budget seems out of whack. there are very good american reasons, you could say. it's a subsidy in many ways where most of it goes back to u.s. defense industries. because when the united states gives countries, you know, lots of military grants and military aid, it's used to buy u.s. weapons. but at the same time, you know, i think that there is also a sense that, you know, there have been a number of conservatives who think that politically and diplomatically, president obama has pressured israel too much. criticized it too much in public and the aid is a very important piece of leverage. if that was removed and the argument is that israel should have a happy with the united states similar to canada or the united kingdom. it's an interesting point. i don't think the main

u.s./pro-israel lobbying group a apac will lobby for it. it's a growing sentiment on the right among some of the libertarians and also for a long time you've seen a number of progressives say the u.s. shouldn't give so much money to israel. >> eli lake and jonathan alter, thank you both for your insights, as always. coming up, a settlement in a major lawsuit that will reverberate across college campuses nationwide. famed attorney gloria allred joins us for an exclusive interview. that's after the break. the cadillac summer collection is here. ♪ ♪ during the cadillac summer's best event,

lease this all new 2014 cts for around $459 a month or purchase with 0% apr and make this the summer of style. but parallel parking isn't one you do a lof them.ings great. you're either too far from the curb. or too close to other cars... it's just a matter of time until you rip some guy's bumper off. so, here are your choices: take the bus. or get liberty mutual insurance. for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual

won't raise your rates due to your first accident. see car insurance in a whole new light. call liberty mutual insurance. i'm living the life of dreams. i'm living the life of dreams, with good people all around me. i'm living the life of dreams. no! i'm living the life of dreams. i'm feeling hopefully. feeling quite hopefully, it's right up here, turn right, turn right. with good people all around me. right, right, right, right, right! with good people all around me. ok look you guys, she's up here somewhere. with good people all around me. there she is! cara! come here girl! i'm feeling hopefully. and the light shines bright all through the night. oh i don't know it. and the light shines bright all through the night. yes, you do. and the light shines bright all through the night. 42. and the light shines bright all through the night. good job. and the light shines bright all through the night. and the light shines bright all through the night. and our dreams are making us nice stories. and my loves are well sleeping just right. and i know know know know now... ...that we're, living the life of dreams...

dreams... there's no monsters down here, [music fades out] dreams...dreams...dreams... it's just mr. elephant. come on, let's get to bed. fancy feast broths. they're irresistabowl... completely unbelievabowl... totally delectabowl. real silky smooth or creamy broths. everything she's been waiting for. carefully crafted with real seafood, real veggies, and never any by-products or fillers. wow! being a cat just got more enjoyabowl. fancy feast broths. wow served daily. a major win today for survivors of campus sexual assault. in an announcement that occurred just moments ago, we learned the university of connecticut has settled a federal title 9 lawsuit filed by five current and former students. the bulk of the nearly $1.3

million settlement will go to a former university hockey player. she alleged that she was kicked off the team after reporting she had been raped by a male hockey player. all five women in the case claim the school responded to their sexual assault complaints with indifference. the school, however, has not admitted any wrongdoing. joining me in an exclusive interview is gloria allred, the attorney on the case and carolyn luby, the lead sexual assault survivor in this case. thank you so much for being with us today. congratulations. gloria, you are surrounded there by your co-counsel and by the other survivors in your case. in your view, did the university of connecticut fail these women? >> well, we prefer to concentrate an the positive result, which these very, very courageous rape and sexual assault survivors obtained in the settlement today. and we're very excited because

they filed the lawsuit. now it's settled. and we feel that not only uconn but also the connecticut legislature and the governor have paid a great deal of attention to the issues raised by these women. as a result, they have won change and greater protections for other college students at the university of connecticut. >> carolyn, it takes so much courage for you and your associates there to come forward. do you feel like justice has been done now with this settlement and with the steps that the university has agreed to take to make sure this doesn't happen to other women or men in the future? >> i'm very glad that our cases have been taken seriously, not only by uconn but at the state level and also at a national level. it was addressed by the white house task force president obama spoke about issues of title 9. so i'm very optimistic about the change that's not only going to occur on uconn's campus but the

changes that are going to occur at state and national levels as well because of lawsuits and complaints filed just like our own. >> carolyn, do you think these steps go far enough? is there more that schools could and should do to make sure they pr are protecting young men and women that are victims of sexual assault? >> i think that the universities who listen to their students are very, very capable of creating chaunge. that's what we've seen in the uconn lawsuit. the result of the uconn lawsuit is a result of communication between students, our representation and uconn officials to find common ground. so i definitely think that with communication and working together, we can create chaunng. >> we've seen an increased national focus on an epidemic of sexual assault on college campuses. do you think that increased awareness is just that? or is there a rising incidents that we're seeing as campus sexual assault? >> well, i think that what we're

seeing is college students who are rape and sexual assault survivors understanding that they do have rights under title 9. and that they have they have a right to safe campuses, that they have a right to a process once they report the rape or sexual assault so their college or university. that is that the college needs to hold a hearing and afford due process not only to accused but also to the alleged victim. and then to impose appropriate punishments or sanctions if as and when they find the perpetrator accountable. and they need to have good communication with the victims and afford them all their rights under title nine. that's what we see a national trend, of people knowing their rights and asserting them. >> thank you both so much for your time. carolyn, also for your courage. we do want to say we have a statement here from uconn. they said in part, the settlement, quote, was reached to avoid the lengthy and

expensive process of litigating the disputed claims at trial. uconn categorically denies the lawsuit's allegations and says several new measures are under way to address the problem. we also wanted to give you an update on this week's call to action on jada, the 16-year-old whose alleged sexual assault went viral on social media. we took this photo of her earlier this week with the #iamjada to help her reclaim her diet and dignity. since then, more than 12,600 people have tweeted their support for jada using that hash tag, including luma, who said, may justice be done. mary said, join, i am jada by tweeting your own photo. rape is never okay, nor is it a laughing matter. and marcus instagramed this photo of five people joining our call saying, humans supporting other humans #amazing. thousands of you have already joined our call and we're hoping that thousands more will to keep

up the pace, please continue to tweet with the hash tag #iamjada and take your picture to help jada stand strong against those who victimized her online. we'll continue to stay with this story and keep track of what happens to jada. we'll be right back. woooo. i know what you're thinking. you're thinking beneful. [announcer]and why wouldn't he be? beneful has wholesome grains,real beef,even accents of spinach,carrots and peas. it has carbohydrates for energy and protein for those serious muscles. [guy] aarrrrr! [announcer]even accents of vitamin-rich veggies. [guy] so happy! you love it so much. yes you do! but it's good for you,too. [announcer] healthful. flavorful. beneful. from purina. the porter was so incredibly...

careful... careless... with our bags. and the room they gave us -- it was... beautiful. a broom closet. but the best part but the worst part was the shower. my wife drying herself with the... egyptian cotton towels... shower curtain... defined that whole vacation for her. don't just visit new york. visit tripadvisor new york. [ male announcer ] with millions of reviews, a visit to tripadvisor makes any destination better. and a razor that e who understands my sensitive skin. venus embrace sensitive. more than a strip. an entire ribbon of gliding gels surround 5 comfort-coated blades for less irritation. venus embrace sensitive. a perfect match for

as the experts in investigate who took down malaysia airlines flight 17, we wanted to end here by remembering the nearly 300 lives that were lost amid the wreckage. clues that reveal a bit of who these passengers were. souvenirs they were bringing back or items they thought they might need on their long journey. we know there were a number of prominent a.i.d.s. researchers on that flight, all headed to a major international conference being held in australia. and sadly, we've also learned that three infants, babies, were on board, seated on their parents' laps. and we now know this story as well. a young woman, 25 years old, was from the netherlands but was studying for her doctorate at the university of indiana. she also competed there on the

women's rowing team. university president issued a statement sending his deepest sympathies to her family. and we now also know the name of the one american who we know was on board flight 17, quinn lucas seansman had dual american and dutch citizenship. he was studying international business in amsterdam according to his facebook page. our thoughts are with all of their families as they deal with this very difficult time. that wraps up things for this edition. thank you for joining me. ronan will be back on monday. i'll see you on "the cycle" at 3:00 p.m. eastern. joy reid picks up our coverage next with "the reid report." oul. if energy could come from anything? or if power could go anywhere? or if light could seek out the dark? what would happen if that happens? anything.

humans. we are beautifully imperfect creatures living in an imperfect world. that's why liberty mutual insurance has your back, offering exclusive products like optional better car replacement, where if your car is totaled, we give you the money to buy one a model year newer. call... and ask an insurance expert about all our benefits today, like our 24/7 support and service, because at liberty mutual insurance, we believe our customers do their best

out there in the world, so we do everything we can to be there for them when they need us. plus, you could save hundreds when you switch, up to $423. call... today. liberty mutual insurance -- responsibility. what's your policy? good afternoon, everyone. this is "the reid report." i'm joy reid. right now we're following breaking news in two big stories. >> i can't believe that, you know, they've lost another plane. >> it's a young couple. always laughing and always

together. hard work. and now they're gone. >> nearly 300 families are mourning the victim of malaysia airlines flight 17, which was shot out of the sky over ukraine. and we've learned there was one american among those killed. we'll get you up to date on the major developments unfolding in the investigation and reaction from around the world. also, the situation in gaza, where just seconds ago air strikes lit up the night sky. it comes as israeli ground forces push deeper into gaza amid new calls from hard liners to crush hamas completely. but first, as all sides continue to deny firing the soviet-made surface-to-air missile that brought down malaysia airlines flight 17, president obama is issuing a forceful indictment of russia's role in the conflict. >> we know these separatists have received a steady flow of support from russia. this includes arms and training. it