i totally get that. after the historic national strategy to count anti-semitism, now he's unleashing actions to support american jews who are under threat, getting hamas off our college campuses, making sure universities enforce title 6 law to protect jewish and israeli students, make sure dei programs are designed to help, not harm jewish kids. this is what we want and we want it now. jonathan greenblatt, thank you to you. to ambassador alon pinkas and general twitty, thank you. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." follow us on social media @mitchellreports. "chris jansing reports" starts right now. good day. i'm chris jansing live at msnbc

headquarters in new york city. we're awaiting for the update on the war effort from israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu while an extraordinary and rare piece of good news for israel and its military just came to us. the idf now saying they managed to rescue a female israeli soldier who had been held hostage by hamas for more than three weeks. what it tells us about the ground operations and the new phase of the war in gaza coming up. the white house jumping into action after a rise in anti-semitism on u.s. campuses. donald trump once again pushing the envelope of a gag order, put back in place just yesterday to keep him from going after people involved in his d.c. case. this morning he called the judge who ordered it, quote, a trump hater who is incapable of giving him a fair trial.

so now what? we start in israel where a rapidly escalating crisis is threatening prime minister benjamin netanyahu's leadership at a critical time, just as israel's war effort shifts into a new and more intense phase. all weekend israeli troops have pounded gaza by land and air with armored units and troops pushing deep into the territory and warplanes hitting hundreds of targets. but all of that may have been overshadowed by a single stunning post put out by the prime minister himself after midnight saturday in which he deflected plame for the hamas attack, pinning it instead on his own military and intelligence leaders. under no circumstances and at no stage was prime minister netanyahu warned of war intentions on the part of hamas, the post read. on the contrary, the assessment the entire sury echelon, including the head of military intelligence and the head of shin bat, the internal security agency was that hamas was

deterred. this was the assessmen presented time and again to the prime minister and the cabinet by all the security echelon and the intelligence community including right up until the outbreak of the war. well, netanyahu deleted that post and apologized four hours later, but by then the public and political backlash was already in full swing. netanyahu's own national unity chairman benny gantz seemed to channel the majority of israelis writing, quote, when we are at war leadership needs to display responsibility. anything else, he says, hurts the country. i want to bring in nbc's raf sanchez in jerusalem. ralph, we should add that compounding all of this should be the reactions within the israeli community. now some good news, they've rescued a hostage apparently. tell us exactly what we know.

>> reporter: in the last few minutes the israeli military saying they rescued a young soldier named private ori magadeesh. they say she's in medically good condition. they released a photograph with her with her family. she looked well, obviously. we cannot tell from a photograph what she's seen, what she's been through in the last three weeks. from the outside she looked well. chris, as you said, this is the first time since october 7th that israel's security forces have been able to rescue a hostage. there have been four hostages released previously by hamas at a time and place of hamas' choosing. in this case the israeli military is saying their forces who have been operating inside gaza increasingly deep and with

increasing frequency have rescued this one female soldier. chris, we have no details about where this soldier was found, what conditions she was being held in, whether there were other hostages who were with her or not. our working assumption throughout this hostage crisis has been that the hostages who were seen as just invaluable human bargaining chips by hamas were being held somewhere in that vast network of tunnels underneath gaza city and other parts of the strip. we don't at this point have any details where this young soldier was found, but this announcement will be giving hope to the hundreds of other families across israel that potentially there could be more rescues ahead for their loved ones. i should tell you, chris, those families need hope right now, because this has been an absolutely agonizing weekend for them. we have been speaking to them. they are terrified that the beginning of israel's expanded ground operations inside of gaza will spell the end of any chance

of a negotiated solution to try to get their loved ones out. the term that they have been using, chris, is an everyone for everyone deal. they're calling on the government of prime minister netanyahu to release all palestinian prisoners held in israeli jails in exchange for those 230 or so hostages who are being held. the prime minister has not committed to that publicly. his argument is that rather than the ground offensive, meaning the end of the chance to get the hostages back, he says the stepped-up military pressure on hamas makes it more likely that they will negotiate for the hostages. that is a theory we're going to see tested in the coming days. it is not one that is deeply reassuring to the families of the hostages. as you said, chris, it comes after this pretty stunning tweet from the prime minister where in the middle of this crisis, in the middle of this war, he appeared to place the blame on the israeli military, on the

israeli security services. as you mentioned, he did apologize for that tweet. i've interviewed the prime minister. i've covered him for years. this is not a man who likes to apologize, who likes to be seen to be backing down. criticism was coming, not just from inside his national unity government, but even from inside that very small war cabinet where he's included benny gantz, the former operation leader who is now part of that government and clearly the prime minister felt it was unsustainable to be holding on to that position in that moment of cries sglis raf sanchez, thank you. i want to bring in janine zachariah former jerusalem bureau chief for "the washington post," currently a lecturer at stanford university. let me get your reaction to this female soldier who has been rescued. >> i think it demonstrates that the israeli army is moving

deliberately and slowly, not only to be able to oust most of the hamas fighter terrorists in the northern part of the strip where they're concentrating military efforts, but to actually try to locate some of the hostages. it shows, as we expected, these 230 hostages are probably scattered about. while a victory, as raf mentioned, you still have 230 more including infants and the elderly. there was another video that was released by hamas today of three israeli women hostages. one of the hostages spoke -- i believe she's about 44 years old, was screaming in hebrew to get us out of here, we've been here for 23 days. indicting bibi. there was a big debate about whether they should show hamas propaganda or not. the hostage crisis is center for many if not most right now. how do they achieve military objectives of getting rid of

hamas, making sure they no longer rule the gaza strip but to extricate these people safely. >> the family members are saying, look, the more this escalation continues, the less they feel the chances are there will be a safe way to get their families released. are they right to worry? >> of course they're right to worry. who knows what's going to happen at any stage. the big fear, frankly, is you'll start seeing potentially, god forbid, executions broadcast, the way hamas broadcasted live, their murderous rampage in israel on october 7th. there is that concern there. i think what the international community needs to be focused on right now is figuring out how to get these people out. there's a lot of pressure on israel to expand humanitarian assistance going into israel which they should be putting pressure on egypt as well to let aid in. i think if there could be a

louder condemnation of hamas for taking these civilians hostage and putting more pressure on them to release them, that would obviously go a long way to achieving that goal. >> let me ask you about the press conference we're expecting from benjamin netanyahu. it comes now after what has been an incredibly intense several hours. remade that posting over the weekend. he took it down. there was widespread criticism within and outside of his government that he's accepting no responsibility. he's trying to put the blame elsewhere. what would you expect to hear from him, and what are your questions for him? >> first of all, this should not be government by tweet right now. this is a catastrophic crisis in israel right now, in the entire middle east, in the campuses, as you were talking about. he should stay off x or twitter or whatever you want to call it. he had a disastrous press conference last night alongside what he's calling his security cabinet right now. i have to say, netanyahu was

right in the sense that there was a cataclysmic intelligence and operational failure on the part of the idf, the israel defense forces here. the problem is he needed, also, to take responsibility as the prime minister. 80% of strams hold him personally responsible here. while hamas was planning a massacre of 1400 israelis, he was busy trying to hold on to power with an extremely right wing government to avoid going to jail on corruption charges, so he's been a little distracted. i think there needs to be acknowledgment of that. at the same time i don't think it's the time to hold a vote of no confidence in him. i think he'll muddle his way through this phase of the operation. if he's speaking in english, which i think the next press conference will be in english, he's going to reiterate the scale of the horror that was inflicted on israelis. he's going to talk about how

hamas is to blame for this and if you're worried about what's going on in the gaza strip right now in terms of civilian casualties or the lack of aid, that you should focus on hamas which is storing fuel and food and weapons for a long, drawn-out fight. he's going to say israel has the right to defend themself. i'm sure he'll mention iran. he'll thank the united states for their support. i don't know how clearly he's going to identify the military objectives beyond the stated ones which are to dismantle hamas and make it so they no longer can threaten israel from the gaza strip. >> there was military and there are humanitarian concerns. we've had any number of representatives from humanitarian organizations, a representative from doctors without borders, describing some of the horrific scenes that all of us have heard about and read about. babies that are dying, children if not the largest number of

people who were killed, very close to it. with all this in mind, do you think there's a clock on these israeli operations or when there's a suggestion this could go on for months and potentially even years, that that is a realistic possibility? >> you know, i don't know how long this is going to take in terms of the operational aspects of it. how do you dislodge a terrorist organization that's been ruling an enclave 25 miles by six miles since 2007, have prepared for it. they're buried into these tunnels. they'll have to go tunnel by tunnel. they're going tactically throughout -- i see he's getting ready to speak. i'm very shocked that there's not more of a humanitarian corridor going through egypt right now to at least at a minimum get the injured out of gaza, to let the foreign passport holders at least out and to get more food in through

the rafah crossing. i think that's something achievable in the near term n. the longer term, we're going to have to see what happens. what i do know is that there's no way that israel can allow from their perspective, they're not going to allow hamas to continue to rule there. there's going to be some toppling of a hamas regime one way or the other. there's going to have to be some kind of interim control established there. there's already some discussions of whether you expand the israeli authorities that operate in the west bank to a temporary control of the gaza strip. right now they're fighting street by street. i see one of the members of the cabinet there. >> janine zachariah, thank you so much. we'll continue to keep our eye on that in tel aviv to wait for the prime minister. in the meantime, the idf says there are about 240 hostages still in gaza. nbc's meagan fitzgerald is in cairo for us. what more do we know about he's

hostages, and what about the american citizens still being held in gaza as well? >> reporter: chris, we know that ambassador david satterfield, a special envoy to the middle east, who is operating all around the humanitarian aid has been here in cairo having negotiations. we've heard from a source familiar with the negotiations who describes it as a puzzle piece, a very complex situation, that they are working on. the facts are, it's been more than two weeks now since americans, the more than 400 americans and their dependents were contacted by the state department telling them to move south to the rafah border crossing in anticipation of being able to cross. that has not happened. a lot of frustration. we've spoken with palestinian americans, people trapped inside gaza around their frustration and desperation around getting out. we've spoken to their family members who continue to try to contact the white house, anybody

that will listen, to try to get these folks out. that's what we're waiting and watching for. >> meagan, i'm sorry. i need to interrupt you. defense minister gallant is talking about the hostages. let's listen. >> translator: there is no third option. it's true whether it's a terrorist in the battlefield all the way to the leadership of the terror organization hamas, we will reach them. we will carry out our missions and we will do so in order to lead to a situation that this murderous organization will cease to exist. all its capabilities and infrastructure will be dismantled and also to bring back the hostages home. the hostages include elderly women, children and a larger group of hostages in all age groups. i would like to refer your attention to the fact that we are at war in several fronts,

several arenas. of course, the main part is in gaza in a maritime aerial and ground offensive, but we are also protecting and defending the area near lebanon. and most of the forces of the air force are prepared in order to provide a response to any threat that might evolve from the north. hezbollah is paying a heavy price. we're saying once again we do not want war. if anyone tries to drag us into this reality, they will pay a very heavy price. also, with respect to syria, it is not quiet in these regions. terrorists are trying to come out of you dan sum merrill that they be intercepted through the ground and the air. there were also several operations in the syrian theater. we will do everything we can in order to protect our citizens

and israel's sovereignty in all areas, and we will continue to push on until we reach decisive and absolute victory in the south. i'd like to say to you that yesterday i met with the families of the hostages, many of them, dozens, and i listened to them with great sorrow and pain. i heard their tragic stories that touched my heart, the stories of family members, sons, daughters, parents, and the concern for their well-being, and our attempt to reach each and every one of them in any way we can. this is my top-most priority at any given moment with any operation, with any activity i authorize and whenever i discuss or do not discuss what's happening in the entire battlefield or just what's happening in the gaza region. this war is not going to be a short one.

this is not going to be an easy war, but we are determined to win. we are determined to do it for those who have paid with their lives, those who were brutally murdered. we're determined to do so for our people. and we are determined to win over the terror organization hamas to come out triumphant. it's either them or us. we're fighting for our home and we will win. thank you very much. any questions? we'll move on to the questions. one question per reporter, please. channel 13 news. >> translator: we haven't heard you yet comment on the tweet by the prime minister. i'm convinced hamas only acts under pressure, and, therefore, when i approved and promoted the

ad along with the idf and the masad and everything that has to do with the campaign, the battlefield and everything related to the hostages and i brought it to be decided by the cabinet, that is how i always operated. i will continue to do so, because if we do nothing, we might see a situation in which the hostages will not be bad for many years. let me remind you who these people are. they are murderers of children. i do not want to get into details about how these things happened and how brutally it all was. that's for the first question. as for the second question, it's quite clear i have full trust in the chief of general staff, the director of the isa, of the masad, anybody operating beneath them in the field, in the headquarters and i believe in all of them and i'm convinced together we will win. gilad shall lit from channel 10

news. >> translator: with respect to the release of the soldier, can you give us more details on how she was found and how she was released? can we expect additional such surprises? >> translator: with your permission i will stick to the statement i approved to the idf and isa to release. in addition to our need to inform everyone, we have some other needs. i have only one consideration, how to win the war and how to make sure we get all the hostages back. we managed to progress thanks to the ground incursion, and that showed us that, if we operate with force, we can bring results. allah --

>> translator: did the soldier tell you anything about how the conditions were in captive? >> translator: what she told us will remain her and the individual she spoke with, and anything else i believe needs to be kept by all of you as well in this way for the very simple reason that we have many other hostages held by hamas. >> translator: sir, over the past few days there's been an increase in attacks by settlers, extremist settlers over palestinians. is the security establish afraid that because we are focused more on what's happening in gaza, things will flare up in you dan smar yeah? the manifestation of governance sovereignty means exclusivity of the state and its representatives to use means of power or violence.

there is no private organization that is entitled to use force. the only one who can use force are the israeli police, the idf, the isa. anything that goes beyond that is unacceptable and we should be heilly concerned with it. yet, i would also like to say here in a very responsible manner, the vast majority, 99.99% of the individuals who live in you dan sue mayor yeah are normative people. they volunteer, they carry out civic duties. by the way, some of those who conduct these activities don't even live there, they come from elsewhere. i suggest we keep our cohesion and partnership and speak out against it. the idf radio channel. >> translator: sir, minister of

defense, you present the different sectors of the war in addition to others. is there some kind of option of a joint aerial operation between the u.s. and israel in case other regions develop as well? >> translator: first of all, i'm very happy about the good and important relationship we have with the americans, and it is manifest in the projection of u.s. power and the cooperation that is being carried out in the war rooms and in command centers between us and the americans over the years. it is manifest in security assistance and diplomatic assistance, and we are truly thankful that the u.s. supports us in such a way. i'd like to take this opportunity to thank the president of the u.s. as well as general austin who is the secretary of defense. i think secretary of defense

austin is acting in a very beneficial way towards israel and assists us with everything we need. let me say moreover, there's no need to get into any details or specifics. i don't think this can contribute to anything. america is obviously here and supporting us. channel 14. >> translator: mr. minister of defense, we've seen an increase over the past few days by hezbollah in the north. after finishing combat against gaza, will the idf remove and lift the threat from hezbollah, or will the north continue to fear them? >> translator: we are at war in the south. that was the definition. i think hezbollah is deterred, and they're deterred because there are a lot of defensive forces deployed by the state of israel. they're deterred because we managed to take a toll on them and they see what's happening south.

>> -- >> translator: i think that things are pretty clear, the fact that the events that had occurred are very difficult events and that it shouldn't have happened, that's completely clear. it's very obvious, and i've said that even today. i was minister of defense when the events broke out, and i am responsible for the security establishment since the beginning of the year, and i'm also responsible to lead the security establishment towards a victory over hamas. >> translator: sir, minister of defense, are there any comments

or worry -- was it brought to your attention that there was a decision to stop wiretapping the phones of hamas, and did you know about a warning from -- >> translator: i think these things are not relevant to the war at this point in time. when necessary, i'll address these questions. thank you very much. >> until recently, many believed that the promise of progress in the 21st century would enable us to move beyond the barbaric horrors of the past toward a better and brilliant future. many believed we could go about our comfortable lives and that

evil will simply pass us by. it will not. the horrors that hamas perpetrated on october 7th remind us that we will not realize the promise of a better future unless we, the civilized world, are willing to fight the barbarians, because the barbarians are willing to fight us. their goal is clear. shatter that promising future, destroy all that we cherish and usher in a world of fear and darkness. ladies and gentlemen, this is a turning point, a turning point for leaders and nations. it is time for all of us to decide if we are willing to fight for a future of hope and promise or surrender to tyranny and terror. now, rest assured israel will fight. since october 7th israel has been at war.

israel did not start this war. israel did not want this war. but israel will win this war. hamas launched this war by perpetrating the worst savagery our people had seen since the holocaust. hamas murdered children in front of their parents, murdered parents in front of their children. they burned people alive, they raped women, they beheaded men. they tortured holocaust survivors. they kidnapped babies. they committed the most horrific crimes imaginable, and they're a part of the axis of evil that iran is forming, an axis of terror that works by arming, training and financing hamas in gaza, hezbollah in lebanon, the houthis in yemen and other terrorist proxies in the middle east and beyond the middle east. in fighting hamas and the iranian axis of terror, israel

is fighting the enemies of civilization itself. victory over these enemies begins with moral clarity. it begins with knowing the difference between good and evil, between right and wrong. it means making a moral distinction between the deliberate murder of the innocent and the unintentional casualties that accompany every legitimate war, even the most just war. it means holding hamas responsible for the double war crime it commits every day by deliberately targeting israeli civilians while deliberately using palestinian civilians as human shields. it means making clear that the use of human shields is not only a immoral tactic of terror but also an ineffective one. because as long as hamas' use of palestinians as human shields results in the international community blaming israel, hamas will continue to use it as a tool of terror and so will

others. hamas will continue to use the basements in gaza hospitals as the command post of its vast terror tunnel network. it will continue to use mosques as fortified military positions and weapon depots. it will continue to steal fuel and humanitarian assistance from u.n. filths. while israel is doing everything to get palestinian civilians out of harm's way, hamas is doing everything to keep palestinian civilians in harm's way. israel urnls palestinian civilians to leave the areas of armed conflict while hamas prevents those civilians from leaving those areas at gunpoint. hamas is also preventing foreign nationals from leaving gaza altogether. and most despeckbly, hamas is holding over 200 israel hostages including 33 children, holding them, terrorizing them, keeping them as hostages. every civilized nation should stand with israel and demand

that these hostages be freed immediately and freed unconditionally. i want to make clear israel's position regarding the cease-fire, just as the united states would not agree to a cease-fire after the bombing of pearl harbor or after the terrorist attack of 9/11, israel will not agree to a cessation of whose stilts with hamas after the horrific attacks of october 7th. calls for a cease-fire are calls for israel to surrender to hamas, to surrender to terrorism, to surrender to barbarism. that will not happen. ladies and gentlemen, the bible says that there is a time for peace and a time for war. this is a time for war, a war for our common future. today we draw a line between the forces of civilization and the forces of barbarism. it's a time for everyone to decide where they stand.

israel will stand against the forces of barbarism until victory. i hope and pray that civilized nations everywhere will back this fight because israel's fight is your fight. because if hamas and iran's axis of evil win, you will be their next target. that's why israel's victory will be your victory. but make no mistake, regardless of who stands with israel, israel will fight until this battle is won and israel will prevail. may god bless israel, and may god bless all those who stand with israel. >> taking no questions -- well, perhaps someone else is coming to the podium. let's see if they'll allow any of the press in the room to ask questions. he's back at the microphone.

>> nye question to you is how do you see india's stand on the u.n. resolution. in resolution there was no condemnation of terrorism. >> i think that resolution was deeply flawed, and i was sorry to see that even many of our friends did not insist that there be a full and powerful condemnation of the horrors that were committed here that are horrors that no civilized country including your country and so many others would tolerate. so i hope that we don't see a repeat of these kinds of resolutions. >> we'll go to abc america, matt river. >> thank you, sir. it seems that the level of support that you have amongst the israeli public has dropped

considerably. the question is how can you continue to lead this country effectively during a very difficult time, and how have you at all considered stepping down? >> the only thing that i intend to have resign is hamas. we're going to resign them to the dust bin of history. that's my goal. that's my responsibility, and that's what i'm leading the country to do. this is my responsibility now. it's something that i think unites the entire country. we're all supporting the soldiers, supporting our commanders, supporting the idf, supporting i think the unbelievable efforts of our reservists and our security forces. we'll continue to do that until victory. >> -- germany, michael. >> good evening, sir. channel 2 german television. i would like to ask you, there's a widespread discussion especially among the relatives of the hostages about the course

of military action you've taken so far. my question is this the only way to free the hostages? of course, you are very successful in freeing one hostage on sunday, but there's widespread criticism that this doesn't allow a place for other negotiations. what do you explain to the relatives of the hostages for this course relying mostly on military pressure? >> i met twice with the families of the hostages. you felt their anguish. i felt their anguish. i know the sense of -- it's not only the sense of loss that relieved parents have. it's the sense of not knowing our continuous anguish. i fully understand their concern. our common assessment of all of the -- not only the cabinet members, but all the security forces and the military is that

the ground action actually creates the possibility -- not the certainty, but the possibility of getting our hostages out because hamas will not do it unless they're under pressure. they simply will not do it. they only do it under pressure. this creates pressure. again, we obviously created one hostage with open arms after yesterday's successful action by shabbat and the idf. we're committed to getting all the hostages back home. we think this method stands a chance. it's a goal we're committed to. >> -- australia, chris. >> i want to ask a question from my country, the people in my

country are looking at this and wondering -- they agree with you. they want you to chase down hamas and terrorism, destroy terrorism in this region, but people cannot understand why so many civilians have to die in this process. you argue that hamas is putting them up as human shields. is that a good enough excuse? are you inflicting here collective punishment on the people of palestine? >> not a single civilian has to die. hamas has to merely let them go to the safe zone that we created in southeastern gaza strip. there's a safe zone there. not a single civilian has to die. hamas is preventing them from leaving, keeping them in the areas of conflict. i think that you should direct your questions to hamas. i can tell you one thing, we're going out of our way to prevent civilian casualties, not only by asking civilians to move,

calling on them to move, ranging a place for them to be which is safe, also putting in humanitarian support, providing them with means with food, with water, with medicine and so on. i think that this question should be placed on hamas. the more it's placed on israel, the more you're going to see this repeated again and again and again. so other groups, other criminal states, other criminal organizations will use civilians as human shields. we cannot give immunity to these terrorists. we cannot give immunity to these savages. we have to do everything we can to minimize civilian casualty, but we cannot give up the fight because then i think this will have disastrous consequences, not only for the future of my country, but for the future of your country -- your countries. this is a battle of civilization

against barbarians. the barbarians will do something civilized countries will never do. civilized countries will make every effort to prevent this. i'll give you one example, and i'll end with that because i have to go to manage this war and lead it. in 1944 the royal air force bombed the gestapo headquarters in copenhagen, a perfectly legitimate target. the british pilots missed, instead of the guess stop poe headquarters, they hit a children's hospital nearby. i think think 84 children were burned to death. that is not a war crime. that is not something you blame britain for doing. that was a legitimate act of war with tragic consequences that accompany such legitimate action. you didn't tell the allies don't stamp out naziism because of such tragic consequences. they went to the end because they knew the future of our

civilization was at stake. i'm telling you right now that the future of our civilization is at stake. we have to win this war. we'll do it by minimizing civilian casualties and may we succeed. thank you. >> israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu under fire. you heard it in the question, his approval ratings are dropping among the people of israel. he has been in a back and forth between the military and security forces after he put out a tweet suggesting that they didn't give him the information that hamas was going to launch an attack and not accepting responsibility. even though he withdrew that posting on x, he did not accept responsibility. i want to bring back in janine zachariah, former jerusalem bureau chief for "the washington post", fomer mem beck of the fbi hostage rescue team, rob da meek

co-. as you heard, there's been a single hostage, a woman in the military rescued by the idf. let me start with you, janine, what's your headline from this, besides the fact that he's obviously not going to resign and that he also says it's them or us. this is a fight between terrorism and barbarism. to call for a cease-fire is to turn to the side of barbarism. >> the headline is that israel is not going to agree to any type of a cease-fire until hamas is dislodged from power and destroyed. he's not going to bend to international pressure, u.n. condemnation. israel is willing to go it alone. at the same time, the vin tan bibi, he's very adept to speaking in english since he was israel's ambassador to the united nations in 1987. he mentioned a fight for any

civilized country against barbarism, saying they're going to come from you after us. it's a tactic that i'm not sure is going to work. some of the international organizations are saying it's impossible to evacuate hospitals, they'll take issue with his explanation, claiming that israel is giving enough aid to residents of gaza evacuating to the south. i think he made it clear that israel as always in these situations is willing to go it alone without international support, but he hopes the international community will join with him. >> at lead at this point he said i have to go lead this war. to that extent he's accepting responsibility. let me bring in rob da meek co-. we don't know many details about exactly how this hostage was rescued. based on your knowledge, based on your experience, when he says generally that, in fact, when

they continue the ground assault, something many of the families have felt is a disadvantage, in fact, dangerous for the hostages, that, in fact, it into creases of getting the possibility of hostages out, what do you say? >> we don't know if she was found on a deliberate hostage rescue or if they're doing a military op to do something and they came across r. americans, we've done both in iraq and afghanistan, we've done deliberate hostage rescues in the middle of another war zone, but we've also come across hostages in just regular military ops. we don't know exactly which one this was. if it was a regular military op and she was found, i think it still goes back to any ground war is going to put the hostages in danger from so many different things. i think it really comes at was this specifically a targeted hostage rescue or was it something they just happened to be lucky and find.

>> so let me go back to some of the comments that netanyahu made if i can. i'm wondering if, when he says this indeed has united the country, that the soldiers, the idf, the reservists, the security forces, i don't think there's any doubt that the israeli people support all the folks who are fighting this. i don't think there's any doubt of that, janine. does he not understand or doesn't care or is unaffected by the fact that what we're seeing in the polls is that the israeli people, their faith in him is waning. we've seen the reaction of what happened when he did not accept responsibility, and it was interesting when you heard the defense minister say, i am

responsible, and essentially saying whatever happens under his watch he accepts responsibility for. >> netanyahu is not resigning. he's the longest serve prime minister in israeli history. i've been covering him since 1996. he's not going to resign, he's going to dig in. if for anything, he's facing three corruption trials when this is all over. he doesn't want to go to jail. unless there's a no confidence vote in him, he's going to stay as prim. that said, i think right now there are so many things going on in terms of you've got so many crises happening at once. you've got full-fledged invasion of the gaza strip with 300,000 soldier including reservists. it's not like they've been training. it happened suddenly. hundreds of thousands of israelis no longer living in their homes on the border of the gaza strip. one of the things that gallant said is he said hezbollah was

deterred, which is something for him to say before bibi hit the podium. it's not all about the politics of this at the moment. i would say it's a crisis response, and yes, there might be pressure on him. right now the focus is on getting the hostages out, getting rid of hamas and figuring out what's going to happen next in terms of the security of israelis. they're still burying the dead, to be frank. it's not primarily a political story at this juncture. >> if you want to look at it, rob, from a tactical standpoint and, in particular, the one thing janine just mentioned, there's no question about the desire on the part of the israeli people, the american people, people around the world who have any humanity in them, to get these folks out alive, right? how do you even begin, especially given the fact that there are possibly, maybe even likely in multiple locations, that many of them may be in those tunnels?

you have so many complications with this particular situation. what are the conversations that go on the you talk about the possibility of how do we get them out of there? >> as most people know, the most difficult thing to do is a hostage rescue, even if there's one person kept in an area that's defended by the military, let alone tunnels, and then multiple locations at the same time. a hostage rescue, it's never been contemplated, never executed. it's tremendously dangerous. i think the only way they get them out in a satisfying number is a negotiation because you can't do multiple hostage rescues in tunnels and different locations and the amount of people, especially the way they're guarding them. i don't think anything comes out of even looking at that option as a viable option, just as a last desperate measure.

>> rob dee am meek co-janine zachariah, is netanyahu makes it clear they're going to continue to move forward, israel didn't start this war, we didn't want this war but we'll win this war. calls for a cease-fire are a surrender to terrorism, you can't be much clearer than that. thank you both for being with us as we listened to that press conference. coming up, steve kornacki is at the big board breaking down today's newest nbc news/"des moines register" poll, some real interesting stuff. you're watching "chris jansing reports" only on msnbc. watching reports" only on msnbc megawatts of power, rails and open road, and essential services of every kind. all running on countless invisible networks, making it a prime target for cyberattacks. but the same ai-powered security that protects all of google also defends the systems running america's infrastructure. for these services. for the 336 million of us living here.

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it's a new week and republicans have a different field of presidential candidates today. first of all, new polling out, from iowa, and shows donald trump maintaining a commanding lead. number two is up for grabs, and the field is smaller now than it was at the start of the weekend.

so, right now, less than three months away from the iowa caucuses, our nbc news "des moines register" poll has trump with 43%. but one big teaway is the rise of nikki haley gaining ten points since august. now tied with ron desantis for second place. at an iowa event, the former president guaranteed a victory. >> on monday, january 15th, we're going to win the iowa caucuses. that should be a good day to remember, january 15th. but your bigger time is november. we have to really go to town. we're seeing numbers that we've never seen before ever, but we're going to crush crooked joe biden next november, we're going to make america great again. we're going to put america first. >> nbc's steve kornacki is at the big board to break down the numbers. this poll was completed before mike pence dropped out of the race on saturday. what do the numbers tell us? >> first of all, they tell you

why pence dropped out in part. he was at 2% in our iowa poll, conducted just before he got out of the race. iowa is a state with a large evangelical christian population. he was counting, especially in a republican caucus, on connecting with that chunk of the electorate. he was connecting with nobody in iowa. pence figured if i can't get any traction in iowa, i'm not going to get traction anywhere. more notable aspects of this, you take, for instance, trump's lead, that is not only a large lead over the two tied for second place, the key is 63% say their minds are made up. they are definitely going to vote for him. that's a depth of support. depth of commitment that you don't see when you ask that same question of any of these other candidates. he's got a really high floor here. then you take a look, desantis down 3 points from our last poll in august. you mentioned haley up 10.

the two non-trump candidates in double digits. can haley keep this going. can she make it a race with trump in iowa and elsewhere? here's the challenge. i'll put it this way, where is she strongest? where's that 16% coming from? a big place that it's coming from are independent voters. they can participate in the caucuses, and among independents, haley has surged over 20%. she was nowhere near that the last time we polled, doubling up ron desantis. you see trump is still leading with this group, but that's far weaker than his overall showing. haley is getting traction with independent voters, she's getting traction with suburbanites, with republican voters who don't like donald trump. far more republicans say they like donald trump. take a look at this here, these are the favorable, unfavorable numbers in iowa from our poll here. 2/3 of republican voters in iowa view trump favorably.

haley's challenge is can she attract people who like donald trump, who right now are saying they'd rather vote for trump over her. can she win over the core republican voters. she's doing that. that's what she would have to do to rise further in this thing. interestingly, desantis the most popular republican. trump supporters seem to like him, but they're not attempted to go over and support him. that seems to be the theme here. you look at the numbers for pence who dropped out of the race, 65% unfavorable in iowa for mike pence, and i just thought, this is very interesting on two levels. we're going to show you the evangelical vote here in iowa. 2/3 of the caucus electorate, evangelical christians, take a look at who's in first, and who's in last and what their numbers are. trump, he finished third in iowa with this group in 2016. 43%, almost a two-to-one advantage. trump, this is a strong group for him. look who's at the bottom, mike

pence was getting 1% support from evangelical christians in iowa. he thought he had a bond with this group. there was this sense he could get traction with them. he really campaigned hard in iowa, and boy, it was a one-way bond. evangelical christians in iowa, he had a very negative rating with them. he was getting just 1%, and again, if pence can only get 1% with evangelical christians in iowa, it wasn't happening anywhere else for him. >> yeah, it's so fascinating looking at those ron desantis numbers. first in one category, second in another, but he's still losing traction. steve kornacki, thank you so much, always good to see you, my friend. >> thanks. now that israel says they have freed a hostage, what's next inside the push to get the others out. you're watching "chris jansing reports" only on msnbc. ing "chrg reports" only on msnbc do you mean this one - the one with titanium?

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