kerry had visited the arab league.robably the first american foreign secretary to visit the arab league offices in cairo. i think the americans are in a limbo on that because they know that they can't say anything to prime minister netanyahu. they know he is going to do it. they know diplom attic efforts on the other side are also rather complications indicated. all of the countries, i mean circumstancesey an allie of the americans. qatar, egypt. it's a very complicated situation. the problem, again, is that while all of this is happening, it is all of these people, hundreds of people are being killed and millions are losing lives. we talk about how many people are dead or injured. what about these people needing psychological -- it's about 80% 80% have no jobs. they are trapped in death everywhere they look. they have the sea on one side and israel on the other side and they have the huge problems with the egyptians as we know now. so, it's really a very, very bad situation. and what do you expect people to do when th

however, i think the expectations are somewhat limited given the industry of the arab league. the arab league has never proven an effective mediator particularly of the israeli-palestinian conflict. really much of what they have come out have been statement of solidarity and appeals for international pressure. i expect we're going to see more of the same. really the arab league has never had a track record of being able to effectively mediate this conflict. cairo has much stronger track record and now even cairo's credibility is being called into question as you said. >> thank you very much for that update. thank you again. against the backdrop of that situation in gaza, sunday evening saw angry scenes here in the french capital where police and pro-palestinian demonstrators clashed close to the central ba stich. according to some sources, it ended violently. trying to enter two synagogues, bastille. rating president francois hollande spoke out against what happened yesterday. translator: we can't bring the conflict between israel and palestinian home. everyone is free to stag

can younswer is yes, imagine any situation in which the arab league could play a useful role in this risis? we remember how the worst years of fighting in the lebanese civil war were stabilize by the arab deterrent force, largely syrian. it did not reduce the level of violence. do you think there is anything in that kind of extra a rocky intervention -- iraqi intervention to be useful for you? about asking a kurd whether that is part of an arab nation. i am a kurd myself. we are a member of the arab league. shied away officials from the part of iraq. memberse been diehard of the arab league. our foreign minister has tremendous issues with our arab government. he has always push for iraq to be more engaged in the arab league. [indiscernible] how effective, that is a good question. we have felt that arab league has played a positive role in democracy of iraq. but individual countries have been picky as to when they want to deal with support in the democracy of iraq. that is an issue. the arab has to address. people have said why the position in libya was different then the position else

once the conflict started, we accepted the egyptian-proposed cease-fire, and that by the arab league. the arab league is not known to be particularly friendly to israel, that hamas rejected it, and we accepted it. there was a cease-fire to end the conflict, and hamas close to the door on that option. to answer your second question about where does this all and, and the trouble is hamas is opposed to peace. hamas is the opposite of peace and reconciliation. my country should be destroyed, obliterated. they say every jew is a target, men, women, and children, and if we come out of this conflict with hamas substantially weakened, with their military the sheen largely destroyed, -- military machine largely destroyed, discredited, that may be good. >> we even have the pope, the vatican, doing his very best, and many people would say, even wearing my american hat, looking from where i sit, after john kerry region, after hillary notton has left the region, sooner have they gotten on air force one and gone back to washington that israel announced to washington that israel announced the constr

, that the arab league endorses and the arab league sends forces together or led by president abass. it would be my interest to see president abbas take control of all of the gaza strip together with the west bank, large incentives in order to rebuild gaza and of course negotiations between the palestinians and the israelis on a sustainable resolution to the conflict. that, when you hear various statements that have been made by prime minister netanyahu, for example, saying that in any agreement, israel will retain full security control in all the west bang, that raises the question whether israel is at saul still in the game of a two state solution. i don't want to speculate on what it is, but it obviously begs the question of what type of sovereignty or if at all there is any sovereignty when israel retains security control over the spire west bank. i think that security, economics and a negotiated solution is what we need in order to go toward a sustainable region. that is something that will obviously remove the blockade, will open the rafa crossing. we'll have to see release of

can younswer is yes, imagine any situation in which the arab league could play a useful role in this risis? we remember how the worst years of fighting in the lebanese civil war were stabilize by the arab deterrent force, largely syrian. it did not reduce the level of violence. do you think there is anything in that kind of extra a rocky intervention -- iraqi intervention to be useful for you? about asking a kurd whether that is part of an arab nation. i am a kurd myself. we are a member of the arab league. shied away officials from the part of iraq. memberse been diehard of the arab league. our foreign minister has tremendous issues with our arab government. he has always push for iraq to be more engaged in the arab league. [indiscernible] how effective, that is a good question. we have felt that arab league has played a positive role in democracy of iraq. but individual countries have been picky as to when they want to deal with support in the democracy of iraq. that is an issue. the arab has to address. people have said why the position in libya was different then the position else

three or four minutes old, is that today tunnis, qatar and sudan are attempting at convening the arab leaguecy summit. i'm not sure if they will succeed or not. but overall the situation calls for it. this is a full-fledged invasion of israel on occupied arab land. and the three countries have a role to play. qatar has been throwing its weight, and sudan, which is an important country, all three are trying to get a summit going -- an emergency arab league summit, and i think that could be the beginning of something maybe at least to find a common language, if you will, that would push for a more fair ceasefire and perhaps more pressure on europe and the security -- the united nations security council to move in favor of putting an end to the hostilities. >> isn't the arab league as much of a talking shop and less of an organization that can actually get things done. we have these organizations, talk is cheap, but lives are not, and that's what is being lost in gaza and in the palestinian occupied territories for nigh on 60 years. >> alas, you are right. and alas, israel -- the world might sa

cease-fire that was put on the table by the egyptians and supported the united nations and the arab league. we accepted and abided by the cease-fire. it was rejected by hamas. that subjected us all to continued fighting following that. there were a number of proposals put on the table put on by the united nations and the red cross for a humanitarian cease-fire. we accepted and honored them. once again hamas rejected those cease-fires were violated them. both israelndemned and the civilian population of gaza to a continued conflict. women, anddren, 74 the possible accusation of war crimes coming from geneva. that's a very serious accusation. ,teps must be taken right now surely, to ensure there are no more innocent civilians? killed in that violence? >> let's be clear. israel is making a maximum effort not to see any civilian casualties in gaza. we don't want even one civilian casualty. we are above for mid -- up against a formidable foe who embeds themselves in the civilian population and uses that population as a human shield. your reporter came from a district where we had very intense f

. >> where is the arab league in all of this. >> the arab league is no longer an effective act or. , i think, early on in the arab spring that the arab league were -- would come to the fore and play a more assertive independent role. the arab league is a product of the various arab act or's. again, the saudis and egyptians driver seat in the when we are talking about the broader arab world. there isn't an interest in having the arab league be an independent actor. the arab league has in a sense become consumed -- subsumed under saudi and egyptian priorities in the region. >> the arab leaders are one thing, and these different countries, but what about the arab people? what they are saying? , about thecial media situation? >> yes. we generally know there is broad arab sympathy for the palestinian cause. this has always been one of the primary open wounds in the middle east, the one thing that unifies different arab populations together. for the most part, they don't agree and a lot, but there are a couple of things. opposition to u.s. policy to one extent or another, and dislike or ev

everybody asks about the position of arab league. i think maybe the use or the term leaders is not accurately used, because there is no leadership at the moment in the arab world. what you have, i think as has been discussed elsewhere reflecting that anger is a bunch of businessman, traders which may be agents or messengers, agents in kind of delivering the actions that are required by foreign powers or messages moving messages between one party to another party. you can't see any leadership whatsoever in the arab world. leaders could be blamed of not doing any action when it comes to the palestinian cause, the iraqi cause or any other arab cause. now we have reached a new low point where even the national interest is not even looked after, what we are seeing is the overwhelming paradigm of protecting the ruling elite interests. it's only the very parochial interests over the click that rules everything, almost everything in the region. we ended up with a group of traitors, agents who are kind of only concerned of protecting their own

america has condemned hamas for rejecting the arab league egyptian cease-fire proposal.as condemned hamas for their continued rocket fire and terror attacks on israel. america has stood up strongly for israel's right to defend itself, and i think those positions are important positions. those positions are also held by many other democratic leaders, many other western leaders in europe and beyond in canada and australia. so we understand that there is strong international support for israel's position. and ultimately, what are we asking for? israel is asking that people shouldn't shoot rockets at our citizens. it's the most basic fundamental demand. and what we're doing now in gaza is legitimate self-defense. we are taking on. we are trying to target those who are trying to kill us. those terrorists shooting rockets at our people. those terrorists trying to come across the border and kill our people. we're trying to stop them. and what country on the planet wouldn't be acting as we would in such a situation. >> finally, mark, yesterday secretary kerry was overheard sayin

maybe the arab league can handle it.pt is the most influential arab country can make the mediation. qatar is very dangerous. qatar like iran is the main supporter of hamas. you know, hamas is getting most of its rockets from iran and most of its financial aid from qatar. so this is a country that supports terrorism. not just against israel but also other terrorist groups in the middle east. if qatar one day will change its attitude against terrorism, then qatar will be more legitimized but we can't ignore the fact that qatar hosts the chief leader of this terrorist organization and qatar like iran, iran is supplying hamas with missiles and rockets illegally against u.n. security council decisions. and against all previous agreements and qatar is supplying with money. now, if we will like to have any hope to future peace process in the middle east, such groups of terrorism of terrorists cannot be legitimized. don't forget, hamas captured gaza from the palestinian authority, killed several hundreds palestinian fatah, offic

the organizations of the islamic cooperation and there are part of the 22 member states of the arab league. so that makes a kind of telescope and lessened by which the arabs have had their way. not only had their way but turned the wind into a platform and estimate for the campaign against israel. it is astonishing, but the general assembly, which has an unlimited where it. it can take up any issue or problem in the world that never shoes. it has been is an immense proportion of this time every year passing resolution after resolution denouncing. very rarely passes any resolutions criticizing any other state. does occasionally conflict of of of all the resolutions passed by the general assembly, three-quarters, all the resolutions that mention a particular country, three quarters have been devoted to the denigration of israel. one quarter to any misdeeds by any of the other 194 countries in the world. and on top of this and less churning out of resolutions against israel the un has created three special bodies, to commissions and one bureau which has a multimillion-dollar budget and in lar

. >> yes, nato, french british and others, including arab league forces. well, that was then and this is now. i was very concerned, i must say very doubtful about the wisdom of our intervention in 2011 but in the end i was convinced it was necessary to prevent genocide. if we hadn't intervened, the forces fighting against gadhafi had no air power and therefore, they would not have been able to prevent him from moving his heavy weaponry to attack the revolution at that time in the eastern part of libya in benghazi. i was always concerned about the long term political effects. and of course, most western interventions, most foreign interventions in the middle east over the last 150 years have ended in tears. and this is i'm afraid possibly going to be another example. but the battle is not over yet. >> is there anything the international community can do to put an end or at least alleviate the situation there? >> i think the intervention, nothing we could do would make things better, anything we did would make things worse. there are two forms of interventio

host: where is the arab league in all of this? guest: it is no longer really an effective actor. there was hope early on in the arab spring that the arab league would come to the fore and play a more assertive, independent role. again, the arab league is a product of the various arab actors. the saudi's and the egyptians are now back in the drivers seat when we we talk about the broader arab world and there is not an interest in having the arab league being an independent actor. it has become subsumed under saudi and egyptian priorities in the region. host: the arab leaders are one thing in these different countries. what about the arab people in these countries? do we know what they are saying? even via social media? about the situation? guest: we generally know that there is broad arab sympathy for the palestinian cause. this has always been one of the primary open wounds in the middle east, the one thing that unifies different arab populations together. for the most part, they do not agree on a whole lot. there are a couple of things. opposition to u.s. policy to one extent or

we went to a ceasefire, offered by the arab league, backed by the yate and the palestinian authority. that response, we stopped the fire, but they engaged on fire with us. yesterday hamas and palestinian jihad violated yesterday. we are in a situation where the rocket fire continues on our civilians populations. it's untenable, something no country will accept. if they don't stop it, we will have to. palestinians, including children die in the attacks. turkish prime minister recep tayyip erdogan accused israel of terrorizing the region and committing genocide. protesters mamped in ayman. if casualty yes mount, will outrage from the world force israel to stop? >> again, the difference between israel and hamas is that hamas deliberately, deliberately targets civilians all over the state of israel right now. israel is a democracy which is defends itself, and trying everything it can to tart surgically the terror operation in gaza that is firing at israel without harming the civili population. it is difficult to do that in a context where hamas placed equipment and rocket launchers in u.n

first two windows leverage arab league so your mum. did club so we did so we were waiting to proceed. though in. the one who thing we do not want was the ball for three about. oh you can i will. tell you the super bowl sure take your money out of. my. head of the world and make my land mine honk oh no there's a lawn out there isn't going to do you because you never. know where. you should cause it wasn't the can. you should seek it isn't what you wanted you to get rid of when you think they're going to consider that it is a word it's no use me and i wanted to join us have to keep them going to me and that i've never. been. and opened the lid on the duty of the bit i'm sure that the owner of the. new book which you know if you're in the middle between genius whom one. minister would you know what it would feel monolithic. could only give me an existence of the computer and influence of human wishes that we see. is because the little secret is a good thing for the banks you need to come up with the goods are simple simple little miss is

the arab league supported the egyptian peace plan and this entirely undermine. a peace plain that all the arabs supported. if i can add one point. the palestinian authority leader attacked the plan and said what was kerry doing in paris negotiating can qatar and turkey and leaving out egypt. >> if you look at the jerusalem post poll about this cease-fire and the possibility of one, 86.5% oppose this deal. you were going to say? >> first i would love to hear more on how this century old conflict is all john kerry's fault. there's no doubt that israel must fight hard but it must fight smart. there's no doubt israel has a right and obligation to defend itself against terrorists who want to wipe i want off the map. israel's leaders have to realize the world is changing and changing in ways to make it harder for israel to maintain its political and moral authority and able to maintain the narrative that it's had on its side for so long. look in this country, 25% of young americans think israel is acting wrong right now. 25%. only 25%. i'm sorry. only 25% support israe

because hamas rejected a cease-fire two weeks ago that we accepted an egyptian arab league cease-firehe deaths that have happened since then are solely hamas's responsibility because they rejected ending the conflict. as you said, hamas has adopted gruesome tactics of using gaza's civilian human shields just today reuters put ott a report saying a third u.n. school had been discovered with hamas rockets in it, this is not an aberration, this is a deliberate policy to use schools, u.n. facilities, mosques, football stadiums, to use open areas to house their military machine. we are making a maximum effort to be as precise as we can, in a difficult combat situation. we have to stop those rockets. and we will protect ourselves. >> mark, thank you so much for being with us tonight. >> my pleasure, thanks for having me. >>> joining me now with more, brit hume. brit, why do you think he was so reluctant to say what it was about this proposed deal that the israelis found so objectionable? >> the main reason, megyn is israel needs the united states, and the alliance with the united states. wh

egyptian officials and leaders from the arab league as well. we will go to gaza for more on the crisis after headlines. in eastern ukraine, pro-russian rebels have handed over flight data recorders removed from the crash site of malaysia airlines flight 17. 298 people on board died when the plane was shot down last thursday in a rebel-held area. a train carrying the remains of many of the victims has arrived in the eastern city of kharkov, which is under ukrainian government control. european foreign ministers are meeting in brussels today to discuss a possible new round of sanctions against russia for its support of the rebels, who are suspected of shooting down the plane. also in the news, president obama has signed an executive order ending workplace discrimination against lgbt people employed by the federal government or firms with federal contracts. >> it doesn't make much sense, but today in america, millions of our fellow citizens wake up and go to work with the awareness they could lose their job -- not because of anything they do or fa

even the arab league has been behind this proposal? >> they are isolated but they have always been isolated. people say the people of gaza have turned against them. but the one thing that makes palestinian support, when they are attacked by israel. that is the common ground they have. we see that again. hamas's popularity in gaza has been growing the more israel bombs gaza. warner: do you think they gain, even though palestinians have been killed close to 200? >> there is also a limit. they captain take a pounding forever and -- they can't take a pounding forever and they know it. it is interesting how both sides hamas and israel and the international community, in unison, calculate whether hamas can stay can prevail in this kind of conflict. warner: the israelis protest that they deliberately put rocket launchers in places where people live and they essentially make their own civilians targets. what does hamas say to that at least privately? >> hamas privately and publicly says we're outgunned, we are outplanned. we have a right to pr

the past days throughout the international community to try to bring people together, as well as arab league secretary general for his close partnership in this effort. they've been sources of good advice and also tireless effort. so this is a broad effort with a broad based sense that something needs to be done. i also want to acknowledge president abbas who traveled to any number of countries in recent days and whom i met with just the other day who expressed his desire, strong desire, to achieve a cease-fire as rapidly as possible, and he has been passionately advocating for the palestinian people and future of the palestinians. let me just say that the agony of the events on the ground in gaza, the west bank, and israel, all of them together simply cannot be overstated. the daily reality for too many people of grief, blood, and loss and tears, it all joins together to pull at the fabric of daily life in each of their communities. in israel, millions of people are living under constant -- >> the signal is awful, but this is a piece of u.s. secretary of state speaking in cairo alongside ge

emerge from this current diplomatic frenzy toward a cease-fire -- >> let's not forget, maybe the arab league can handle -- the egyptian, which egypt is the major, the most influential arab country, can make the mediation. qatar is very dangerous. qatar, like iran, is the main supporter of hamas. hamas is getting most of its rockets from iran and most of its financial aid from qatar. so this is a country that supports terrorism. not just against israel but against other terrorist groups in the middle east. if qatar, one day, will change its attitude against terrorism, then qatar will be more legitimized. but we cannot ignore the fact that qatar hosts the chief leader of this terrorist organization. qatar, like iran, iran is supplying hamas with rockets illegally, against u.n. security council decisions and against all previous agreements and qatar is supplying their money. now, if we like to have any hope to future peace process in the middle east, such groups of terrorism, of terrorists, cannot be legitimized. don't forget, hamas capture gaza from the palestinian authority. killed several hu

she said secretary of state john kerry has been in close contact with them and with other arab league officials to push again for a truce. >>> syrian president bashar al assad has been sworn in for a third term. he's held on to power for 14 years and through three years of civil war. but he's promised to go on fighting. assad delivered his inaugural speech at the presidential palace in damascus. he said he'll continue to fight what he calls terrorism until order is restored. assad spoke about islamist militants who have crossed over into neighboring iraq and seized a number of cities. they've declared an islamic state in areas of syria and iraq under their control. assad said members of his government warned this would happen. he said arab and western leaders would pay a high price for the support of terrorism. assad is said to have won 90% of the votes in the presidential election last month. he faced off against rival candidates for the first time. but his critics say the election was a sham. >> good morning, catherine, cake provider comcast rivalled by time warner cable back in feb

into always pushed tooling gauge. >> going to the arab league. e have felt their eppley has up positive role for iraq with the country's have been picky if they want to deal with it. the arabs have to address that but what was the position in the bf different than elsewhere? seeking support in various conferences stan port -- so with that nutation but nobody is immune from that. and what would be useful to as the debate in but you have now is for the whole region. objectively so with that decision. there are internal factors but with those geopolitical implications is next to europe and that needs to be the view. >> in support of this it is hard to imagine right now regional response because of the fragmentation that we see but one of the stories of the past few years years, especially with the arab uprising you see that our regional security architecture collapse and at the center was the united states but connected were strong u.s. allies like mubarak who were no longer there. and what we have seen is a vacuum is created that there is no other e

that cease-fire was accepted by the whole international community also by the arab league and israel accepted it. it wasn't a popular position in our country because a lot of israelis, they were pushed through the cabinet and israel's cabinet voted for a cease-fire yet morning. israel's military called off their attacks for about six hours and during those six hours we had dozens of rockets flying into israel so israel had to take the action to defend its population and resume those targeted air strikes. later in the evening the security cabinet of israel met and as you just said, they have decided to intensify the operations because we have to do something to protect our civilian population. we have two thirds to three quarters who in the last week had to go into bomb shelters. that's over 200 million americans. you can imagine what the american people would want their government and their military to do if 200 million americans were in bomb shelters and a thousand rockets were being fired at them terror organization in contiguous territory. i hope there will continue to be broad su

it's hard to see right now whether the arab league or anyone can resolve those differences in the time being. >> thank you very much. and now let's go to the u.s. efforts to broker a ceasefire between israel and hamas. senior white house correspond t correspondent. we asked whether or not president obama would dispatch secretary kerry to the mideast, they declined to answer. >> that's right response far no decision, although you have to believe this is a source of constant conversation. the u.s. made it clear both through the president and secretary kerry they want to play a role and deescalading the violence. it started on thursday calling prime minister benjamin netanyahu. there's a series of phone calls with john kerry since then. and while reaffirming repeatedly that the u.s. believes that israel has a right to self-defense, they also said they want both sides to sort of back down. they're leading the international call for this ceasefire it includes france, britain. there was a nonbinding resolution that happened saturday night at the united nations. what more specifically can the

arab league called for it. oe others in your camp called for it. what can you do to stop the rocket fire on both sides? >> there needs to be an immediate ceasefire. yesterday before -- >> what are the terms, though? >> the terms are there has to be a genuine end to fire from both sides. previous ceasefires have been about how big this prison cell is going to be. how many nautical miles off the coast can fishermen can go. how many fence inside the fence will farmers go? what palestinians are saying is terms of the ceasefire cannot be only about how big the prison cell is supposed to be but rather that palestinians shouldn't have to be confined to a prison cell at all. the siege should come to an end and palestinians should have the kind of rights to free movement and travel and the other rights this people all around the world would expect. >> thank you very much for being with us. our hearts go out to the victims of this terrible war. >> thanks for having me. >> and human crisis. >>> facing a biggest challenge in more than 50 years of history, the

as i said, that proposal was second by the arab league. it was not simple.to understand something. if you had 200 million americans under rocket fire, a cease fire proposal that would come from the outside is not something that would be simple for an american president to agree to when you have a terror organization on contiguous territory firing 2,000 rockets at your civilians. the prime minister of israel went against the political head winds and accept the cease fire. >> if hamas agrees to a cease fire, will israel withdraw from gaza? >> of course. we didn't want to be in there to begin with. we left gaza in 2005. israel with drew its military, with drew its settlements. we did everything they said we need to do for peace. go back to the' 67 lines. it is important to understand because people sometimes forget what happened here. we were not in gaza. we didn't want to be in gaza. when we agreed to the cease fire a week ago, no one -- >> with all due respect i'm not talking about that. i'm talking about now. the ground action. i understand what you're sayin

and there are within the arab league significant differences between players there.re barely speaking to one another. so it's hard in this case. egypt is not looked at as a fair broker by hamas. and in that mix, john kerry's a very compelling man and i think he's a great diplomat. but he doesn't have the pieces in place that have been traditionally there for previous american peace brokers. >> let's listen to one of the israeli spokesmen said to andrea mitchell today. >> the problem up until now has been that every cease-fire proposal that's been put on the table and specifically those egyptian proposals that are supported by the u.n., supported by the arab league, supported by the united states, supported by the europeans, those proposals have been consistently rejected by hamas. now, we accepted those proposals. had hamas accepted them, too, this fighting would have been over. >> it seems to stay consistent with that line that they would be -- they would be in a position where they'd have to accept that five-hour pause. >> normally what a negotiator will do, what a

the cease-fire proposal was supported by the arab league and united nations and the palestinian government of mahmoud abbas. hamas said no to those proposals on monday and tuesday and wednesday. when hamas closed the diplomatic door, israel had no choice but to act to pick our people from those incoming rockets. >> i'm going to bring in douglas herbert, our international affairs editor, who would like to ask you a question. >> i believe it was in 2009 two incursions-- ago. you said you were no longer able to smile. here we are five years later back in the same situation. are you able to smile now as you defend israeli policies? has your stance changed? i think you took time off to work for a pack of company. you said that was morally easier. >> i don't know what you're talking about. i don't know where this is coming from. what you're saying is untrue. i have consistently worked for the israeli prime minister. i never said those quotes a trip did to me. i don't know the source. >> i could bring them back for you. you said at the time the defending israeli policies, you're having a difficul

u.s., e.u., and arab league are calling for a cease fire from all sides. >> so many people died and gaveso much effort to the birth of the new libya and we're very, very hopeful that together all those people will recognize that the current course of violence will only bring chaos and possibly longer term difficulties. >> reporter: as one envoy says, the situation in libya is reaching a critical stage. >>> now a powerful tornado has caused extensive damage after ripping through a city in massachusetts with winds of up to 190 kilometers per hour. houses had their roofs torn off, hundreds of trees uprooted. no reports of serious injuries. the twister was part of a major storm system that hit the eastern half of the u.s. more on this storm and the world weather. meteorologist pedram joins us with the details. hi, pedram. >> storm system across areas of boston. looking a the the stats, that was the first conformed tornado in suffolk county. the first tornado in 60 years. north of the city of boston a you saw max explaining there. significant damage. the state of colorado, we had multiple twi

even as -- even as diplomacy is beginning to move into higher gear, the arab league is meeting in cairo today. they're going to try to come up with some kind of truce proposal which they can present to israel and hamas. john kerry, the american secretary of state, is also involved. the european union is involved. everyone is trying to put together some kind of truce proposal, cease-fire proposal that israel and hamas could agree. to the urgency of course for this has been increased by israel's army, which is on standby on the edge of gaza with about 38,000 reserve who have been called into action to fight alongside the regular army. they're poised to invade gaza. so it's now really a matter -- it's a race between the question of what will come first, a cease-fire proposal that is acceptable to both sides. if there is no such thing, then a ground invasion by israel looks increasingly likely. >> martin fletcher reporting from tel aviv. >>> now we go to nbc's foreign correspondent ayman mohyeldin who is reporting from gaza city where people have begun to evacuate their homes. right, ayman?

the arab league is meeting in cairo today. the united states and the europeans are involved in trying to come up with some truth proposals, but the israeli. benjamin netanyahu said this attack will go on for, quote, a very long time if necessary. israel says it'll continue doing what it needs to do to defend its population in israel. >> i'm ayman mohyeldin in gaza. we're seven days into this conflict. there are no signs that the violence or the rhetoric from either side is slowing down. in fact, today quite a sharp escalation both in the northern part of the israel and here in the south. the israeli government says it shot down a palestinian drone, which hamas has actually claimed responsibility for. they are now showcasing the fact that they have these drones, and seven days into being attacked by israel, they say they still have the ability to hit targets deep inside the country. that's a testament to what they say is the success of palestinian factions and the rocket capability they have developed over the years. but israel

its foreign minister outlined the proposal at the arab league in cairo. >> translation: the egyptian initiative concentrated on stopping hostile acts, opening israeli passage way and discussing topics. . >> reporter: as of tuesday 182 palestinians have been killed. the armed winning of hamas related a caes fires, but like islamic jihad the political wing had been more open to one. >> translation: the ceasefire is not the problem, as we wish to see an end to this war against our people. the true problem is the reality living in gaza. the policy imposed by the israeli occupation. >>> we welcome egypt's efforts to end the israeli aggression and defend the palestinian people. the proposal cannot be ignored. the issue of ceasefire can be discussed. what is needed is to agree with the demands of the palestinian people. chiefly ending the siege, then a ceasefire can be agreed pop. then history will repeat itself. >> the last episode of conflict was in 2012, when the egyptian government brokered a ceasefire to end the pillar of defense. whether this will be acceptable to hamas, remains to be

the arab league not known for being particularly friendly to israel but the arab league endorsed the egyptian initiative and we ceased all military operations against terrorist targets in gaza as of 9:00 a.m. and held that ceasefire for more than six hours. and during that period, hamas both verbally said, no, we don't want the ceasefire and indeed they fired more than 50 rockets into israel trying to kill our people. hamas killed the ceasefire. hamas threw it away. if the conflict is continuing as we speak tonight, it's because hamas said no to a chance to end it. >> mark, certainly nobody doubts israel's need to defend itself in this but we have talked about this question of proportionately before. what about the questions of targeting a disabled person's home. was that proportional? >> first of all, i'm not going to apologize for the very low number of casualties on our side. i'm very happy that so far despite more than a thousand hamas rockets of gaza we have had so many casualties because we have invested billions in homeland defense and shelters and early warning in sirens and

i accepted an egyptian cease-fire proposal backed up by the arab league and u.n. they refused.epted a humanitarian lull proposed by the united nations. th they refused. we'll stop our operations when we can bring back quiet to our people. >> some of your cabinet ministers think the only way to do that is to reoccupy gaza, which you evacuated from and gave it up back in 2005. do you support reoccupying gaza? >> i support taking whatever action is necessary to stop this insane situation. just imagine, i mean, imagine what israel is going through. imagine that 75% of the u.s. population is under rocket fire and they have to be in bomb shelters within 60 to 90 seconds so i'm not just talking about new york. new york, washington, chicago, detroit, san francisco, miami, you name it. that's impossible. you can't live like that. so i think we have to bring back, restore reasonable sustained quiet and security and we'll take whatever action is necessary to achieve that. >> that includes possibly reoccupying gaza? a lot of your military planners are afraid of what they would call a quagm