. >> israeli defense minister ehud barack joining us live from tel aviv. do stay safe, and we wish the best for not only the people of israel, but the palestinians, and we hope that you can somehow come to some kind of a consensus to stop this violence between your two parties. thank you for being with us and for answering. our apologies for the difficult connection, but we have been struggling throughout the hour to make that connection with the defense minister, and now we know why. the air raids going in israel. particularly in tel aviv. thank you for watching us in this hour. please stay tuned now for my colleague suzanne malveaux who takes over with "newsroom international." >>> welcome to "newsroom international." i'm suzanne malveaux. we're taking you aron the world in 60 minutes. former cia director david petraeus is breaking his silence with the media speaking for the first time to our sister network hln's keira phillips about the sexual affair that ended his career. she has known petraeus for years interviewing him for many stories on the troops,

was ehud barack someone that restrained prime minister netanyahu from going after iran and what happensain netanyahu convincing him to hold off an attack until the american elections and beyond. early on, though, they say barack held build netanyahu support among other israeli leaders for a possible strike on iran. >> barack gave netanyahu the security cover to pursue the option when the others wanted more cautious approach. >> reporter: barack could do that because he's israel's most decorated soldier ever and commanded benjamin netanyahu in an elite military unit and spearheaded some of the most daring commando raids and dressed as a woman to kill operatives in revenge for an attack on athletes at the munich athletes. it is that kind of resume, a historical graf it is a, that netanyahu will miss, experts say, if and when he presses harder to strike iran. >> it hurts netanyahu without those security street cred credentials. no one with those security credentials to point to saying, now, go forward. >> reporter: that may mean more restraint from netanyahu with iran or it may not. ehud b

of course, ehud barack has been part of public life here for decades. he was the prime minister and now for the past seven and a half years was the defense minister. a very prominent person. also, of course, a big military figure here in this country. he says for his part that it is, as you say, for personal reasons. he wants to spend more time with his family. especially his grandchildren. there are many people here in this country who believe that it is, indeed, for political reasons. he is currently really riding a high in public opinion polls after the military campaign that israel waged against hamas in gaza. of course, he was the head of that military campaign, being the defense minister. that really bolstered his ratings. on the other hand, though, it looked as though in the upcoming election that is are going to happen on january 22nd that he probably would not get back into israel's parliament because the faxz that he leads in parliament is simply so small and doing so badly that they probably wouldn't get in, so it seemed as though the chances

i am so pleased at this point to be joined by the israeli defense minister ehud barack. that's not caught -- with this quality of sound, i can't hear and understand you english. >> okay. i will speak very slowly. i apologize. >> the way you are speaking now is okay, but when you speak -- half a minute ago i couldn't understand. >> okay. let me ask you this. at this point is there any -- any reason to believe that this violence is going to end any time soon, the bombing and the targeting of what you call terror sites in gaza? >> it can end when it becomes clear that hamas understood the message that they are going to repeat i was mainly that we will destroy the launching rockets against our citizens and we keep on them until the deterrents will be resumed and that it can be brought without a violation every two weeks in a way that puts 1.3 million israelis -- >> i'm not sure if we just lost our connection. mr. defense minister, let me ask you this. i understand that you have just gotten off the telephone with our american defense secretary, leon panetta. did he express an

israeli defense minister ehud barack abruptly quit politics today, saying he'll only finish out his term. the obama administration had embraced him as a moderate influence on benjamin netanyahu's hard-line policies. meanwhile, a leader of hamas is warning that a fragile ceasefire in gaza could flare back into violence if negotiators don't come to agreement quickly. negotiations have to proceed through egyptian messagers because israel and the united states consider hamas a terrorist organization. >>> still ahead here at 5:00, it's a distinction that universities don't want. the bay area school, though, near the top of this dubious list. >>> and a blockbuster acquisition that never was. google tied to a takeover deal the company is now calling a hoax. >>> and a celebration filled with secret information. how sensitive information might have been leaked in the macy's thanksgiving day parade. >>> and good afternoon. i'm jeff ranieri in the nbc bay area weather center. already a cool night on tap with temperatures in the mid- to upper 50s from san francisco to napa, and santa rosa also about

he just said ehud barack, that u.s.-israeli military relations have never been better. you agree?ree. >> thanks for coming in. >> thank you, wolf. >>> in the wake of the scandal surrounding general david petraeus's affair and the investigations into several other high profile generals, does the u.s. military need an ethics boot camp? and more than a decade after a deadly crash, a u.s. airline gets its day in court. many of my patients clean their dentures with toothpaste. i tell them dentures are very different to real teeth. they're about 10 times softer and may have surface pores where bacteria can grow and multiply. polident is specifically designed to clean dentures daily. its unique micro-clean formula kills 99.9% of odor causing bacteria and helps dissolve stains, cleaning in a better way than brushing with toothpaste. that's why i recommend using polident. [ male announcer ] polident. cleaner, fresher, brighter every day. and one wedding, 2 kids, 43 bottles of olay total effects many birthdays later, still looks amazing. thanks to the trusted performance of olay. [ male ann

. >> martin, before i let you go, what is your read on ehud barack's saying he's not going to stay incabinet. this could be read as a signal that he doesn't see imminent military action against iran, which has been a main part of his agenda? >> reporter: well, it has been a very important part of his agenda and it would be surprising if it really was going to happen soon that he would at this point facing one of israel's most momentous decisions in its history, that he would want to take a back seat. there are a lot of other things going on. one of the issues going on is that his own party that he foundinged, the independent party, is doing really poorly in the polls and is likely that he may not even make it through into the next parliament in the elections that are being held in january. so it's being seen here maybe he wants to quit while he's ahead. and the fact that he's going to resign as defense minister does not mean, by the way, that he could not be called back to service by the prime minister netanyahu if he wins elections in the future. so he's saying he's getting out of po

. >>> ehud barack says he will not run in general elections in january but will stay in his current positionsovernment is formed following the january 22nd elections. he's been defense minister since 2009. and previous barak served as prime minister from 199 to 2001 -- 1999 to 2001. >>> talks may have opened in cairo since the truce last week, ending eight days of heavy fighting. israel carried out nearly 15 air strikes on the gaza strip during that time period. >>> well, leland yee says he will run for secretary of state. the paper reports that he plans to run for the office in two years. that's when his term expires. the former san francisco supervisor made an unsuccessful bid for mayor of san francisco last year. >>> well, interior secretary ken salazar is expected to decide this week whether a 70- year-old oyster farm on the point reyes national seashore can keep up rating. the drake company wants a ten- year extension of the lease. it runs out at the end of the month. environmentists and park officials say the oyster farm is threatening harbor sales and other native species at point reye

certainly, i mean, if you listen, for instance, to what ehud barack, the israeli defense minister told cnn yesterday, he essentially said that we want to put an end once and for all to the firing of missiles from gaza into israel, and there's no other way to do that logically than to go in and not only smash hamas's military capabilities, but to smash it as an organization, and, frankly, that's a fairly tall order. that's what they tried to do in 2008, 2009. it didn't really work. in fact, hamas was only more entrenched in power in gaza after that, so i think we're looking ahead to some very difficult days certainly for the people of gaza and for the people of southern israel. >> let's -- more than 400 rockets have been fired into israel from gaza since this operation began, and you have the iron dome defense system intercepting at least a quarter of them. away do you make of the capabilities of both sides? >> certainly it's completely out of balance. i mean, israel is by far the most powerful military power m middle east compared to hamas, which, you know, can only man -- sort of fiel