it was agreed between ehud olmert, as the prime minister, and mahmoud abbas, as the president of therity, and in addition they were ready to discuss even the statutes and the number of settlers who would decide, who would prefer to stay in palestine once palestine will be created. see, mr netanyahu doesn't frame the current security challenge facing israel as a challenge about the palestinians. he does say that if a palestinian state would be a fundamental threat to israeli security, but what he frames it as is part of a much bigger picture, an existential struggle with iran. i would put it to you that, as we just saw days and weeks ago, direct hostilities between israel and iran, right now the netanyahu narrative that we can only understand hamas as part of an axis based in tehran, that is something which is working for him politically inside your country, even if you don't like it. first of all, i don't like it, but this is, the way i see it, this is not important. neta nyahu is over. 75% of israelis believe that he should retire, he should leave his position, but yes, among them,

one of them is the former prime minister ehud olmert who is a former member of netanyahu's party who wrote an opinion piece in the haaretz. i'll read the part for you. "anyone who thinks that it's possible to return the hostages without a clear and total cessation of the war is deluding himself and the israeli public public,." he wrote prime minister benjamin netanyahu is deliberately spoiling a chance of any such a deal." saying the ceasefire is the only way to get the remaining hostages home. frances? >> claudio, thank you. >>> baltimore will take a major step toward reopening the city's port today after that deadly bridge disaster in march. the bridge collapsed after a cargo ship slammed into it, killing six men and trapping the ship underneath. this animation shows how officials plan to use explosives to destroy key sections of the wreckage and free the ship so it can finally get back to shore. maryland's governor will hold a press conference later this morning to talk about efforts to reopen the port. >>> turning to pennsylvania, where a powerful tornado tore through the western

now another person now is calling for a ceasefire is ehud olmert, who is a former israeli prime minister, a former member of the netanyahu's party. he wrote an open opinion piece in the newspaper haaretz. let me quote you a part of it. "anyone who thinks it's possible to return the hostages without a clear and total cessation of the war is deluding himself and the israeli public. prime minister benjamin netanyahu is deliberately and knowingly foiling any chance of reaching such a deal." important words coming out of israel as well saying the ceasefire is the only way to get the remaining hostages home. frances? >> claudio, thank you. >>> anti-war protester taking center stage at college graduations across the u.s. at duke university, some students booed and walked out as comedian jerry seinfeld was introduced as the commencement speaker. some were waving palestinian flags. the jewish celebrity, who has been vocal in support of israel, did deliver his speeches to the graduates. >> a lot of you are thinking i can't believe they invited this guy. too late. i say use your privilege. i grew u

i began by asking him about his reaction to the former israeli prime minister ehud olmert saying theationship is at a major turning point. i do. somewhat if you look at one of the things that didn't tweeted out today was hamas lovesjoe biden and it's highly antagonistic and that is quite a counterproductive thing to say because it is pushing american centrists and moderates who would support israel to back away and say why are we supporting this far right extremists cabinet? and there are a lot of variables in play plus we are in an election year in the united states and we are in a bit of an impasse of the moment. benjamin netanyahu remains defiant and says if we have to stand alone, we will stand alone. will israel continue its operations without us military support? it's a lot of hyperbole on the behalf of benjamin netanyahu, they're not going to stand alone and joe biden is talking about limiting some weapons from certain operation. a lot of hyperbole and exaggeration on the part of benjamin netanyahu who tends to throw fits when he doesn't get his way and joe biden stood strong

some decades, in effect, a palestinian rejection because deals were put on the table, camp david, ehud olmert, that would have given palestinians 95, 96, 97% of what they sought but there thet able to get to yes. but i think the last decade or so has been one in which may be israelis became comfortable with that status quo. and as i say, i just don't think it's sustainable. >> yeah, yeah. anyone else, topic? visual, middle east? yes, sir. [inaudible] >> you've got to be real loud. i'm going to repeat it but it's got to be short, too. >> the chocolate israel and palestine, saudi arabia being such a key u.s. ally. what do you see with china, taiwan, india, japan kind doing the same? what efforts -- [inaudible] what are the implications you running into trying to overcome the china threat and the russian threat to europeanse ally? >> that's a great segue. >> there you go. go ahead. >> just a few things to say here. first, with china, just before we were in the middle east wefo were in china. about a little less than a year ago i took a trip at a time when we had been very disengaged. i think tha