. >> reporter: jeffrey white, a former analyst says an israeli ground invasion would be a brutal, bloodynd. >> a high density of population throughout the strip and highest in the major areas of gaza city, but there are a lot of civilians in other places, as well. but the other part of this is that hamas fights from inside the cities. >> reporter: cities of narrow streets, bazaars, apartment buildings. translation, a punishing building-to-building slog in a place that is slightly more than twice the size of washington, d.c. we used a google map with cnn contributor general james spider marks. what kind of combat are we talking about? >> combat in restricted terrain. in gaza city there are about 500,000 people that live in this city. you can only imagine the type of combat that is going to take place in this very restricted terrain. >> reporter: terrain where mark says israeli troops will be exposed to ambush, sniper fire, suicide bombings. if a ground invasion is launched, it could be eerily similar to a conflict four years ago after hamas rocket attacks on israel. in in late 2008, early

. >> reporter: jeffrey white, a former analyst with the defense intelligence agency said an israeli ground invasion of gaza would be a brutal, bloody grind. >> there's a high density of population throughout the strip. highest in the major areas, rafa, gaza city, but there are a lot of civilians in other places as well, and the other part is hamas fights from inside the cities. >> cities of narrow streets, bazaars, apartment building. a punishing building to building slog in a place that is slightly twice the size of washington, d.c. we used a googp map with james spider marx. >> what kind of close combat are we talking about? >> this is called combat in restricted terrain. what we have in gaza city, there are about 500,000 people who live in this city. you can only imagine the type of combat that has to take place in this very restricted terrain. >> terrain where marx says israeli troops will be exposed to ambush, sniper fire, suicide bombings. if a ground invasion is launched, analysts say it could be eerily similar to a conflict four years after a series of hamas rocket attacks on israe

. >> reporter: jeffrey white, a former analyst with the defense intelligence agency, says an israelid invasion of gaza would be a brutal, bloody grind. >> there's a pretty high density of population throughout the strip. it's highest in the major areas, rafa, gaza city, but there are a lot of civilians in other places as well. the other part of this is hamas fights from inside the cities. >> reporter: cities of narrow streets, bazaars, apartment buildings. translation, a punishing building-to-building slog, in a place that's slightly twice the size of washington, d.c. we used a google map with cnn contributor, james spyder marcus. >> what kind of combat are we talking about here? >> this is called combat in restricted terrain. and clearly what we have here in gaza city, there are about 500,000 people that live in this city. and you can only imagine the type of combat that's got to take place in this very restricted terrain. >> reporter: terrain where mark says israeli troops will be exposed to ambush, sniper fire, suicide bombings. if a ground invasion is launched, analysts say it co

. >> warner: jeffrey white, a defense fellow at the washington institute for near east policy, says the syrian government is waging a deliberate "scorched earth" strategy. >> it's trying to get at f.s.a. units that are embedded inside the population. where people are, the f.s.a. tends to be. so it is trying to strike at the f.s.a., cause some attrition on them. but it's also trying to punish the people, the civilians, for suorting the f.s.a. the relationship between the f.s.a. units and the people is critical to the success of the rebellion >> warner: why don't the regime forces just go into these areas and take them and hold them? >> it basically can't do that any longer. six months ago, they could go anywhere in the country, effectively, they wanted with armor mechanized forces backed up by artillery, and simply push the f.s.a. out of the area and retake the area and reestablish a presence. the opposition is strong enough now that the regime's ground forces, to go into those areas, is a punishing affair for the regime. >> warner: throughout the conflict, syrian president bashar al-ass

joining me now to examine the complex relationship between the white house and the high court is jeffreybin whose writings are widely acclaimed. he's the senior writer at cnn and his book" the oath." thank you for joining us. >> hello. >> eliot: good to see you. like our days at cnn together. >> exactly. >> eliot: you say that president obama is actually counter intuitively the conservative constitutionalist. explain what you mean by that. >> since the 19 1980s since edward meese arrived he said we need to expand executive power end racial preferences to assist african-americans, lower the bearsier between church and state, and above all reverse roe versus wade to ban abortion. that's been the conservative agenda at the supreme court. it's an agenda of change. it's john roberts agenda and it has not yet succeeded. it may never succeed but it is an agenda to change many of the important residents at the supreme court and that's why roberts is the candidate of change. and obama is saying leave things the way they are. >> eliot: you're saying as a matter of constitutional doctrine, row vers

white lions takes a certain kind of tourist. and for those not to content to gaez from a safe distance, here's abc's jeffrey kofman for "into theild." >> reporter: those are powerful cats. look at the size of their paws. these lions could do serious damage out leer in the south african bush. keep your distance. wait a minute. what is that tourist doing? >> i'm just holding the lion's tail as he goes for a walk. >> reporter: what is it like walking a lion? >> it's amazing. >> reporter: nervous? >> not at all. >> reporter: do not try this at home. don't try this at your local zoo, in fact, don't try this anywhere else. we traveled far into the south african bush to the grazing land of the ranch conner is van si where the wildebeests and jackals roam. and yes, the giraffes and the rare and oh so stunning sable antelope. ah, you're saying, but i wonder where the lions are? it's the lions that bring the tourists. the courageous and the curious come to the ranch to walk with the animals. >> little bit out of my comfort zone at the moment, but i'm looking forward to it. >> reporter: a little out of your comfort zone. >> yeah. >> repor

this guy here, jeffrey zients, he has acting experience, no word from white house on the timetable forick or come before other secretary jobs open, defense or state or perhaps all three at once. what's clear is geithner has wanted to go for a very long time. i'm told he remains fully engaged in the job until replaced. >> who gets -- steve, who gets the steve liesman endorsement? >> i know and like all these guys so it's tough for me. it would be interesting to see a woman in the job. lael brainard, she's been on the plane for a very long time. she has small kids, i don't want to be sexist, but that's a factor. geithner wants to go home to be with his family. >> exactly. i thought you were going to make news there but i'll come back to you later on. >> i'll give my endorsement. it's so important for the white house to know who i want, carl. >> as always. >> so critical. >> thank you, steve. >> you're welcome. >> back to the disaster that is jcpenney today. it's pared its losses. herb greenberg has been all over this name and joins us with more. >> i was going to say the company should s

on tuesday, we'll look at the white house meeting between president obama and mexico's president-elect enrique pena nieto. i'm ray suarez. >> brown: and i'm jeffreyyou online and again here tomorrow evening. thank you, and good night. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> bnsf railway. macarthur foundation. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> this is n.b.r. >> susie: good evening everyone. i'm susie gharib. new estimates show going over the fiscal cliff could cost the economy, the equivalent of four times what shoppers spent over black friday weekend. >> tom: i'm tom hudson. it's cyber monday, and shoppers

on tuesday, we'll look at the white house meeting between president obama and mexico's president-elect enrique pena nieto. i'm ray suarez. >> brown: and i'm jeffreyyou online and again here tomorrow evening. thank you, and good night. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> bnsf railway. macarthur foundation. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

on tuesday, we'll look at the white house meeting between president obama and mexico's president-elect enrique pena nieto. i'm ray suarez. >> brown: and i'm jeffreyyou online and again here tomorrow evening. thank you, and good night. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> bnsf railway. macarthur foundation. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> this is "bbc world news america." funding for this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu, newman's own foundation, and union bank. >> at union bank, our relationship managers work hard to know your business, offering specialized solutions in capital to help you meet your growth objectives. we offer expertise and tailored solutions for small businesses and major corporations. what can we do for you? >> and now, "bbc world news america.

macneil/lehrer productions >> brown: the white house stepped up the pressure today to get a deal on tax hikes for the wealthy and spending cuts. good evening. i'm jeffrey brown. >> suarez: and i'm ray suarez. on the newshour tonight, we get two opposing views on how to avert the so-called fiscal cliff from representatives tom price and keith ellison. >> brown: then, president obama sat down with mexico's president-elect, enrique pena nieto, this afternoon. one topic for them and for us tonight: the war on drugs, on both sides of the border. >> suarez: as lawmakers talk of reducing the country's debt, paul solman offers a history lesson on centuries of federal borrowing. >> the united states was going into default. we defaulted on many obligations to foreign creditors and to our own soldiers. >> brown: plus, every month, 1,000 young americans are infected with h.i.v., and most of those with the disease don't even know they have it. hari sreenivasan looks at a new report from the c.d.c. that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. and

white house today and congress returns to washington early next week. top on the agenda for both: a looming fiscal crisis. good evening, i'm jeffrey brown. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. on the "newshour" tonight, we assess the task ahead in negoations to avoid an economic hit from automatic spending cuts and tax increases. >> brown: then, we examine what's next for the republican party, after a second straight presidential campaign rebuke from a changing american electorate. >> woodruff: the associated press still hasn't called a winner in florida. why not? and why were the lines so long at some polling places across the country? ray suarez gets some answers. >> brown: john merrow tells the story of pediatricians with a new prescription: books to build better brains. >> there's solid research that shows that just that intervention of handing a family a book, giving them a couple of age-appropriate pieces of advice about how to read with their kid and just encouraging reading, they-- those kids will do better in school. >> woodruff: and from politics here to the power shift in china. margaret warner looks at the communist par

jeffrey brown. on the newshour tonight, we get the latest on what were termed "potentially inappropriate" e- mails and documents, and we examine if and when the white house and congress should have been alerted. >> ifill: then, the senate and the house of representatives get back to work. judy woodruff looks at the long list of challenges ahead. >> brown: one item on the agenda is the so-called fiscal cliff , and that was the focus of a white house meeting today with liberal leaders. we talk with two participants. >> ifill: plus, from "our food for nine billion" series, spst giepma r oadtsinorchn sa' magistad reports on china's moves to satisfy a growing demand for meat. it has transformed lives and diets over the past 30 years meat con suption per cap to has quadrupled and citdwellers eat twice as much meat on average as those in the countryside. >> ifill: that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us >> intel. sponsors of tomorrow. >> and by the bill and melinda gates foundation. dedicated to the idea that all people deserve the