rick stangel, former undersecretary of state for public diplomacy for john kerry at the state department. the anti-defamation league is just one of many organizations calling for a statement from the president after some of the attacks you've been reporting on in recent days. what more do we know about these incidents? >> well, garrett, we know we have seen in the past when there's been an increase in the violence in the middle east and a conflict like this in the middle east. there's been an uptick in anti-semitic violence back here at home, but this is significant. nothing quite like this. the anti-defamation league says it's a 50% increase in the number of anti-semitic attacks in the u.s. since the conflict broke out in the middle east and the new violence and it's not just in one spot. it is across the country and here in new york there was this dueling protest and pro-palestinian and israeli protesters and during that moment there was a 29-year-old jewish man who was attacked and the moment was caught on someone's phone. he is being kicked and punched and hit with crutches. he said after looking at that video