joining us, spokesman mark regev, and mr. miller of the woodrow wilson center.dvised secretaries of states on the region. also the recent author of "the end of greatness: why america can't and doesn't want to have another great president." so mark regev, if i could start with you, is there any indication of involvement from hamas, for instance, in either organizing or funding or supporting this attack in any way? >> i at this stage cannot point with certainty to a specific involvement, a specific terrorist organization, that gave a specific order. i do know the following, groups like islamic jihad, and unfortunately also the palestinian authority, have been praising these sort of attacks, have been putting these sort of murderers up on a pedestal, and there is a culture being furmented by these palestinian groups and also, unfortunately, by the p.a., which lends support to hatred and violence and conducting these sort of terrible murders. >> aaron david miller, you've made the point that there are extremists, far right politicians in the israeli government, who

joining us, israeli government spokesman mark regev and aaron miller of the woodrow wilson national centermr. miller has advised secretaries of state and is an author. mark, is there any indication of involvement from hamas, for instance, in either organizing or funding or supporting this attack in any way? >> i at this stage cannot point with certainty to a specific involvement, a specific terrorist organization that gave a specific order. i do know the following: i do know that groups like hamas, like islamic jihad and unfortunately also the palestinian authority have been praising these sort of attacks, have been putting these sort of murderers up on a pedestal, and that there is a culture being foremented by these palestinian groups and unfortunately also by the p.a., which lends support to hatred and violence in conducting these sort of terrible murders. >> aaron david miller, you've made the point that there are extremists, far right politicians in the israeli government, who are attempting to change the status quo on what's known as the temple mount in israel, the holy sanctuary to

and in the west bank, we have mark regev joining us now. you heard nic reference the holy site.it's the one muslims know as the noble sanctuary. jews know it as the temple mount. jews can visit the site. they can't pray there. there's pressure from the far right to change that. in light of the intense tensions under way right now in jerusalem, why the need at this point to push for that access now in the midst of this? because one could infer from that that parties there are trying to, by doing that, stoke the violence. >> well, the position of the government is clear. prime minister benjamin netanyahu has been equivocal. we will not change the status quo. it will be maintained. that allows muslim prayer on the compound there and allows nonmuslims, jews and christians to visit the site, because it's also holy, for people of other faiths. that sort of framework has been the basis for live and let live for years now and we think it should be maintained. this is a very special city for millions of people across the planet and we want it to be peaceful and calm and we want everyone

at this point, do you expect, mark regev wasn't going to say we'll see a repeat of what we saw in the west bank. but do you think we'll see something along those lines -- >> not at all. i think the prime minister will put the blame squarely where it belongs, on palestinian leaders who incite this kind of violence. he's going to say, he will hold responsible palestinian leaders, whether from hamas or from the palestinian authority. and he's right to do that. how you hold him responsible is very different. right now, you need to have a meeting between the king of jordan, abbas and netanyahu, to de-escalate and not make religious the conflict and de-escalate what's going on on the mountaintop. >> do you support what president obama said this morning urging cooperation between leaders -- >> yes. >> as opposed to zeroing in and targeting leaders for what they've said, letters they've written, things they've said in the past? >> you have to do a little of both. you seek peace as if there's no terrorism and fight terrorism as if there's no peace process. you can't let terrorism go unanswered

joining us is mark regev. he's the spokesman for benjamin netanyahu. relationship between the u.s. and israel is strong and the personal relationship between your prime minister and president obama seems to be rather strained right now. how would you describe it? >> well, obviously we are close allies, close friends. my prime minister said that the united states does not have a better friend in the world than the state of israel and the state of israel does not have a b better friend in the world than the united states of america. but that doesn't mean that we can't agree on every issue and we don't. we talk about it as openly and frankly as friends should. >> and the quote the other day, the jeffrey goldberg article in "the atlantic," some unnamed obama official leveled against the prime minister of israel. what's been your reaction to that? >> the relationship, the relationship between israel and the united states is so strong based on common values and shared interests. the relationship between the people of our two countries is so solid that i don'

earlier we heard from mark regev, the spokesman for the prime minister, saying that this is one technique they're hoping -- one strategy they're going to use which they hope will deter any future attackers in this case. but the situation in jerusalem, now extremely tense. this is the worst attack in the city since 2008. wolf? >> the prime minister of israel responding with that statement. you heard it, israel will respond with a heavy hand. has anyone claimed responsibility for this terror attack? >> reporter: no. we heard hamas praising the attack but not claiming responsibility. there was a statement that came out attributed to the popular front for the liberation of palestine, a militant secular marxist organization which indicated that perhaps these two men were somehow affiliated with the organization. but there was no direct claim of responsibility. and this is one of the problems now that the israeli security forces are facing in jerusalem because it appears that this may be one in a long string of what they're calling lone wolf attacks, attacks by people who, not for clear motivat

joining news jerusalem is mark regev, spokesman for israeli prime minister benjamin netenyahu. you, sorry it's under these circumstances. let me ask this question with all due respect. i understand the outrage is obvious, that this was uncalled for and there's no justification. however, when there is retaliation for this, whether it's knocking down homes or whatever subsequent actions rail takes, how do you understand the process of finding peace? >> chris, with respect we're not retaliating. we taking steps to protect our people. and to prevent further atrocities like the one we saw yesterday. we've beefed up our police presence in the city, security presence to deter further attacks. we're looking at different ways that we can better protect our people. but we're not talking about retaliation. we're talking about protection and deterrence. >> because that's a big difference, it's not just language. it winds up being what motivates the next cycle. and you've consistently said on this show, consistently, the goal is to get past this and towards a more peaceful process. where do