i'm now joined by nbc's martin fletcher. he's here with me in jerusalem.and ears on the ground here. iron dome, you saw firsthand, we were playing some of your report. are you surprised at how effective it is? >> i was surprised at the time because isies didn't know. they put -- they rolled out the iron dome defense during that mini war with hamas a few months ago. before they knew it was really ready. i think the israelis were surprised, too. >> so that was a test. and they hadn't really done it in real time? >> it was a real live test. they say they knocked out 84% of the rockets fired in. >> we can't necessarily check that. but it's clear just on where rockets landed that it was very effective. what does this mean? >> i think it means several things. strategically, what is so important during that real live testing is that not only was it -- was i claimed to be so effective knocking out 84% of the rockets fired from gaza into israel, not only did it save many israeli lives, but strategically, it was important. if israel had lost a lot of lives, if one o

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also my friend and colleague, martin fletcher. along with "newsweek" daily beast editor, elizabeth roug. when the news conference starts, well take it live. this trip, andrea, a postally a symbolic one but there are very serious foreign policy issues here, not the least of being the civil war in syria. the white house says it is looking into allegations about the use of chemical weapons. the house and intelligence committee says there is quote high probability that chemical agents were useed. what will prime minister netanyahu be asking of the united states in terms of ending the on flikt in syria? >> well, first of all, the president, president obama's, credibility is very, very critical. they is said from the white house podium that any use from the chemical weapons would be a red line. presumably this would be the trigger for more american involvement. as you know, craig, u.s. has been behind other allies, britain and france pressing on the u.s. to do more. we have done human. aid, nonlethal aid, helped to the combatance, but n

not yet. >> martin fletcher from jerusalem. let's bring in the news nation panel. the editor at large. bobby, ambassador to the united nations, bill richardson. the president started a speech today. he started on a whom just note. i want to play a bit of what he said. >> i want to clear something up just so you know. any drama between me and my friend was just an attempt to clear up a plot. that was the only thing that was going on. [ applause ] we just wanted to make sure that writers had good material. >> bill richardson, based on what we saw yesterday and what we heard and based on what we saw today, there seems to be a may know effort to at least change the perception that his relationship with israel's leader is a strained one. is it working? >> reporter: i think so. there is nothing like humor sow to have lessen the intentions. the relationship was a bit frayed. this was an important visit that need to be made. the president hadn't been there. this president. it is very important and diplomacy, personal relationships. the fact that they got clear understandin

crowley, martin fletcher, good to she you both.n this week's office politics i talk with msnbc's chris hayes, host of "up" which starts in about 20 minutes or so. we're going to have to explain all the noise in chris' office. i cannot believe he can get any work down in there. we're going to get to that at the end of 9 piece. but i began by asking chris about the president's priorities during this week's trip to the middle east. >> i think the most critical thing is essentially the reprioritization of the peace process, such as it is. which it -- there is no peace process right now. so, the first thing i think is communicating that america does not think the status quo is tenable or sustainable. and i think that out of the gate there were messages sent from the white house to that effect towards both parties, palestinians and israelis. and i think what ended up happening was the president lost a few squirmishes, particularly with the netanyahu government or things like settlement freeze. and it was a little like touching a hot stov

nbc's tel aviv bureau chief martin fletcher said the president made a good impression but so far that's all. >> are they closer to a peace process? they're not further from a peace process, but i think this was more of a confidence building visit, wasn't it? >> reporter: and the president hasn't missed a chance to bond with israelis. >> you are not alone. >> reporter: the president will have more time with abbas tomorrow morning. he's going to tour bethlehem with him before he ends up going to amman, jordan, where one of the closest arab allies to the united states, king abdullah, will be there to host the president for a one-on-one meeting. brian? >> chuck todd a late night in jerusalem after a whirlwind day with the president. chuck, thanks. one of the major items on the agenda for president obama and prime minister netanyahu is the war in syria now in its third year. it was a deadly day there. a bombing in the heart of damascus. our chief foreign affairs correspondent andrea mitchell also with us from jerusalem tonight with more on these late developments. andrea, good evening. >> re

. >> you have to wonder if right out of the gate, this came from martin fletcher, who said the very firstsident obama will say is there a way to establish -- >> u.s. policy is to prevent iran from gaining a nuclear weapon. where there might be disagreement but less than perhaps existed a year ago, the real calculation is how much time before iran reaches that irreversible point. and they'll talk about that, but i still think that for both president obama and prime minister netanyahu, they'll talk about overshadowed northern affairs, but there's still some flexibility, much of 2013, to be able to try to resolve this sort of military action. >> you think sanctions might ultimately work? you think there is a chance by use of force by either the u.s. or israel against iran? >> is there a clans of use of force absolutely, sanctions are having an affect on p iran, but there's time to negotiate. there was a high level meeting of the so-called p-5 plus 1 earlier this month. there will be a technical meeting this march. there will be another high level meeting in april. and then we'll just see if

martin fletcher is live for must tel aviv with more. martin, good to see you, sir.ho is kerry planning on meeting with? >> reporter: well, hi, craig. he is going to be seeing the israeli prime minister, benjamin netanyau this evening, having dinner together. i guess if president obama's visit here to try to turn things around was step one in that attempt, step two is a visit now of the secretary of state john kerry. he is going to be meeting with the prime minister. he met earlier in the day in jordan with the palestinian leader, mahmoud abbas. his talks are all going to be about how it put into action what president obama talked about, which was a renewed peace process between israeli and the palestinians. that's what his job is going to be. there is hope there will be serious negotiations in tweaks if the americans have their way. >> one of the key headlines from the trip is the diplomatic deal he broader between israel and turkey. how significant is this olive branch between the two countries? >> reporter: i think very significant, craig. very significant indeed.

martin fletcher has the very latest on that 50-minute news conference that we all saw there. martin, let's start with the news conference. the president and king abdullah. they spent a great deal of time on what had been the dominant themes during the trip. iran, syria and the palestinian peace process. what struck you most from the news conference that we just saw? >> reporter: well, what struck me most, craig, in addition to the call for the desperately urgent need for a peace agreement, or the peace process between israel and the palestinians and the question of how to stop iran from developing a nuclear weapon. we've been hearing that for the last three days. what struck me as so significant was when king abdullah gave the number of how many syrian refugees have come across the border and are now being hosted in jordan in a refugee camp on the very close to the syrian border. 460,000 syrian refugees. he said that makes it the fifth largest town in jordan. that's 10% almost of the jordanian population has come across from syria as refugees. and king abdullah then went on to

my colleague, veteran journalist here, martin fletcher of nbc, says it is hard for them to come up with a new configuration. you have ynetanyahu out of a ne election. you have palestinian authority. so how you have negotiations and what the formula would be and israel surrounded byis lathe fund meantlism and war in syria, it just really is a very hard climb. but they said they are at least going to start. and i know that john kerry is very committed to this. >> andrea mitch they'll jerusalem. thanks so much, andrea. great information. >> my pleasure, thank you. >> with us now is a fellow from is a van center at middle east policy from brookings institution. as andrea just mentioned, israelis had an election of their own recently. prime minister netanyahu just formed a new government. he was seeing as having been weakened. how does this new coalition impact the process and impact this trip even? >> the coalition has important consequences for the peace process and ability to move forward. there is a bit of conflict here. on the one hand this is netanyahu's third government so the guest g

frf tel aviv nbc news correspondent martin fletcher. both. >> nice to be with you. >> dennis, i will begin with you. was this style over substance and style does matter a lot here, right? especially with israel. >> well, i think sometimes style and substance become one and the same. the fact is the president had a major objective in this trip and that objective was to build credibility with the israeli public. by doing that, that would begin to create greater political space for him on issued like iran, on issues like the peace question. if you don't have that connection, if you don't have that credibility, the ability to move on those issues becomes profoundly difficult. so i think what he did was achieve a fundamental objective number one, and number two, there was a substantive achievement. that substantive achievement was a reconciliation between turkey and israel. something the administration has been working on for the last three years. that came directly as a result of this trip and so i think this was not only an achievement of

sean penn and martin sheen did not go to the fletcher school of diplomacy, they were not and are notolicy professionals. they were just right. and the trained foreign policy professionals were very, very wrong. >> every statement i make today is backed up by sources, solid sources. these are not assertions. what we're giving you are facts and conclusions based on solid intelligence. >> it was hard being against the invasion of iraq. it was especially hard to make that argument on fox news, but some were brave enough to do it. >> are there any circumstances where you would think war with iraq is appropriate? >> i guess those circumstances have not revealed themself yet. i think this will be one of the worst chapters in american history if it is perceived by the arab world that a u.s.-led invasion that was not justified, not in self defense goes forward. international law matters. the u.n. is not irrelevant. >> citing international law in those days could make you a laughing stock on television, but janine garofalo hung in there, she was ridiculed mercilessly. the prowar world, includi