mr. netanyahu and mr. obama were having sort of a... >> rose: right. >> i thought they were very unevenly matched. the reason is our president was going to no matter what happened wake up the next morning and still be president for three years more. bibinetanyahu could be out tomorrow given the fragility of their political system. so i thought it was a little unfair the way we were treating bibi at the time. because he's got to balance his own body politic. i think at the end of the day a u.s. president in order to have influence in israel has to be popular to a certain extent in israel. has to have a popularity so you matter and it matters if you have a good relationship. >> rose: but you become popular, as george w. bush did, by essentially giving the israelis most of what they want. >> well, i think he was unwilling to use his popularity. and once you have that popularity you have to be able to use it. but it's starting as a low base and mr. obama was for a long time very unpopular in israel. the prime

mr. netanyahu says the palestinian refugee problem will be solved outside of israel. mr. wants east jerusalem as part of the state. mr. netanyahu says the state on the west bank must be demilitarized. must be forbidden to have relations with hezbollah and iran. it must have on it an israeli presence to make sure that weapons do not come in from the eastern borders. >> given a lot of those positions, and security is primary, certainly for the israelis and the government, where do you think this can go? if any of you are thinking of it because there were previous parameters. there were the clinton par meters. the prime minister. >> in spirit of full disclosure, going back before that, i covered the camp david negotiations under president carter with sadat and begin. i talked to someone from that era. very pessimistic about the outcome here for many of the reasons george laid out. and yet, this individual, again, who watches it closely, this individual said it's at least good that president obama has put a one-year deadline on that. >> so did president bush. >> and that afte

mr. netanyahu request a statement from the u.s.. how would you combine the two? >> as it i said for the last few days, as part of the quartets, we are prepared to demonstrate our support for the party is as they move toward this decision. we have always played a special role when then this effort to -- within this effort and we will be prepared to assist the parties going forward to in moving toward a successful negotiation. we can do both. >> have you chosen a venue? >> we are working -- there is work being done today. there have been some conjectured that we are poised to make a statement. we think we are very close, but there's still work being done. there are details being worked out should the parties come to an agreement. when will that happen? will that happen? what will the agenda for the first meeting be? there are still things we're working through. >> and said the secretary -- with the secretary of state spoke with tony blair, bitchy discuss options other than the cortex or unilateral statement by the u.s. -- bandied quartets or unilateral statement? >

mr. netanyahu, we requested a statement. would you also get a statement from the quartet? how will you combine the two? >> again, we have said in the last few days that as part of the quartet, we have -- we are prepared to demonstrate our support for the parties as they move toward this decision. but we, the united states, have always played a special role within this effort and we will be prepared to assist the parties going forward in moving toward a successful negotiation. we can do both. >> since you are so close to restarting the talks, have you chosen a venue? >> we are working -- again, i want to emphasize there is work being done today. i know there have been some -- that we comes some conjecture are very close, but there is still work being done. should the parties come to agreement, we are working art how to enter into -- we're working out how to enter into negotiations, when and where they will happen. there are still things we are working for a period of -- working through. >> when the secretary of state speaks to tony blair and ban ki moon and so on, will she

government to bring in elements of the opposition, the kadima party, not in place of netanyahu but alongside him and mr. barak to give him the political where withal because i'm not convinced that he could do it otherwise. >> brown: what is the u.s. role here, what is the... they were very careful today to say this was a bipartisan or bilateral negotiation that they would step in with ideas if necessary. will they have to and what ideas do they bring to the table. and what is the strength or weakness of the u.s. comes to the table? >> i think it's proper that the u.s. makes it clear that the parties have to own the process. i think this is important for political reasons and for diplomatic reasons. however the u.s. has been very heavily involved in making this moment happen. and i think the u.s. will continue to be involved. it is too premature to talk about american ideas on the table. we have to wait and see. we have to see where the parties are. where the gaps are. and based on that we will see what the u.s. role is. as david, i will planerize him, he likes to say you can bridge over a river but not

mr mcgovern thanks so much for being here now this letter it cites a lot of. comments from from u.s. officials comments from israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu but where is the smoking gun that is leading you guys to believe that israel could actually attack iran as early as this month. the analysis is the kind of thing that we used to do the analysis part of this. there's no there's no spy in that you know who's government that is telling us that we have to look at all the circumstances first and foremost it's not you know who's assessment of our president. ok fair enough but don't you think that maybe intelligence officials on the inside would have better information and if israel was in fact going to bomb iran or attack iran they may but it's so unusual in our experience for them to have a spy that's you know who's president you know what we have here is a good idea of our president as being rather supine his performance when that's you know who was here three weeks ago is really quite quite remarkable he didn't mention any of the contentious issues between our countries not the settlements in the west bank not the fact that there are no