joining me, now msnbc political analyst, rick stengel.of the diplomacy and public affairs. rick, help me understand that nuance that i just laid out for our viewers. you have the israel ambassador to the u.n. confirming on the record that americans are being held hostage in gaza. they are working to verify those numbers. but then the nsc official, not confirming the american hostages. only confirming that we know that there are americans in israel. >> yes, alicia. we want to be absolutely buttoned up and certain about it. the nsc the white house and the state department there are using every source to try to confirm whether or not that is true. nobody wants to make a premature announcement that turns out to be wrong. >> rick, lot of the reasons that i wanted to speak with you, specifically tonight is that you have a lot -- >> you have been in the room as his conflicts unfold. so, i want you to just pull back the curtain for. us give us a sense of the conversations that are likely happening across the biden administration this weekend. >>

charlie sykes, amy mcgrath, rick stengel, thank you all so much. quick break for us. one u.s.y today of his terrifying escape with his family from israel. we're going to show you that next. next they switched to google tools for education because there's never been a reported ransomware attack on a chromebook. now they're focused on learning knowing that their data is secure. ( ♪♪ ) your record label is taking off. but so is your sound engineer. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. indeed instant match instantly delivers quality candidates matching your job description. visit indeed.com/hire ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ ( ♪♪ ) constant contact's advanced automation lets you send the right message at the right time, every time. ( ♪♪ ) constant contact. helping the small stand tall. (sean) i wish for the amazing new iphone 15 pro! const(jason)tact. sean! do you mean this one - the one with titanium? switch to verizon, you can trade in any iphone, and get the new iphone 15 pro on them. (vo) it's your last chance to trade in any iphone for a new iphone 15 pro on us. only on veriz

is challah gor ran knee, a journalist with extensive experience covering the middle east, and rick stengel former under secretary of state for public diplomacy and affairs, and an msnbc political analyst. rick, boy, how does the world, how does israel, how does the united states react to this? and again, look at these live pictures out of gaza city, the bombings are really intense and continuous. that's a populated area, 2 million people in there. rick, i don't know how, you know, the world, the united states reacts to this, and then also going forward. >> yes, jose. it's a three dimensional chess game, and i would say if you divide it into short-term reaction, medium term reaction, and long-term reaction, i'd say the short-term reaction is to try to have a cessation of hostilities as soon as possible. that's not very likely because the israeli defense force will start actions that will take weeks or months. hamas obviously very dedicated to continuing this assault, and they had obviously done a lot of planning beforehand. they've done planning for i'm sure what the reaction will be. in th

joining me is nbc political analyst rick stengel and david jolly, former republican congressman who ish that party and i wonder why. rick, i want to start with you since you did work at state. can you decipher marjorie taylor greene's difference between funding ukraine which i guess doesn't have its own government and is not defending themselves, and israel? >> you know, it kind of made my brain hurt when i saw the quote. in fact, it's funny because there's so many similarities actually, there are two countries that were victims of unprovoked aggression. two countries that we had long friendships with. we were the first nation to recognize the state of israel when it became independent in 1948. both of them are dealing with issues that affect the future of the united states, that have existential consequences. so we have got to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. our military studies fighting a two-front war. we have to be able to fund two fronts. ukraine and israel. that just seems very clear to me. >> david jolly, the other issue is that the amount of money we're sending t

. >> joining us now is richard stengel, he served as under secretary of state in the obama administration. rick the president lay out the particular of this humanitarian systems. he also in a separate statement said, if hamas diverts this stuff, if hamas grabs this and it does not get distributed to the people, the humanitarian pipeline would have to. >> and it's very tricky. this was one of the goals of his trip, to initiate this humanitarian passage from egypt into the west bank, into gaza. hey succeeded in. that it may not develop exactly the way he wants, because it is so very fragile and cumbersome. but that's a victory in and of itself. >> there is also, we have video of the president meeting with families of hostages and people who are first responders there. doctors and others. and it was one of those emotional kinds of meetings, the president on the plane later just said that sometimes you just need someone to reach out to. >> yes, he's a man whose own life has been characterized by great grief. he has tremendous empathy, it's easy to see that. he's had this lifelong connection, many d