reaction to israel's ongoing ground offensive in gaza is israel's ambassador to the united states ron durmer with us. ambassador, thank you for being with us. >> thank you for having me, sean. >> as this is happening i'm a little shocked at secretary of state kerry's admonition for israel to constantly show restraint. what is your reaction to that considering what now 1600 rockets have been fired into israel? >> i think the secretary supports israel's right to defend itself. i know the president does as well. i personally spoke to the secretary. and i know he supports israel's right to defend itself. i think the facts are, sean, is that israel has exercised an enormous amount of restraint. just imagine what the situation would be if you had over 200 million americans in bomb shelters as a thousand rockets were being fired at you from contiguous territory from a terror organization does anyone seriously believe that america would use less force than israel is using now to protect its population? we are acting in a very surgical way to strike at the missile batteries that hamas has placed in c

. >>> joining us now from washington, israel's ambassador to the united states, ron durmer. we tell us about the search for the suspects, ambassador? >> well, thekÑñ?ñ?ñ?ñ?ñ search , and i have no doubt eventually we'll briyñ?ñ?ñ?ñ?ñ?ñng them to. our prime minister right before he went into the security cabinet an hour ago said that one of the goals he has with the operation is to bring the perpetrators of this heinous crime, which is essentially the kidnapping and execution of three teenagers on their way back from school to bring those perpetrators to justice and those who helped them, and i have no doubt israel will do so. we're also working to ensure that we can dismantle the terror infrastructure that hamas has built in the west bank, and also taking action against hamas in gaza, which is firing rockets into our cities, about 25 rockets in the last two days. so we're taking action in order to confront hamas, a terror organization committed to our destruction, fires thousands of rockets another our cities, dispatches suicide bombers against cafes and pizza parlors and me

i spoke to the ambassador, ron durmer. here's what he had to say. take a listen. hamas claimed they have kidnapped an israeli soldier but israel says that is not true. can you say different intyly that no touchdown has been taken? >> reporter: to the best information i have at this point no soldier has been taken. >> is hamas still maintaining they have a soldier, martin? >> reporter: they are. there are a number of reasons why they would. if they in fact do have an israeli soldier, could it change things dramatically, militarily on the ground is the way israel operates. they so highly would want to get that soldier back on. top of that, it is a great pr coup could you say. it was cheers that came up in the gaza strip. because as you remember previously when there have been other israeli soldiers held, they have been exchanged for high numbers of palestinian prisoners. but israel does not know yet. it is still trying to confirm whether or not one of their soldiers has been taken. >> i want to ask you about this. the sun is about to rise over gaza and secretary of

richard engel, thank you so very much because here i'm joined by ron durmer, israel's ambassador to thenited states. what did the prime minister mean, ambassador, by a possible significant widening or expansion? >> this specific operation has to deal with taking out the tunnels right on the border. we avoided a catastrophe yesterday. you may have those videos where about 13 hamas commandos came out of the ground. they were going towards the -- they could have slaughtered dozens of people and were trying to kidnap some of them and take them sbook gaza. fortunately that didn't happen but he ordered the operation to deal with these tunnels, and there are many of them, that are designed by hamas to strike at israel, to go and kill our civilian population and then go back. that's what the limited operation is now. what the prime minister is saying is he doesn't know if he'll have to expand that operation. that's not our goal. we don't have a goal rev conquering gaza. sustain peace for the people of israel. we agreed to a cease-fire three days ago. no reason for us to even go in with a ground

speakers included susan rice, john boehner, kevin mccarthy and ron durmer. you can watch that tomorrow on c-span three. >> to see what are those issues that i'm going to confront a year from now, five years from now, ten years from now and how do i think more strategically about america's role in the world. >> this past week, president obama signed an executive order that would prohibit federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of gender identity. the action came after the employment nondiscrimination act which passed the senate but stalled in the house. >> a group of ladies and gentlemen, the president of the united states. [applause] [applause] [applause] >> all right, everybody. thank you. thank you. thank you. [applause] >> thank you. [applause] >> thank you, everybody. [applause] >> thank you. thank you. all right, everybody, have a seat. have a seat. [applause] >> welcome to the white house, everybody. i know i'm a little late. [laughter] >> but that's okay, because we got some big business to do here. many of you have worked for a long time

. >>> joining me now is israel's ambassador to the united states, ron durmer. thank you for joining us. >> thank you for having me on your show. >> first off, hamas denies it was behind the killings. the prime minister netanyahu said that hamas is responsible. are you 100% certain, though? >> yes, we are certain that members of hamas committed this heinous act. the fact that the organization in gaza or their headquarters abroad has not taken credit for it or responsibility is a separate matter, but we know who did it, and we will spare no effort in order to bring them to justice. >> how do you know? >> because we know. we have clear evidence of it. and the prime minister of israel doesn't make such a clear statement without evidence. we know exactly what is there. pictures were -- two of the people who perpetrated this crime, their pictures were published already. they are on the run, but event valley we'll get them. >> president obama's press secretary was asked about this today. here's what he said. >> the fact is we're still seeking details about who precise

israeli ambassador to the u.s., ron durmer and myron arecott. 2:00 p.m., it's fox news sunday and another appearance by secretary kerry, also texas republican senator ted cruz. injuries bob mennendez, chair of the senate foreign relation committee and that commit's ranking member, bob corker. "state of the union" with secretary kerry and democrat dianne feinstein. also, republican maniac mike mccall, home land security committee chair and nato sprite commander, breed love. at 4:00 p.m. "face the nation" john kerry and peter king and former u.s. middle east envoy, martin indik. the sunday t.v. shows are on c-span radio and they are brought to you as a public service. the rebroadcasts of the shows begin at noon eastern with nbc's "meet the press" 1 ogle "abc's "2 c nn's state of the union and at 4:00 p.m. eastern time, "face the nation" from cbs. listen to them all on c-span radio on 90.1 f.m. 4 here in the washington, d.c. area. across the country, on xm satellite radio, channel 120. download our free app for you're smartphone or go online to csp

joining me now with the latest and his thoughts israeli ambassador to the united states, ron durmer. land incursion into gaza? >> as you said, we're trying to take out these terrorist tunnels. we were very fortunate yesterday when a few, about 13 hamas commandos came out of these tunnels. they were trying to perpetrate a massacre in a nearby kibbutz. they could have killed dozens of people, kidnapped people, taking them back into gaza. so the prime minister -- fortunately before that, the prime minister decided to enhance the operations. right now our ground forces are in gaza and going after these tunnels to make sure that they don't represent a threat to israel. >> this battle is often portrayed as israel, the powerful bully supported by the united states taking on an innocent essentially unarmed civilian population. how do you respond? >> look, everyone has to understand what is actually happening here. hamas is a terror organization committed to our destruction. they fire thousands of rockets at our city. as they deliberately target our civilians. what hamas is trying to do is ki

ron durhamer, and today we have yousef hunard. thank you so much for being on the program. i want to play for you a clip that ambassador durmernd get you on the other side. >> we've had 6 million israelis who have been in bomb shellers. these are women, children, elderly who have to spend nights in bomb shelters. imagine what would happened in the united states if you had about 200 million americans spending the night in bomb shelters. so we have to take the action we have to take in order to protect our civilians. >> your response? >> sure. this is one of those sort of gimmicks we have been hearing so obvious from israeli spokespeople, completely devoid of any context. it's interesting that the introduction to this we had the report from martin in tel aviv, who was describing to us in detail the number of rockets, the range, all of this. rarely do we hear about the arsenal that the military maintains that it's using on a regular basis in gaza when there is rocket fire and oftentimes when there is not they include f-16s, apache helicopters, naval ships, taker artillery from all different direction, fire coming to gaza from th