call or scan now. if you have chronic kidney disease, you can reduce the risk of kidney failure with farxiga because there places you'd like to be pozega can cause serious side effects, including ketoacidosis that may be fatal. dehydration urinary tract or genital yeast infections, and low blood sugar , a rare, life threatening bacterial infection in the skin of the perineum could occur. stop taking vasica and call your doctor right away if you have symptoms of this infection, an allergic reaction or ketoacidosis. this. pete hegseth new book, the army i fought for has gone, woke, and it's time to fix that. exposing the problems in today's military, how they're putting soldiers and america at risk, and what needs to. keeping

israel awake and on edge. overnight iran. unleashing more than 200 missiles and drones in retaliation for the april 1st attack on the iranian consulate in syria. i'm jonathan hunt, live in los angeles. it's daylight now in israel, where they are finally looking to assess the damage following iran's first ever direct military assault on israeli territory. the damage is believed to be minimal, with israel's air defense systems along with us military action taking out most, if not all, of the iranian drones and missiles. but the message iran wanted to send is very clear, and this unprecedented revenge mission is now pushing an already tense region even closer to a region wide war. multiple thresholds have been crossed here that have not been crossed before, and i think it

is correct to say that we're going to be looking at a new middle east in the future here. the white house is monitoring the situation closely, and president biden has been in contact with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu. biden released this statement late saturday night, saying in part, quote, at my direction, to support the defense of israel, the us military moved aircraft and ballistic missile defense destroyers to the region over the course of the past week. thanks to these deployments and the extraordinary skill of our service members, we helped israel take down nearly all of the incoming drones and missiles for the very latest on the situation in israel, let's turn now to fox news correspondent stephanie bennett, live from london. hello, stephanie. hello, jonathan. yeah, it was a real team effort here tonight to

protect the country and their citizens in fighting back this dramatic missile and drone attack on the country. now, of course, after iran launched that massive drone attack escalating the already dire situation, as you mentioned, that's happening in the middle east. this, of course, is the islamic republic's first ever direct attack on the jewish state, which involved more than 200 drones and missiles and raises the risk of a broader regional confrontation. now, u.s. officials tell fox news that the u.s. has shot down approximately 70 iranian drones and multiple ballistic missiles. u.s. navy and u.s. air force assets were used in intercepting those, of course, and according to fox news sources, israeli jets were dispatched and managed to shoot down some of those drones before they even reached their airspace. american forces in the region, pledging to help the israelis defend themselves, of course. earlier this week, the u.s. repositioning two of their destroyers, one of which was already in the region and the other was redirected closer

to that area. and the drones took, of course, a few hours to travel from iran over to israel. so everyone had that brief heads up that they were on their way, giving some time for planning. this. of course, all stemming from april 1st when an israeli airstrike on an iranian embassy compound in syria's capital of damascus killed seven iranian military advisers, including three senior members of iran's islamic revolutionary guard, eliciting vows that they were going to respond. and we didn't know, of course, when it was going to happen. we thought it was going to happen this weekend, and of course, here we are now. but again, it does seem like things are tapering off. at least for now. but of course we're going to have to see how israel responds in the morning. this, of course, a developing story. and we're going to bring you the updates as soon as we get them. jonathan and steph, we assume the israeli war cabinet is considering its options. are we getting any indications at this point as to exactly how they

might react or respond to this? more questions than answers. at the moment, we do know that they are convening and we should have answers. hopefully sooner rather than later. but again, we do expect that they will respond in some way as they have been with the war right now, with the hamas war with israel in gaza. they vowed to continue fighting that. so at the moment, i'm sure they will respond, but we'll have to see. steph, back to you throughout the early morning hours here. thank you very much, stephanie bennett in london. now the white house and capitol hill, obviously on high alert monitoring the situation in israel. for more on the political reaction to this domestically, let's turn to fox news senior congressional correspondent chad pergram. and, chad, as i understand it, the house was looking to talk about air conditioning this coming week. i'm assuming that agenda is changing somewhat. big time. iran's action,

jonathan, or refocusing the agenda for the house this week, the house would ditch plans to vote on themed legislation. you mentioned air conditioning, focusing instead on issues about household appliances. the stop unaffordable dishwasher standards act that's out the door. instead, the house will try to pass an aid package for israel. however, house majority leader steve scalise told me he would not rule out the house bringing up an overall international spending package for israel and ukraine. but that's unclear now. the senate minority leader, mitch mcconnell, he weighed in the senate, approved a comprehensive international aid plan in mid-february. mcconnell wants the house to line up with the senate and tackle that package, too. that includes money for israel and ukraine. now, the senate majority leader , chuck schumer, he just echoed mcconnell. within the past hour . schumer says, quote, given the events of tonight, it is even clear that the best way to help israel is for the house to pass the senate's bipartisan national security supplemental

next week. so the house will also bring up a resolution that was signed, sidelined this past week. the measure supports israel. it also condemns anti-semitism. it also opposes calls for a unilateral cease fire by israel. here's the other issue before congress right now. now, the u.s. says it shot down dozens of drones fired by iran. so you have the u.s. actually shooting at iranian targets. this brings up a question of war powers. now, the constitution requires that congress approve any military engagement overseas. but as commander in chief, president biden can order strikes and he can report back to congress. that's under the war powers resolution of 1973. and it's also notable that the republican senator from tennessee, marsha blackburn, she called for the u.s. to, quote, quickly launch a retaliatory strike on iran. now, jonathan, that would probably be war. back to you. yeah, for sure. and, chad, help

me out here. it's so easy for those of us who are not chad pergram to lose track of the spending bills here at the assistance that is going to israel, the assistance that is going to ukraine, are those two entirely separate issues. now as far as congress is concerned ? well, unclear because the senate passed this kind of trilateral bill that dealt with ukraine, israel and taiwan back in the middle of february, 70 votes, overwhelming vote on that there. and the house has not been able to figure out what to do. you know, i asked the house speaker, mike johnson , just a couple of days ago. i said, what are we going to do about ukraine? mostly the focus was on ukraine, there had kind of been a hand signal that they might try to go to that. this coming week, although that seems to be a toxic issue among some conservatives in his party. but now the fact that israel is on the map, do they just do an israel bill? that's what steve scalise suggested. but again, when i talked to him

late this afternoon, early this evening, he would not rule out putting those two things together. and that's what mitch mcconnell and chuck schumer are talking about, because they have that standing piece of legislation that passed the senate. the house hasn't acted on anything yet. and there's been the supposition by conservatives and in particular, marjorie taylor greene, the republican representative from georgia. and she had said some weeks back that if mike johnson puts a ukraine bill on the floor, she would move to remove him from the speakership. so we don't know quite how that's going to be put together yet. jonathan and chad, there's been some criticism, from republican circles of president biden's criticism of the way that benjamin netanyahu and the israelis have been pursuing their war in gaza. are we hearing from those quarters any criticism of u.s. action tonight, given that the us was foursquare, ironclad, as the

president put it, in its support of israel in terms of this iranian action, anybody poking their head above the parapet to make politics of this in terms of the biden netanyahu relationship, certainly we've had some republicans criticize the president for, you know, the lead up to this saying he should have been more aggressive, should have been standing by israel, you know, foursquare. all along there was criticism of chuck schumer. he gave this rather remarkable speech a couple of weeks ago, criticizing benjamin netanyahu and calling for new elections in israel, but but but we haven't heard any reaction, any criticism of the action tonight. and that's why i bring up the war powers issue, because sometimes you do get these strange bedfellows. folks on the left, folks on the right, who get together and say, wait a minute, are we at war here, guys? what are we doing? and you need some sort of an authorization from congress. that might be where the criticism comes. and the other schism that might arise here, too, is that if you put

together a bill that just deals with israel and you have some democrats, lots of democrats, in fact, who want to fund ukraine, you have some progressives on the left who will say, wait a minute. we think that israel has gone too far, especially in rafah in gaza, and threatening rafah. what's going to happen there? and some of them have been resistant to additional funding for israel. so this what this does is on one hand, it might make an overall aid package a little easier. on another hand, it might might make it very complicated because you now have this uptick in problems in the middle east and it makes the overall issue that much more murky on capitol hill, chad, it is always so good to have your expertise in breaking down for us the actions and reactions on capitol hill. chad, thank you so much. joining us now is global politics expert doctor sumantra maitra. doctor i thank you for being with us here. first of

all, your reaction to this iranian action. where does this leave us now in terms of the middle east? the bigger picture, what happens next, doctor, thank you very much for having me. so you're right, the iranian actions essentially was has been signaled for a long time. i mean, they have been mentioning that they would do some kind of face saving action for retaliation, and it was understandable because they it was their way of showing to their proxies that they are a force to be reckoned with. the interesting thing about today's show of force was initially they started with drones which took which are subsonic, so which took almost like six hours to travel to israel before it hit that was a way for them to show that they are limited in their in their strike patterns. so the drones travel in a parabolic structure. they go and hit specific targets. and obviously that, you know, retells the israeli air defense. so it was understandable that they were trying to show that they had a

very limited action when it comes to drones. and after that, a few ballistic missiles that hit. and then they immediately came out with a signal to the united states with a statement saying, this is from us, from our perspective, it is concluded and it is over. and we don't want a war between us and iran because this is a war between this is a conflict between israel and iran, unfortunately, war has a momentum of its own. so iran doesn't really know how israel is going to react. we obviously cannot tell israel how to react because their country is under attack. so this is what we call in international relations, a security dilemma. so you know, both sides are trying to measure the resolve of the other side. and it's a very volatile situation. yeah. and doctor, the israeli defense minister we are just hearing has said and i'm not sure if this is a direct quote, but it is essentially said we have repelled the first major wave of iranian aerial attacks. the confrontation is not yet over. now, i don't have the context for that. and whether he means

more missiles, more drones are incoming. it certainly doesn't seem that way to us. so perhaps he's meaning the wider confrontation between israel and iran isn't over. is that how you would take that kind of comment? yeah, i would agree. i think one of the things that the israeli minister is trying to point out is there are different modes of confrontation with iran. and one of the modes, one of the thresholds that was crossed today was a direct attack from the iranian state to the israeli state. that doesn't mean that the confrontation between israel and iran is over. for example, if iran really wants to attack israel, one of the things that we assume that it would do is it would unleash its proxies, hezbollah, from from lebanon, which has got far more capabilities of hitting direct israeli targets. and they have got an actual standing army that could cross over the border and engage the israeli forces in war. so i think the israeli general, they understand that they are facing three front war. on one hand,

they are already active in gaza. on the other hand, there is a potential of war with hezbollah in the northern parts of lebanon and northern israel. and obviously, i mean, if it escalates, then there would be a war with iran, which would lead to different ballistic missiles and sources. so there's resources and there missile defenses are also finite. so from their perspective, i think what they try to say is there are different scopes of actions which which are possible. yeah, it does seem to me, doctor, and i wonder your take on this, that iran signaled they were going to take this action some days ago. they then said today we are sending drones that will take several hours to get there towards you. it seems in a sense that they wanted to avoid any they certainly didn't want to carry out a surprise attack. they almost wanted to avoid an escalation themselves by saying , hey, we're doing this. we can say to our own people, we launched this huge attack

against, israel. and that's what we did. look at us taking action. but they didn't really want to invite quite a major reaction. it seems to me that while this is an escalation in some senses it's a de-escalation. is that fair? i think it's more than that. it's not really an escalation. it's also not really a de-escalation . on one hand, the iranians wanted to hit their israeli targets in the israeli land, which is crossing a threshold. it has never happened before. so that's a way for iranians to show that we are capable of doing this. we are doing it at a lower scale because we do not want to engage in a full scale war. think for yourself. if the iranians wanted to attack israel, it would have attacked directly, first with the ballistic missiles, which takes around 12 minutes to cross. but it didn't. it started with drones, which are subsonic, which already means that the israeli air force and air defense systems are already active. they're already on the lookout of things coming, and

they're constantly signaling to the united states and the israel, like, look, this is supposed to be a limited mission. the drones are targeted towards the israeli military facilities, in the in the deserts, for example. so they are not directly over, you know, civilian targets. so a lot of these actions kind of, demonstrate that the iranians didn't really want to engage the israelis in a full scale war. but as i say, i mean, at this point of time, you know, things can just happen. so i mean, people cannot just control a conflict when it starts. so we have to be a bit careful about how the retaliation for the israeli side happens in the next few days. right. and significant that it seems to me, doctor, you mentioned hezbollah up in lebanon there that the iranians did not say to their hezbollah proxies and, make no mistake, as everybody is well aware by now, the iranians control what hezbollah does to a very large extent. they did not say to hezbollah, launch the hundreds, thousands of missiles that you have. some of which are very

powerful indeed. it seems very significant that, to the largest extent, extent, hezbollah was not involved in any way over the last 24 hours. you're right. i mean, there were a few missiles flying from from lebanon to israel. but in a scale of a full scale war, that's very minimal. so, for example, if hezbollah really wants to start a full scale war with israel, they would be like around 60,000 missiles, which which could target israel in the matter of like 24 to 48 hours. that would overwhelm the israeli air defense system. so you have to remember that, that the hezbollah missiles or the rockets are extremely cheap. they could be made from lampposts and pipes. so from from their perspective, it's very easy to launch a full scale attack. but they didn't, which at least signals in some ways that the iranians are keeping a hand on the leash of the dogs. yeah, and do you think that they can continue to do that, doctor, that is a difficult question. unlikely if it continues to escalate. i don't think the israelis want

to escalate either. i think they understand that regardless of what they desire, they are already active in a conflict which is which, to be fair, doesn't really have an end game so far. so they don't really know what they're going to do in gaza. they don't want to. they don't know how when it's going to end. it's difficult for a country to start a two front conflict, no matter how powerful they are. i mean, we i mean, the united states, had difficulty in in iraq and afghanistan and israel is a smaller country compared to that. so i don't think they want to escalate either. but obviously this is a very volatile situation. so we have to keep an eye on for the next 2 or 3 days. yeah. doctor sumantra maitra, an absolute pleasure to talk to you this evening, sir. thank you for being with us in these early hours, as it now is in israel. thank you so much, doctor. so the situation we are in right now, the first wave, if indeed it was a first wave, it may be the only wave of attacks launched by iran against israel appear to have dissipated. more than 200 missiles and drones

launched the vast majority of them, if not all of them, taken down by a combination of israeli air defenses, us defenses and jordanian defenses . so for the moment, it appears to be over. but this is any way you look at it, a major escalation we have continuing do you want to close out? should i? normally i'd hold. but... taking the gains is smart here, right? feel more confident with stock ratings from j.p. morgan analysts in the chase app. when you've got a decision to make... the answer is j.p. morgan wealth management. men tell us when they use just for men® to eliminate gray, there's a great “before and after”. then, there's the 'after the after' — that boost you get when you look and feel your best. and that's why more men choose just for men®.

john: at this our present bite is reaffirming america's commitment to israel is ironclad. biden currently meeting with national security team as israel comes under attack from dozens of iranian drones by the u.s. shooting some of those drones down. israel's iron dome working to counter the rest of them. jacqui heinrich is live with more from the white house on this breaking story. well, sense of déjà vu tonight. it was about four years ago former president trump and his team are huddled in the situation room as iran was attacking the always hot air base in retaliation for the assassination of soleimani. now we are back at it again. quick start i can say there is a marine outside the oval office door right now which signals the president is inside. this is happening as israeli officials tell us a biden is on the phone right now the israeli prime minister discussing what

the response is going to be to the strikes from around that we saw today that we expect to unfold over the course of the evening. it has been a few hours gotten any updates from any sources here including the national security council, white house, state department, in any of the agencies represented in that high-level situation room meeting. you had a secretary of defense the secretary of state, homeland security director. cia director fo played the direr of national intelligence national security advisor and a number of senior advisors to the president as well as the vice president filing and remotely. trying to establish exactly what it would the u.s. would counsel israel to do. we know this was an attack from iran that was a telegraphed over several days. enough time the u.s. sent to the centcom commander all the way to israel to talk to them about how we should watch and measure whatever happens next side that that u.thatthe u.s. nor israel o

invite a broader regional war. certainly not a war a full-fledged war with iran. there was a message posted earlier in the evening through iran's admission to the united nations suggesting what we have seen is a one and done. it read in part the matter can be concluded. however should the israeli regime make another mistake iran's response will be more severe. that may indicate iran before any of these launches made contacts and israel are ron was already looking for an off ramp trying to contain whatever happens next because israel has also vowed to take a proportionate response to whatever it sees unfold. so we know the u.s. is watching for the impacts tonight before it says anything in terms of what should or should not happen. we know the president is in the oval office but we hope to get a readout of that call but no

guarantee, guys. we have been asking all night it's been a while since it gotten anything from the white house. john: jackie great to have you on the job tonight thank you we will get back to you. see iif i bring in victoria coat victoria, thank you for jumping in here. we are just getting a statement from leader mcconnell at this hour. on the iran attack on israel calling on congress to pass the supplemental aide and says quote president biden is insisted america's commitment to israel's security is ironclad. it is time for his administration to match words with actions. that trailed off at the end i believe that's how it ended. your thoughts on this hour as we do await what comes from the white house and this phone call with netanyahu. >> yes good to be with you. i think what should have happened in november is when the house sent over with broad bipartisan support $14.3 billion

package for israel the senate should have just passed it immediately played the president should have signed it we should have sent that signal before the end of last year. that truly the united states commitment to israel is ironclad. unfortunately that legislation still languishes with the senate because every single democrat voted against bring it to the floor. they could take that out. they could come back in an emergency session tomorrow take it up and pass it if they won't do that i hope speaker johnson will pass another version of that part senate back to the senate so they do not have to go to the extra step and get that message to the region. the united states truly does stand with israel because right now it got so many mixed signals since october 7 yes we do, no we don't, maybe not so much. we need this to be unambiguous and clear israel is not going to cease to exist because the united states won't let it. >> it is john your thank you so much for being with us. really appreciate it when you're

at the nsc in the trump administration where the senior director for middle east and northern africa. you know all of this really, really well. this could be iran is saying we have retaliated under article 51 of the un charter. that is it, we are done turning off the lights and say good night. you cannot miss the fact this is it on precedent and escalation in the middle east up iran directly attacking israel. the genie really is out of the bottle now. >> they've been pushing at this boundary relate since october 7. we have had the first of ballistic missile shots out of for example yemen which triggered arrow two and three system. that had never been used before for good news was that worked for the bad news was it was used. as you said tonight we have seen for the first time to wreck strikes out if iran on israel. they can say it is over now. that is fine.

but at the same time we are waking up tomorrow morning to an entirely new security situation in the middle east. what i want to know is who helped us? who helps shoot down all these drones it could be very interesting list of countries. >> no question about that. a big after action report there is no question about that. victoria coates thank you for joining us tonight, appreciate it. sandra: victoria thank you very much this just in from our own janet griffin and national security correspondent for the u.s. military shot down at least dozens of iranian drones in route to israel tonight u.s. military engagement is ongoing per senior u.s. official telling fox news. we are monitoring all the breaking news out of the middle east at this hour but were going to have new details on how u.s. forces are homequote explorer lets you easily compare coverage options so you don't end up overpaying. good, because we've spent a lot on this kitchen. oh, yeah, really high end stuff. sorry, that's our ghost. he's more annoying than anything. oh, a decal that says "kitchen."

good, i forgot where i was for a second.

following iran's significant and unprecedented attack on its territory. thank you for joining us. i'm jonathan hunt. it is 12:30 a.m. on the east coast. 7:30 a.m. in israel. iran launched a volley of more than 200, perhaps as many as 300 missiles and drones toward israel, in what israeli officials are calling a brazen attack. at last check, the idf said that it had intercepted 99% of those missiles and drone , a vast majority of them reportedly shot down before ever reaching israel. and the us says some of its air defense systems in the region also shot down dozens of those missiles and drones. right now, it's not clear how much damage was done, but we believe if there was any, it was minimal. we are

only hearing reports of 110 year old girl injured by shrapnel. now, this all came, of course, in response to an april 1st strike on an iranian consulate in syria. that strike killed more than half a dozen iranian military members, including including top generals. israel has not admitted that it carried out that attack, but it has been widely blamed by iranian officials for it. through all of this action over the last few hours, president biden and his national security team were in direct contact with israeli officials. mr. biden posted on social media that the us commitment to israel's security , me against the iranian threat is, quote, ironclad. but there are obviously fears still growing that the conflict could escalate into to a larger war.

now israel is calling on the un to hold a security council meeting, as we understand it, that meeting will go ahead on sunday for the very latest. now let's turn to fox news correspondent stephanie bennett, live from london. hello again, stephanie. hey, jonathan. yeah, us defense officials say that it appears that these strikes are on a pause for now, for this evening. and as you mentioned, we will be listening very closely to that meeting that will be happening just in a few hours time. of course, a very developing situation as it all kicked off earlier saturday night with those missiles coming over. i think the good part was, is that we knew we had that heads up, that they were in the air and they were on their way. and of course, we had forces from america to jordan all over ready to intercept them as they came over. this, of course, as you mentioned, is the islamic republic's first ever direct attack on the jewish state, raising the risk of a broader regional confrontation to

surely ensue. crews will start to assess the damage as we wait for more information on how israel will respond. for now, the israeli prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, took to social media platform x this evening saying, quote, we were intercepted in our break together. we will win. israeli air defenses, will support with support from the us, jordan and british air forces, intercept many of those drones, as you mentioned, and some cruise missiles over syria, iraq and jordan before they reached israel from about 2 a.m. local time. us officials tell fox news that the us shot down approximately 70 iranian drones and multiple ballistic missiles. us navy and us air force, of course, intercepting those american forces in the region, pledging to help the israelis defend themselves. in fact, earlier this weekend, the us repositioned two of their destroyers. as that threat became more and more imminent, one of those ships was already in the region and the other one

was redirected. once those drones set off again, they took a few hours to travel over to israel, so everyone had that heads up to prepare and get in position. this, of course, all stemming from that april 1st event when the israeli airstrike of an iranian embassy compound in syria's capital of damascus killed seven iranian military advisers, including three senior members of iran's islamic revolutionary guard, in which they vowed to respond. of course, a developing situation. we will continue to bring you updates as and when they happen, and we'll just see how these things unfold as we head into the morning hours over in israel, jonathan and steph, the president has said, of course, that our commitment to israel's defense against these kind of attacks is, quote, ironclad. are you getting similar word from, say, the british government, other european governments? are they standing foursquare behind israel in this situation? yes,

definitely. we've seen that over the last few days, in fact. of course, also as well as the prime minister, we heard also from david cameron, who said, you know, telling them before this even happened, telling iran to not escalate this situation even further. but here we are yet again. they did send those missiles and drones over, but a good team effort tonight by the british, american and israelis who fought off most of those drone attacks, as you mentioned, where this situation could have been a lot worse than it was. we will assess the damage in the morning. and again, we should hopefully get more of a response from israel in the next few hours or so. yep. stephanie bennett, thank you very much. and talking of that israeli response, just in the last few minutes, the idf spokesman, rear admiral daniel hegarty, has held a press conference. i just want to give you some of the highlights from

that. these are translated by our producers in jerusalem, from the hebrew, the spokesman says that more than 300 targets were intercepted. the iranian regime met our mighty aerial defense system along with our allies. that, of course, includes the us. and we have intercepted 99% of the threats. some of those threats, the idf spokesman says, were launched from iraq and yemen. he also said that not a single cruise missile entered israeli territory. in other words, they were all shot down before entering israeli airspace. our cooperation, the spokesman says, with our international allies, was always tight. tonight right? it was unprecedented. he also says that there was slight damage to the infrastructure of the nevatim airbase that i believe is in southern israel. i will

check on that while iran thought it would impair the airbase, it did minimal damage and all aircraft are operating from it, interestingly, he goes on to say that iran has done a grave action that pushes the middle east towards an escalation. he said to the israeli public, there are no new instructions for the public. we will update you. the idf and its forces are ready for any and all scenarios. joining us now, the israeli consul general for the pacific northwest here, israel bahar, consul general, thank you very much. it is always a pleasure and an honor to talk to you. first of all, your overall reaction to what iran did and indeed tried to do over the last few hours. good evening. it's obviously that iran is a threat not only to israel, but to the world order, a country

that allow itself to, show to show that it independent country like israel, 300 missiles and drones and ballistic missiles. it's a threat to the region. it's a threat to the american interest, and it's a threat to the world order in a way, i think that the world needs to understand that we are in a historic moment. it's already going to stop. the world is going to stop iran from having and acquiring a nuclear weapon, or we are going to see a regime, a very radical islamic regime with a nuclear weapon in the future. so now we experience a regular military attack on israel, which we thwarted attempts to american troops and american support and british support. but the world do not have a lot of time, does not have a lot of time to make sure that iran is stopped, and therefore we need to call to the world to exercise and reinstate, again, a very crippling sanctions against iran and to come together and stop iran for doing its aggression in the middle east.

so, mr. consul general, the i wonder now, as i think the world wonders what israel does next, it has just had, according to the idf spokesman, rear admiral gregory, 300 weapons, drones and missiles launched at it. you imagine that almost any country in the world that was subject to that kind of attack, whether it was successful or not, would respond with military action. is israel going to do that? first of all, let's set the record straight. i think that we have now the moral standing and the legal international standing, to do whatever we need to do to defend ourselves against iran, whether we're going to retaliate or do any kind of operation where it's going to be a militarily or any other way that the government decide to go with. we definitely have this standing.

and i'm calling the international community definitely to stand with israel in this time of need. and really, iran is not only an israeli issue. iran is a worldwide wide threat to the west. the west is next. we are we are in the front line of trying to defend the west from iran, from from iran's regime, dangerous regimes. but we definitely need the world to come together and help us to fight iran. we are not supposed to do it alone and the world needs to understand it. we need understanding, lack of trust and understanding in the world that iran is a world threat. we don't have much time to stop iran and it needs to be done. so would you say it is up to the world to respond in some way to iran? and which should that response wherever, wherever and whomever it comes from, be it israel, be it a

coalition, be it the us, should it involve some sort of military action, do you believe we are calling to the world for many years, probably. probably the last 20 years. israel is going to the world to stop iran, whether it's through, economic sanction or a military action to stop iran from having a nuclear bomb in the future. that's that's the number one goal in our diplomacy efforts. and the world needs to understand it. it's not an israeli interest. it's the american interest in regards to the specific question, how we are going to retaliate for what just happened in the last 24 hours. i think we need to be patient and let the government run its decision. and whatever the government decide that the idf will carry out, prime minister netanyahu is not seemed to be one to not respond in these situations. i wonder if you believe that he carries

with him in this situation the support of the israeli people to respond strongly to what iran has done. the israeli people under under attack since october 7th, we have attacks were being attacked from the northern side by hezbollah, which is iranian proxy. we are being attacked by the houthis in the south, which is iranian proxy, and we are being attacked from the golan heights in syria, which is also militias who are backed by iran. there are another iranian proxy. so iran is stuck in or iran is attacking israel on a daily basis through its proxies. so whatever proxy strategy that worked for them so far, very well, unfortunately. and our government will have to decide whether we are going to, use a different response. this time or not. i cannot go into details, but do definitely the prime minister, i believe, and the government will explain

their position, the military position in the next 48 hours. what was the phrase you used there, mister consul general, expand their military position. sorry, i can't hear you. well, say it again. yeah. did you? i was wondering the exact. i think the phrase you used there was was interesting. you said you expect they will expand their military position over the coming days. i said it's up to the government to decide how it wants to react and whatever their decision is going to be, i believe the idf is going to carry out successfully. okay, are you surprised in any way, mister consul general, that hezbollah was not and to any large extent involved in what happened over the last 24 hours? and is there any significance to that in your view? yes, i think there is, israel we make it very clear that hezbollah is going to open fire in israel on our

population in central of israel and any other population in israel, israel is going to retaliate very strongly, and lebanon is going to suffer dearly for this kind of attack. so i think our deterrence in this particular issue works very well, and i hope that the lebanese people will not allow hezbollah to ruin lebanon because of their radical, beliefs that they can win against israel. so my words to the lebanese people, please make sure that the hezbollah is not doing any more aggression against israel. and mister consul general, if i could just ask you finally, for those of us who are not israelis for those of us who are not jewish, what is it like right now for the people of israel, for jewish people around the world, to be going through every thing that they are going through?

you know, there is a famous saying in judaism that in every generation there is a new nation. it's trying to, eradicate us or to harm us. so in this current generation, it's iran. iran is our number one threat to the jewish people. iran is also the most anti-semitic country in the world. that day by day chanting death to america, debts to israel, and death to the west, and for israelis, for jews around the globe were really feeling under attack. but by very powerful, regime, which is iran and its proxies, but we're not going to prevail. we're going to be strong. but the issue is it's really that the west must understand the western democracies needs to understand that iran is more dangerous than germany. if they're going to have a nuclear bomb, it's going to be far more dangerous to the world. all right, mister consul general, a great pleasure to have you with

us this evening on this momentous day, as israel fights off a massiveel is under attac.

sandra: we are monitoring breaking news out of the middle east for you at this hour. israel is on high alert after

rom launcher dozens of drones at a zero-point joining us now former national security council director robert greenway. we know that number has swelled to over 200 drones as reported by the israeli military this hour. robert, what so far as your reaction to what we've seen and what do you believe is coming next? >> despite the president calls for don'ts and the telegraphing of this attack in much the same way date leaked intelligence about the russian invasion of ukraine. it was unsuccessful at deterring iran. it was no doubt incredibly useful for this strikes me unprecedented attack of some 200 drones and ballistic missiles from iran to israel which is tantamount to a declaration of war but they traded blows below the surface for decades bird israel getting the better of that. this is an open conflict and escalation is going to be much more difficult to achieve a pretty sweet very difficult to control what inevitably will be an israeli response and has to

be given the and scale which is not proportional and certainly not calibrated. certainly capable of doing so. very difficult for that i say to control it going forward. john: that's different than what happened back in 2020 when iran responded to the assassination of soleimani. they had these revolutionary guard corps. but in some ways it is very similar. trump knew iran was going to respond for the swiss intermediary said they're not going to do any real damage for the number of people didn't manage to get hurt of the concussive effect of the missiles. but trump did not respond to the eye iranian attack because he got what he was looking for pretty got soleimani and say we do not need to go tit for tat for that iran anymore we got what we are looking for. now let's move on. do you think israel looks at it that way? and now they don't need to go back and forth with iran and

escalatory tit for tat? >> i doubt it but you are right this is similar. i was in a situation of the president when that scenario unfolded. and the recognition was the eye iranian's were done and then taken no serious casualties for their some injuries certainly on the base but it was not u.s. territory proper producer loose on twitter ballistic missiles and drones launched directly from iran and israel. the scope and scale of the attack is different. the telegraphing is similar. but again iran's a calculation it is the united states will continue to restrain israel and not iran for the catastrophic loss of deterrence has made this almost inevitable. to make matters worse we essentially provided the resources for iran to develop its missile program and let all of the restrictions, including un security council resolution 20 to 31 expired just in october. the same month the deadliest attack in israel's history that iran was responsible for.

john: should have, could've, whatever. robert greenway thank you very much appreciated. stay with us for coming up next hour we will be talk with congressman michael garcia cohesive former f-18 pilot it can tell us what it takes to shoot with chase freedom unlimited, you can cashback 3% on dining including take-out. cashback on flapjacks, baby backs, or the tacos at the taco shack. nah, i'm working on my six pack. well, good luck with that. earn big with chase freedom unlimited with no annual fee. sometimes jonah wrestles with falling asleep... ...so he takes zzzquil. the world's #1 sleep aid brand. and wakes up feeling like himself. get the rest to be your best with non-habit forming zzzquil. ♪ ♪