War, and a relentless campaign. Thousands of israelis and palestinians, men, women, and children killed. Continuing attacks from hamas and gaza under nearconstant bombing. Peace now even further from reach. Tonight, we look at this latest brutal chapter of conflict, and what the future holds. A pbs news special report, war in the holy land. Geoff good evening. Im Geoff Bennett in washington. It has been a horrendous and seismic week in the middleast. A surprise terror attack, a ferocious response, and yet more dead amid intractable decades of conflict. We areoing to spend the next hour looking at the past, present and potential future of israel, gaza, and the wider middle east. Amna nawaz is in tel aviv for us tonight. Amna . Amna geoff, one week after those brutal hamas attacks, there is a sense of shock, grief, and uncertainty here in israel. Just an hour south, in gaza, theres desperation amid cuts to power and fuel. And a sense of fear under a night sky lit only by relentless israeli airstrikes. So far, at least 1300 israelis and 1800 palestinians have been killed in the past week. One week alone. Weve been speaking with israelis and palestinians in tel aviv, jerusalem, the west bank and gaza in recent days, trying to understand the human impact of this latest war. It seems like he loves being around the family. Just one week ago, the entire family gathered on friday evening but their father at the center of it all. Hes a father of five children and a grandfather of 13 grandchildren. We are a big family. Amna later that night, her parents returned to their home. Just after dawn the next morning, they awoke to terror. The community was destroyed by hamas. Dozens killed, homes burned to the ground. An entire community withinours gone. 350 people, more or less. Almost 80 peoe are missing or kidnapped. Amna 80 people out of a community of 350 . Yes. 24 of them are above the age of 75. 15 of them are kids. Some are even babies. Amna her mother survived but her father, 81 years old and dependent on medication, was taken hostage. It has been almost a week since your father was taken. How do you thing he is doing right now . I honestly try not to imagine it. Amna why not . It is hard to imagine. But, i told my kids when this started that their grandfather is a strongman. And he will survive this. This is what i hope for. Amna her family has clung to e hope since the coordinated attack by hamas last saturday. An estimated 150 hostages were taken. More than 1200 israelis were killed. In the following days, gaza has been under near constant environment. The Israeli Military has leveled entire neighborhoods. Inside gaza, israeli cuts means supplies are dwindling. No water, no fuel, and food is running low. Now, israel has told more than one million gazans to move to Southern Gaza to escape an expected Ground Invasion. In less than a week, the brutality of the hamas attacks in the ferocity of Israeli Military response has reshaped everyday life and cod reshaped the region. Theyve already reshaped the 25yearolds future. Born and raised in gaza, she hastily posted this video today. With limited connectivity and electricity, we could only speak by phone as her family fled western gaza. We are still hearing israeli bombardments around us. Hospitals, civilians. There are no safe places. Amna your life changed so much in the last week. What do you think the next week will look like . Absolutely, my life has changed. Waiting to be killed. My famil we are looking at each other as if we are bidding farewell to each other. Amna in the East Jerusalem neighborhood, waiting for word from her younger sister who lives in the Southern Gaza neighborhood with her family. It has been five years since they saw each other and communication has weathered since the start of the war. Shes living in danger. What do you think . My sister is just living her life, and suddenly, airplanes are bombing homes. At night, they do not sleep and there is no food, no water, no electricity, no communication. They are being displaced, having to leave their homes. I cannot not constantly worry about her. Amna life for gazas 2 million plus residents under blockade for 16 years was already dire before this war. A u. N. Official once described it as hell on earth. Now, a punishing Israeli MilitaryBombing Campaign has displaced hundreds of thousands in a matter of days. They are not safe in their own homes because of the bombing. Yes, there was something in a israel but you cannot compare. When they bomb gaza, it is collective punishment. The even bomb mosques, ambulances. Still, despite all of this, countries to support the Israeli Government . Amna meanwhile, support for israelis from the countrymen and women is pouring into this parking garage at the tel aviv expo that has become a distribution hub. Women and men and kids. Amna last week, this 40yearolds fulltime job was running a Digital Marketing company. Today, he is helping to run this all volunteer army, thousands strong. Every day, donations come in. Food, clothing, household and medical supplies. Every day, they are packed and shipped out to soldiers on the front lines, families who lost their homes, and israelis displaced by the fighting. Why is it important for you to do this right now . I am doing it for my country, my people. We are one big family. Israel is a small big family. We have this bond. Amna upstairs, another mission. This one fielding search requests for hundreds of israelis still missing. Then, using social media and Artificial Intelligence try to find them. This is our only option. The families and the soldiers. Amna this tel aviv resident who asked that we do not use his last name knows what is like to fight on the front lines. He was Army Infantry in the Israel Defense forces, serving in lebanon during israels occupation there. His 20yearold son followed in his footsteps. That training saved his sons life when hamas attackea Music Festival he attended last week. I called him right away. I told him to fly over to tel aviv. Dont stay there. He said, father, you have nothing to worry about. Everything is ok. Amna but where they fled was also one attack. His son had found a rifle and joined the defense effort. He fought and survived, but not unscathed. Saw stuff that no one on earth should even think happens. Families getting dragged out of their homes. From the grandfather and grandmother to the parents, the children, the babies, slaughtered. Amna the day after the attack, he was called up by his military unit. And gil, who has protested the government and marched against Israeli Occupation of palestinian territories, hugged his son goodbye and sent him off to war. You have served in the military, you have been in combat. You lost family in the yom kippur war. Your son is now out there in another war. How do you look at this moment for your country, for your family . The reason i went to a combat unit was to defend my country and my fellow citizens. Even though i believed we were doing something wrong in occupying the territories. I would be at the barricades protesting against bombing cities to protect innocent people if it wasnt for what happened on saturday. Im sorry, we dont have the privilege to let this thing ever happen again. These are my parents. Amna she is on freeing her father and says her own lens has shifted in the last week. I used to be one of those people that see complexity and see the rights of gaza people, and i care about it deeply. But what we saw on this saturday, i definitely think this situations different from anything we saw before. I know this country wont be the same. I know my family wont be the same. Amna the same is true for this family. Running for their lives with no signs of safety ahead. What do you want the rest of the world to know about what you want right now, about what you see as your future . All we need is peace. We need to be free. Not losing people from our family and friends. Amna her family too has been forever changed. She sent this message to her sister in gaza. We are with you always and our hearts are with you. And the war will hopefully end soon and you can go back to your home safely. And the conditions will be better than what they are now. And we will see each other in better conditions. Amna those better conditions seem farther away as a new war now one week in rages on with no end in sight. Just today, an official from the Israel Defense force stresses the war will move into new and different phases. Joining me is my colleague leila molanaallen who has been reporting here all week. Lets start with the news today that israel ordered an evacuation of over one million gazans to move to the south. It is an enormous amount of people. How is this even possible . Leila its not possible. An ids spokesperson acknowledged that two other journalists saying they understand. They are just trying to cover their backs. They want to say we are encouraging civilians to get out of the strike zones we will hit. Again, as you say later in the day, they also say it will be a phased operation which suggests that. They are trying to evacuate half of the gaza strip, we are talking over one Million People. They are under blockade. They dont have petrol for the cars. The roads have been bombed, their houses have been bombed. Where are they going to go . So many people a wounded. The people are desperate. I have been talking to doctors in the evacuation area. They say we dont know how we will take these people out. And people in the main hospital to the south are completely overwhelmed already. That dont have beds, fuel for the generators. There is no way they can take all these wounded. It is an impossible situation and a humanitarian disaster. Amna you have been reporting from here all week but you also lived in lebanon and spent a lot of time reporting around the region. How are you viewing this moment, big picture . Leila firstly, insight israel, we see more political discord than we have seen in years between secular israelis in central towns who feel like they are working hard, sending their children to work a the idf, and other israelis who dont have to do that who are not can tripping and that way. Now, their children are dying protecting areas they dont necessarily believe in because the gernment is very supportive of settlers in the west bank. Right now, this is a moment of unity. That does not mean they support th government. And just means they are coming together as israelis for this conflict. We will see how that plays out. The second issue is the palestinians. We are seeing them divided into two separate areas. Gaza and the west bank. Israelis are encouraging them to see themselves as different because gaza is now under attack. Thirdly, in the regional context, we are seeing the coming together of several wars over the last several decades. Different alliances. Wars in syria, lebanon, hezbollah, iran. All these areas now allying with hamas. We are potentially heading towards an extraordinary conflict. Amna fantastic reporting all week. We will be following your reporting in the days and weeks ahead. Thank you. To understand this conflict, you first need to understand the geography. Israel is a nation of nearly 10 Million People, living in an area about the size of the state of new jersey surrounded by mostly hostile neighbors. The gaza strip is sandwiched between israel and the mediterranean sea, with more than two Million People packed into an area about the same size as the city of philadelphia. The west bank, home to some three million palestinians, stretches along the dead sea and jordanian border to israels east. There have been so many people over the years who have sat at negotiating tables and tried to work toward peaceful solutions, only to find them repeatedly dashed. For them, this weeks events have put a grim punctuation mark on these efforts. I spoke to two such people today. Ehud barak, former Prime Minister of israel, and hanan ashrawi, a longtime Palestinian Leader and advisor in the west bank. The command from the Israel Defense forces was unlike anything from previous wars with hamas. 1. 1 million gazans told to go south in one day. This is clearly ethnic cleansing. This is a continuation. What they are trying to do is get rid of the palestinians in gaza. Amna it is a 1948 displacement of palestinians from their homes after the founding of israel. She was four years old then and for decades has championed the palestinian cause as a politician and scholar. She spoke to me from a residence in the west bank. How do you see this unfolding . This is not just a benign evacuation. Most of them do not have cars. Their homes have been demolished. These are people who are thirsty and hungry and terrified. They have lost families, whole families have been eradicated om the population. It is a massacre. Amna i sat down with former israeli Prime Minister ehud bar ak this morning. If you are speaking directly to the vast majority of innocent gazans who have nothing to do with hamas, many are asking where do we go . We asked them to leave for a certain time. In any case, there is no way to argue with us about this. It is not the result of our initiative or objective or purpose. It is direct result of a murderous, barbarian attack on israeli innocent citizens. Amna the latest and most violent escalation follows seven decades of intermittent conflict and Israeli Occupation of palestinian territory. At the crux of it are israels security concerns, clashing with palestinian aspirations for statehood and competing claims to the land. Today, the prospects for peace seem as bleak as theyve ever been. A veran of the peace process, barak perhaps came closest to reaching the lasting peace a generation ago. All that is a memory now. When you stood sidebyside with Yasser Arafat at a summit hosted by bill clinton at camp david, it feels like a world away. I wonder if you think theres any road towards any kind of negotiated settlement out of this conflict. At the present, it seems totally practical. Believes that necessacites necessities will pose one side as opposed to having one state or two states. We should stick to twostate solution. I believe the other side as well. The other alternative is not viable. Basically, it is so impractical now, that it would be a waste of time to discuss it. I think that we israelis should never lose eye contact with the longterm objective of disengaging our self from the palestinians. Having an israeli state with 80 of the settlers and several percent of the area, with a viable demilitarized palestinian state. Amna you have not given up on the idea of a two state solution . I dont think theres any other viable option. I think any other option, one state solution is a recipe for disaster. Amna do you believe that a two state solution is dead . I believe israel has systematically and deliberately destroyed it because they want to superimpose greater israel on all historical palestine. I think it is very difficult now to talk about a two state solution, when the whole world was watching israel destroy the two state solution with a massive land grab. Amna as israel prepares for a Ground Invasion into gaza, dozens of families wait for any news of their loved one still held hostage by hamas. Wounds will be difficult to bind, much less heal for a country that has been shaken to its core, the illusion of security pierced. Do you believe the attacks were result of failure of intelligence by this government . Sure, there was a failure on the intelligence side, even on the political end. Amna theres a number of iseli citizens we spoke to who say the attacks pierce what they saw was an illusion of security and th are not sure they trust this government can continue to keep them safe if they couldnt last week. What would you say to them . You heard it from whom . Israelis . Amna yes. For sure, it shakes confidence. I believe it could be resumed, if you analyze honestly the failures. If you can make the people responsible accountable. If you teach the lessons to those who make the corrections. Amna we have heard eyewitness accounts of people who testified to the raping of women and seeing images of some of the burned bodies. If there were atrocities in this confrontation, we are heartbroken. We dont want to see any atrocities committed against anybody. We dont want to see them committed against israeli civilians, palestinian civilians. You know what makes people, palestinians really angry . Is that these atrocities are committed against us all the time and nobody cares. But when it happens to israelis, the whole world, the whole western world sits up and takes notice. Amna naz this new world darkens the region already traumatized by decades of bloodletting, it can be hard to see a promising future. Israel can conquer gaza, but then what . The question to whom will be part of it . Ideally, there is some Multinational Force led by egypt or saudi arabia, that will take it for a temporary period. And pass it to the palestinian sovereignty which is the former representative of the palestinian people. Hamas took over gaza by violent attack on the palestinians. So, that is another constraint because i am not sure that anyone would agree to it. There can be no peace, no security, no stability for anyone in the region and even beyond unless the palestinians get their rights and their freedom and their dignity and their sovereignty on their own land. This is the key. You may kill, you may punish, you may expel, you may do whatever you want, but the palestinians deserve, we deserve our rights and our equality and our dignity and our freedom. Geoff of all the regions in the world, none may have as complicated a history as the middle east. The center of three religious faiths, the area has been conquered, contested and ruled by various empires across millennia. John yang takes a look at the most recent history of conflict and conquest, and of suffering and strife that has led the region to where it is today. John from its very founding, the state of israel has been shaped by modern war. And ancient narratives inscribed over thousands of years about who controls the land between the river jordan and the mediterranean sea. Saudi arabia. No. Soviet union. Yes. United kingdom, abstains. United states, yes. John in november 1947, in the aftermath of the holocaust, the United Nations voted to partition what was then the british mandate of palestine into two independent states one jewish, one arab. Jerusalem, fought over for centuries, was to be under international administration. The city is central to three major religions judaism, christianity, and islam. A small area is one of the most sacred sites for both jews and muslims the western wall, the remnants of the first and second jewish temples. And above it, temple mount, also Hallowed Ground for muslims, who refer to it as al haram alsharif, the noble sanctuary. In 1948, israel declared independence, ich was followed by the first of what would be many wars between israel and its arab neighbors. Hundreds of thousands of arabs were evicted. An event known in the arab world as the nakba, the catastrophe. More than half a million fled to refugee camps in the west bank, gaza, jordan, lebanon, and syria. Some were expelled by force, some were terrorized and fled. John historian yezid sayigh was a palestinian negotiator in peace talks in the 1990s. These were the people who went from being farmers and peasants to being refugees totally dependent on handouts. John in 1967, with stunning speed, israel defeated a surprise attack by egypt, jordan, and syria in the sixday war. Seizing gaza from egypt, the Golan Heights from syria, and from jordan, the west bank and the jewel in the crown of three faiths, East Jerusalem. Thousands of israelis would move to those territories and settle, violating International Law set by the United Nations. Palestinian resistance groups stepped up terror attacks. A tactic backed by the palestine liberation organization, or plo, which started to represent palestinians on the world stage in the mid1960s. This included airliner hijackings and the 1972 munich olympic massacre, a terrorist attack that played out on Television Screens across the world and ended with the deaths of 11 israelis, one German Police officer, and five palestinian gunmen. Then, in december 1987, a combination of factors led to largely spontaneous palestinian protests, civil disobedience, and Violent Attacks against Israeli Soldiers and civilians. It was the first palestinian intifada, or uprising. The Israeli Military responded with brutal force, and out of the first intifada emerged hamas. When hamas emerged under Israeli Military occupation, the israeli approach was to tolerate it. John yossi alpher is a former mossad official and former director of the Jaffee Center for strategic studies at tel aviv university. It was considered to be strictly religious, not political. That illusion did not last long. It was seen as a kind of foil that israel could manipulate against the plo. John in 1988, plo leader Yasser Arafat recognized israels right to exist, but hamas held to its belief that israel should be eliminated. They wanted to appear more militant. Its hugely ironic that, of course, israel at that time had an interest in tolerating hamas, if not actively encouraging it until, you know, the apprentice turned on the sorcerer, so to speak. John in 1989, arafat spoke from exile in tunisia with the late jim lehrer. You cant imagine how difficult our lives are as refugees, as homeless, stateless. Do you feel that you are close to achieng this, achieving your state . Yes. How close, how much time will it take . Not more than a distance of a stones throw. John a distance that, for palestinians, proved too far. The intifada lasted another four years. Almost 2000 were killed, with palestinian deaths outnumbering israeli deaths three to one. Hope for peace came in 1993, wh the plo and israel signed the first oslo accords, the product of secret talks overseen by the norwegian government. Both sides committed to negotiating an end to the conflict and charting a path to palestinian selfrule in the west bank and gaza. It triggered a violent backlash from religious extremists among both israelis and palestinians, including hamas. I am very sad and very shocked. John and in 1995, a rightwing jewish extremist assassinated israeli Prime Minister yitzhak rabin. The next year, benjamin netanyahu, an outspoken critic of theccords and leader of the rightwing likud party, was elected Prime Minister. Netanyahu basically said oslo is a mistake. This was the position of the settlers, the position of the right wing. Netanyahu very much rode to power presenting himself as the expert on terrorism. John by 1999, likud had been defeated and netanyahu replaced as party leader by ariel sharon, a former military commander. A year later, sharon led a march on the temple mount to assert israeli claims to the bitterlycontested site. The streets of East Jerusalem and ramallah in the west bank erupted in violence. The second intifada was underway. Five years of Palestinian Suicide bombers detonating themselves in israeli buses and cafes. Sharon, by then Prime Minister, ordered israeli troops into the west bank and gaza. The second intifadas death toll surpassed 4300 people. Again, more palestinians than israelis. Rather than immediately clamp down in order to preserve the peace process, arafat cynically thought that the violence would act as leverage. This is a total misreading of dynamics on the israeli side, a total strategic mistake. The second intifada killed any residual readiness on the part of the israeli public to back the oslo process and to continue turning over territories. John israel began building a security wall between the west bank and israel, and renewed expansion of west bank jewish settlements. In late 2003, Prime Minister sharon proposed unilaterally pulling all israeli troops from gaza and dismantling the settlements there. It pains me a lot, but ive reached a decision and i am going to carry it out. John in august 2005, some 8000 Israeli Settlers abandoned 21 settlements. Israel gave up all governing authority inside gaza, but continued to control its borders. The next year, hamas won gas first legislative elections in a decade. Fatah, the Party Affiliated with the plo, placed second. Tensions among palestinian factions would go from bad to worse. The hamas leaders in gaza pressed their hard line toward israel. Israel is our enemy who occupied our land and killed our leaders and demolished our homes and jailed our sons and uprooted our trees. We will never be its ally. John hamas routed fatah from gaza in early 2007, putting control of the territories under different governments. Gaza ruled by hamas, and the west bank governed by the palestinian authority. Israel imposed a blockade on gaza, limiting the movement of goods and people in and out. It was, in part, a response to continued hamas attacks out of the gaza strip. The u. N. Says the blockade has deepened the humanitarian crisis for the more than two million palestinians living there. You can imagine socially, politically, personally, ethically what that meant. An immense pool of bitterness and resentment. John for the past 15 years, nsions have simmered between palestinians and israelis, occasionally erupting into a full boil. Recurring rocket fire fr gaza into israel has led to a series of major israeli air and ground assaults on gaza. More recently, theres been fricti over israeli restrictions barring young muslim men from visiting the al aqsa mosque on temple mount, and earlier is month, over Israeli Settlers gathering at the mosque for jewish prayers. And now, the newest, mostviolent chapter is being written in the blood of both peoples. Geoff the grizzly attacks on Israeli Soldiers and civilians were carried out by hamas. But, who and what exactly are hamas, and what do they want . Nathan brown, who has written extensively about arab politics, Palestinian Society and governance and is professor at George Washington university. Thank you for joining us. Lets start with the basic question. What is hamas . Nathan it is an acronym which stands for movement of Islamic Resistance. It essentially began in the 1980s by a group of palestinians, religious palestinians who said weve got a lot of resisted movement going on. We need an Islamic Resistance movement. The resistance is israel, the occupation. Hamas sees itself as a broadbased movement. It is not just about military operations or politics. It is this comprehensive movement. Joining hamas, the idea is you are joining something bigger than yourself. A comprehensive project to liberate and reform Palestinian Society. Geoff what is their ultimate goal and has their thinking evolved over time . Nathan when the movement arose in the 1980s, they said very clearly, our goal is to libete palestine. That means all of palestine, which is all of the state of israel. That was the movement early. For many, that is still the goal. It has inched forward towards attending a different kinds of solutions, saying we would accept a palestinian state on the 1967 lines without saying that would actually accept israel on the others. They said things that we would accept any legitimate palestinian decision. There are some within the movement who would probably prefer to explore some Diplomatic Options but the movement itself has not changed its fundamental position. Geoff how much support exists for that movement in gaza and the west bank . Nathan palestinians are rich in Public Opinion polls. A lot of those polls show that hamas is more popular in the west bank than in gaza. Across the political spectrum, most palestinians, even those who detest hamas, would say it is a legitimate part of Palestinian Society. It is part of their social fabric. Even though we dont like them, even though they are extremists and too religious and too violent, we still recognize them as legitimate palestinian actors. Geoff lets zoom out and talk about iran. Iran for decades has been hamas chief benefactor. Tell us more about the relationship. Nathan iran gives Material Support to hamas. What i would say is hamas, even though it is aligned with iran and hezbollah, it sees itself as the liberation of palestine. So, i think it is closely associated with iran, sometimes dependent diplomatically and financially, but it is not a proxy. It has its own priorities and vision. Geoff you have met with members of hamas polical wing, which is separate from the military wing. What are they like . Nathan it is sort of interesting. Hamas International Reputation is as a terrorist organization, as the government labels it. Hamas has undertaken actions that target civilians, so it certainly qualifies as having committed many acts of terrorism. When you run into people in the political wing, members of this movement, they really present themselves as quiet, polite, disciplined. Very forceful, very righteous. Very sound and the personal behavior. Geoff what is the connection between them and the military wing which carried out the heinous atrocities this past weekend . Nathan theres a single coand structure where these various wings get together. Palestinian hamas members in the west bank and gaza. The military wing, i would not say it is independent of the movement. It tends to attract different types of people and it also is not visible above ground, especially in the west bank. You dont meet these people. Geoff based on your vast experience and deep understanding, why do you think hamas carried out the attack this past weekend . Nathan i will be honest. It surprised me. I think it even surprise people within the movement. It was not a shock that hamas was very unhappy with the situation in gaza. Also, it was bottled up essentially in gaza since it took control of the territory in 2007. Unable to have any path to get out of it. My hunch is what hamas is aiming at its primary audience is palestinian Public Opinion. I was in the west bank this past summer and i found a mood of absolute despair, disengagement, and younger palestinians especially would say somebody has to do something. Any active resistance is good. Hamas probably saw this as an opportunity to show it could do what no other Palestinian Movement has been able to do in a long time, and that is really confront and threaten israel militariy. It was an opportunistic move. The entire movement may not have been on board with what was going on until after it started. Geoff israel has vowed to destroy hamas. Can hamas be destroyed . Nathan hamas was born under israel occupation. I think the movement will be decimated by what israel will do but it has been prepared to go underground. It has bases in the west bank, the palestinian diaspora. The movement will come out of this very different, but i dont think it will disappear. Geoff nathan brown is a professor at George Washington university. Thanks for sharing your insights. Nathan thank you for having me. Geoff since the attacks last saturday, there have been mounting concerns about the war expanding beyond israel and hamas. There are mulitple powers in this volatile region, both nationstates and various militant groups. Hezbollah, the lebanese terror and political movement, like hamas, wants to see the total destruction of israel and is supported by iran. That is much of the concern from u. S. And western officials. To explain the how the political power may be shifting in the region from this weeks events, we are joined by aaron david miller. He was a Longtime State Department official under both democratic and republican administrations who focused on middle east peace for decades. He is now a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for international peace, a d. C. Based think tank. Kighattas is a senior fellow at columbia universitys institute for global politics. A longtime journalist in the region, she is author of black wave saudi arabia, iran and the 40year rivalry that unraveled culture, religion and collective memory in the middle east. And andrew exum. He is a former Deputy Assistant secretary of defense for the middle east in the obama administration. He served as an army ranger officer in afghanistan, iraq, and now is a writer and the author of this mans army a soldiers story from the front lines of the warn terrorism. Thank you all for being with us. Aaron david miller, what is your reaction to the Israeli Government telling one Million People in gaza to move south . Aaron i think it is large and performed of largely performative. 24 hours is a completely unrealistic time. 24 days would be unrealistic. I think israelis feel obligated to do it. I think it creates a sense that they are expressing some concern for the civilian population in gaza. The last several days wod seem just the opposite in terms of the airstrikes. It may be performative. It may be what is needed to be done before the launch of a ground operation. It will be unprecedented in scale and i expect proportionate to the use of force. Geoff andrew, how do you view it andrew i do not see a way in which the idf or even the best trained military on earth could do this without killing a lot of civilians. This in some ways, the terrain does play to idf advantages. They have great special operation forces, but this will require a gund assault and idf is comprised from early of conscripts, reservists. This will be exceptionally challenging for any military and the terrain will favor the defender. Geoff kim, give us a sense of how hezbollah has responded to the events thus far and how they would likely respond if israel totally destroys the northern part of gaza. Kim we have seen over the last week, regular clashes on the border but those are still fairly choreographed. I know it sounds odd to say that clashes are choreographed, but there are rules of the game that both sides are still respecting for now because it seems to me that hezbollah does not, for now, want to be drawn into a wider conflict. But they do keep warning that if israel goes further into bombarding gaza and with a land incursion, they will be compelled to intervene. Keep in mind that in some ways, they are already helping hamas by keeping the israeli army on edge on israels northern border. Geoff andrew, i see you shaking your head in agreement. What do you see as the prospects for a potential second front opening in this war . Andrew had haswell attacked around the same time as hamas, they could have created real dilemmas for the israelis. It is clear the israelis were caught off guard and the units along the border were complacent. I think israel is on high alert as they will ever be. Israel has already dropped a lot of ordinance on gaza. I suspect they already worked through a lot of their initial target lists that they had. At this point, if they needed to, i think the Israeli Air Force could turn their attention to lebanon. They have talked since the 2006 war about a doctrine, that they would level the Southern Suburbs of beirut if hezbollah were to attack. I thinthe risks for haslem moving forward is great. I think they will either come under more and more pressure from their constituents as well as the palestinians to do something, as we see this Israeli Ground assault gather steam. Geoff lets talk more about the u. S. Approach. President biden said the u. S. Stands with israel. He also said it is really important that israel operate by the rules of war. Decipher that strategy, that approach for us. Aaron i think the president has created for both personal and political reasons a frame of reference but in which essentially is designed to give israelis the time, the space, and support they need to do and whether or not they have explained what the objectives are, but to do what it is they feel compelled to do. 2 billion in ammunition, precision guided munitions, interceptors for iron dome and more to follow. It is my view, having observed the way the president sometimes function, that frame of binding the United States with israel is also designed to preserve what i think is the leverage the administration will need at some point, whether it is days, weeks away, to have the kinds of conversations that only an american president can have with israeli Prime Minister. Not a honey conversation. I suspect that publicprivate sort of dynamic is going to be very much at play here as this operation unfolds. Geoff kim, on that point, how is the biden administrations backing of israel viewed within the region . Kim not very positively, i must say. I think including saudi officials but also jordanians and egyptians are very concerned about what they see as a blank check for israel. There is a lot of people pointing out that there are double standards here. When russia attacked ukraine, it is of course reprimanded and sanctioned. It is made clear that targeting civilian infrastructure, stopping food, water from reaching civilian populations is unacceptable and against International Law. So when you hear israeli officials and generals say we will cut off food, water, and fuel from gaza, where 2 Million People live and very few officials in the u. S. Or the west stand up against that, and say there are reasons why you want to carry out a military operation, but cutting off water, food, etc. From sevillian population civilian populations is not acceptable. Pele in this region say these are the double standards. They want us to support the war in ukraine but they are not willing to apply the same standards when it comes to palestinians. I want to go back very briefly to the issue of hezbollah and something that andrew mentioned. We had a call across the region today by hamas to come out in support of the palestinian cause. That call was not answered very enthusiastically in lebanon which i found surprising because hezbollah is certainly able to bring out the masses into the streets. I found the response step it. Response tepid. That is because hezbollah is wary of being drawn into this conflict when it knows its own core supporters are tired of the years. They have been through a terrible economic crisis, and generally, they dont have a population supporting them in lebanon for that. Also, because iran may be willing to sacrifice hamas. They are far. They are not a proxy. They are an ally, but not exactly an agent of iran but have strong relations. Hezbollah is different. It is the biggest asset. It is their foothold on the mediterranean and i dont think they want to risk losing that at the moment. Geoff andrew, what is your assessment of irans role and motivations . Andrew iran has been always willing to fight israel down to the last lebanese or palestinian. I would not be surprised if israel is losing patience with the way in which iran has used its proxies to attack israel. Hamas and hezbollah, they are not under the direct command and control of iran, but they are affiliates. There are iranian affiliates, they receive iranian funding, weapons. The one actor that i can see wanting to escalate here could potentially be israel. At what point do they decide they have to send a message to iran . Geoff as we wrap up this conversation, how do these last weekends atta and the resulting war, how does it shift the balance of power in the middle east and the understanding about the regions future . We have not talked about the israeli equity here. Not only do the israelis have to deal with a galactic failure in operations and tactics and intelligence. What is at stake for them is the fact that the contract between the governed and those who govern, a governments capacity to protect its citizens is at stake because they cannot protect those israelis from the terror rampage from those hamas gunmen. Kim what i am watching is what countries like saudi arabia are going to do. Is there a role for them to try to turn this not into the aftermath of 9 11, where it is revenge and 20 decades of war, but the aftermath of the october war of 1973 where after a few years, theres actually peace between egypt and israel. I think this is the critical juncture we are at. Geoff andrew, taking kims point that this is a juncture, what do you see on the horizon . Andrew one of the things you have seen is there has been this normalization movement in the uae, and perhaps saudi arabia as well as israel, it has largely been driven by business and political elites. One of the things that this conflict has created is it has created space for public dissent about the normalization process. I think it is giving hamas too much credit saying this is one of their explicit goals. However, it is an ancillary benefit from their perspective. Geoff kim . Kim it is not possible to envisage that israel carries out its military operation against gaza and turns it aund to the saudis and says lets talk normalization. And has to come in a wider conversation about palestinian selfdetermination and some form of ending the occupation. This is not something many israelis want to hear today, but this is the message i am getting from arab officials i am speaking to. Normalization is not off the table, but as the saudis have been saying, it cannot come without concessions to the palestinians and that why we are at this juncture. Geoff our thanks to you three for your insights and perspectives. Thanks for having us. Thanks. Geoff finally tonight, we choose to end on a grace note during this extraordinarily painful week. Music from the 20th Anniversary Tour of the westeastern divan orchestra performed at the berlin philharmonic. The westeastern divan was founded by the palestinian author and scholar edward said, and the israeli conductor and pianist daniel barenboim. The founders saithey felt there was an urgent need to look for new ways to address the israelipalestinian conflict and stted with a workshop for young israeli, palestinian, and other arab musicians. It has grown into an internationally recognized orchestra. Here now, an excerpt of that orchesra playing anton bruckners 9th symphony conducted by maestro barenboim. Amna even when words fail us, music can speak volumes. And this week, the words have been hard to muster. You at home have seen the same scenes we have. Homes destroyed, families devastated, children killed, and there are only so many ways to convey the brutality and loss. The week ends with death tolls mounting, violence spreading, and tensions rising here in the middle east. War moves in one direction until leaders dare to wage peace. The question now is will they . Geoff . Geoff thank you. And thanks to our entire team on the ground in israel and the region. We will have much more coverage on pbs news weekend and next week on the pbs newshour. Thanks for joining us this evening. This program was made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. ] wow, you get to watch all your favorite stuff. Its to die for. 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