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"state of the union" jostar now. have a great day. at war. a note of caution from the u.s. >> far too many palestinians have been killed. >> as israeli forces pound gaza. >> we're increasing pressure on hamas every hour, every day. >> what's his war plan? israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu joins me live for his first cnn interview since hamas' terror attack inside israel. then u.s. national security adviser jake sullivan is here. plugs, the right to vote. voters send republicans another message on abortion rights. how will the gop adapt? >> we have to address this issue. >> i'll ask the chairwoman of the republican party ronna mcdaniel ahead. it's complicated. a new democratic headache. i will not be running for re-election. >> but will he run for president? what does an already crowded third party lane mean for a biden re-election. david ags elrod and former republican governor larry hogan join me ahead. hello. i'm dana bash in washington where the state of our union is watching global tensions rise even further. this morning attention in the middle east is focused on worsening humanitarian crises in gaza as israel faces growing pressure to take civilians more into consideration as it prosecute its war against the terrorist group hamas following the barbaric october 7th attack on israeli civilians. at al-shifa hospital, the outlook for patients there becomes more desperate by the hour. low on food, water and fuel and largely without power amid heavy fighting in the area. this morning israel said it opened a self-evacuation corridor from the medical center for people to move south. the civilian crisis prompted a shift in approach by the biden administration which says too many palestinians have died in this conflict. while israel yesterday -- what we saw there were families of hostages taken by hamas demanding that they be more prioritized, the rescue comes soon. joining me is israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu. sir, thank you so much for joining me. let's start with what's happening at that hospital. israeli forces have said that they are engaged in intense fighting around al shifa hospital, the largest medical facility in gaza. i know you say that the hospital sits on top of a hamas command and control center. but, of course, there are also patients, civilians sheltering in that complex getting treatment. how do you intend to go after hamas without putting sick and injured civilians in that hospital at more risk than they already are? >> we've called to evacuate all the patients from that hospital. in fact, 100 or so have already been evacuated. i've called for hospitals, and the french president has sent a floating hospital ship. i've asked emirates to send a field hospital. they have. other countries have done the same. there's no reason why we just can't take the patients out of there instead of letting hamas use it as a command center for terrorism with the rockets they fire against israel, for the terror tunnels they use to kill israeli civilians. remember, dana, let's keep this in focus. just imagine what would happen if the united states were attacked viciously by 20 9/11s, that's the proportion number, 50,000 americans killed, 10,000 americans held hostage including babies, elderly, women, children, 10,000 rockets falling on your cities. that's the number of rockets that are falling all the time on our cities, may fall during this interview, as a matter of fact, and i'll have to go to a shelter. what would america do? it would take all its force and go after these killers. what if these killers embed themselves in hospitals, schools, u.n. facilities? you'd do everything in your power to get the civilians out, which is what we're doing. we call them to leave. you certainly wouldn't give immunity top the terrorists. we're obviously treading carefully when it comes to hospitals, but we're also not going to give immunity to the terrorists. so far, even though hamas has tried to prevent the civilians from leaving, hundreds of thousands have left, sometimes having to go through hamas gun points and gunfire and wants to keep them in harm's way. >> just to be clear, sir, israel will aid, help these civilians who are quite sick and inside these hospitals come out, not just in al shifa, but there are other hospitals where this is happening? >> yes. yes, we're telling them to leave. >> telling them or helping them? >> helping them by creating safe corridors. we have designated routes to a safe zone south of gaza city where there's no fighting, and we're telling them, go ahead, move. by the way, 70,000 have moved. three days ago, i think 50,000 moved yesterday. more will move today. we want all the civilians to be moved out of harm's way. hamas is doing everything in their power to keep them in harm's way. go ahead. >> do you believe there are hostages below that hospital, israeli or american hostages? >> i'm not going to go into the intelligence picture we have, but you know there's been this vicious thing -- they take hostages -- imagine a baby is held hostage. who takes a baby hostage? i don't know if you have children, dana, i'm sure your camera crew has, we all have children. what is this taking children hos hostage? threatening to kill them. this is savagery of the highest order. we're doing everything in our power to achieve two things. one, destroy hamas because without it, none of us have a future. it's not only our war. it's your war, too, the battle of civilization against barberism. it will pass to other places. middle east will fall, europe is next, you'll be next. the first goal is to destroy hamas and the second goal is to bring back our hostages. we're trying to do both. >> those are completely understandable goals, goals that the united states very much supports, understanding that hamas is a barbaric terrorist organization. israel is not hamas, and the united states also makes very clear that democracies have to do better. the secretary of state, tony blinken, said that far too many palestinian civilians have been killed. what is your response to that? >> i think any civilian loss is a tragedy and the blame should be placed squarely on hamas because it prevents them from leaving the war zone, sometimes at gunpoint. it's fired in the safe zone and the safe corridor that we enacted. the other day to prevent palestinians from leaving harm's way, it puts rockets inside the schools, hospitals. it has tunnels below children's beds. that's what we're dealing with. >> absolutely, but because israel isn't hamas, is israel doing everything possible to take that into consideration? >> yes, dana, more than that. and more than that. we're trying to minimize civilian casualties as a result of our ground action, i think the number of civilian carpalities is actually being reduced because people are heeding our calls to leave the area and defying hamas' attempt to keep them there, and we'll do everything in our power to do that. the one example i can give you is this. these savages, they perpetrated the worst horrors on jews since the holocaust. the german chancellor schultz called them the new nazis. look at the old nazis. the allies were attacked by hitler so they invaded france and then germany. when they did that, they went into the cities. they had to fight the german army that was often embedded in the cities, in civilian neighborhoods. many civilians were killed. who is the blame laid onto? did they say the nazis -- the allies are wrong, the allies should stop fighting? they said, look, use forces as judiciously as you can, but don't give the nazis any refuge, don't feed the nazis. which is what we're doing, using force in the most judicious way, we have to defeat these new nazis, for our sake, your sake, too. >> i want to ask about the hostages. thousands of families rallied this weekend right across the street from where you are right now. they're very frustrated they're not getting more information from you on where their loved ones are, believe your government is not doing enough to get them back. what do you say to them? >> it's understandable. they're under tremendous distress, they're under torture. you can imagine you have your father, your husband, your son, your daughter taken by these savages -- >> are you doing enough? >> we're doing everything we can around the clock, and i can't talk about it. i personally met with hostage families -- families of hostages several times. it tears your heart out. yes, we're doing everything and many things that i can't say here, obviously. but this is one of our two war goals. one is to destroy hamas, and the second is to bring back our hostages. we'll do everything we can. we think the entire world should join us. demand from the red cross that it demand vips its to the hostages, demand unconditional release of the hostages, say this is barbarism that is unacceptable. i'd like to see the u.n., the u.n. secretary-general who basically laid the blame on israel, lay the blame on these savages. israel is fighting according to international law. the israeli army is doing an exemplarily job trying to minimize civilian casualties and maximize terrorist casualties. we theed the international community not to give support and moral support and legitimacy to sheer evil that hamas represents. support israel. attack hamas. >> prime minister netanyahu, one of the questions right now is, when it comes to hostages, is whether there can be a negotiation that works towards a deal to free large groups of hostages in exchange for ap sustained days' long pause in fighting. is that acceptable to you? if so, how long of a pause would israel be willing to allow? >> i said we're going to pursue the battle to destroy hamas to its end. but i also said the only cease-fire that we would consider is one in which we have our hostages released. that remains true. it doesn't mean we can't give humanitarian pause for a few hours in a place, a specific time and place where we want to have a humanitarian corridor and have the people leave safely. we've done that, and hundreds of thousands have left the fighting zone in that fashion. >> how long of a pause would you be willing to support? >> so far we've dealt with a few hours. if you're talking about a cease-fire -- >> i'm not talking about a cease-fire. a longer pause, days, for example. >> that's not a pause. if you're talking about stopping the fighting, that's exactly what hamas wants. hamas wants an end ms series of pauses that basically dissipate -- like the germans after normandy. okay, let's have a cease-fire. hold off, let us replenish our supplies, get out of our terror tunnels, let us rearm ourselves and so on. obviously we're not going to do that. in order to have a cease-fire of any -- a cease-fire in the entire area, that will require the release of our hostages. >> the u.s. says you need an extended pause in order to get the hostages out. do you not believe that as well? >> we don't -- we don't disagree with that, we need to get our hostages out. >> the u.s. also says any postwar plan for gaza must include palestinian-led governance and gaza unified with the west bank under the palestinian authority. you appeared to reject that yesterday. you said israel will not accept a, quote, civilian authority there that educates its children to hate israel. i want to be clear. are you saying israel would not accept giving control of gaza over to the palestinian authority after the war? >> the first thing we have to do is destroy hamas, because otherwise they'll do it again and again and again and they've said so. we'll destroy hamas. the second thing we have to understand is there has to be an overriding and overreaching israeli military envelope. we've seen, any place we leave, we exit, give it to some other force, very soon terrorism resurfaces. the third thing we have to understand is a civilian authority has to cooperate on two comboels, one is to dem demilitarize gaza, the second is to -- the palestinian authority has unfortunately failed on both counts. they don't demilitarize the west bank. we have to do it. we have to fight the terrorists. they don't deradical lies, teach children the hate red of israel, they pay for laefs, the more jews they kill, the more they pay. they refuse to this day, 36 days after this savagery, to condemn what hamas did on october 7th. >> if not the p.a. -- >> there has to be a reconstructed civilian authority. there has to be something else. otherwise we're just falling into that same rabbit hole. we're going to have the same result. remember the p.a. was already in gaza. when israel left gaza, it handed the keys over to p.a. within a very short time hamas took over, kicked them out. they're not willing to fight hamas. they're still not willing to fight hamas. you have to have some kind of authority, civilian, palestinian authority that is willing to fight the terrorists and educating -- important li must educate the children for a fewer of peace, peace, cooperation, prosperity. cooperation with israel, not the annihilation of israelment so far that hasn't happened. the burden of proof is on the p.a. and they've failed every single time. i say that regrettably. honestly, we have to be realistic about what we expect. we can't fall back on formulas that failment we have to succeed, to succeed to give gaza a better future. let's not bring it to a failed past. let's create a different reality there. >> prime minister netanyahu, before i let you go, i know you've been asked this several times, but i have had multiple people inside israel reach out to me knowing that i was going to interview you and say the one thing they want to hear from you is that you take personal responsibility for failing to prevent the october 7th attacks and protecting your people. i know you say the time for that will come after the war. why won't you take responsibility now? >> i've already addressed that many times. and i said this whole question will be addressed after the war. >> why not now? >> well, did people ask franklin roosevelt after pearl harbor that question? did people ask george bush after the surprise attack of november 11th? it's a yes that needs to be asked. >> the question has been asked. >> i've said the one thing that is important -- i've said we're going to answer all these questions including i'm going to be asked tough questions. i think right now what we have to do is unite the country for one purpose, one purpose alone. that's to achieve victory. that's what we did. we formed a unity government, the country is june nighted as never before. that's what we have to pursue. what the people expect me to do right now is two things. one, achieve the victory and bring the hostages back. second, make sure that gaza never becomes -- >> israelis are disappointed that you won't take responsibility, you said? >> i said i'll answer all the questions required, including the questions of responsibility. there will be enough time for that after the war. let's focus on victory. that's my responsibility now. >> prime minister benjamin netanyahu, thank you so much for your time this morning. i appreciate it. >> thank you, dana. up next, as we've talked about, a word of caution this week from the u.s. to israel. national security adviser jake sullivan will be here. also coming up, how much could a third party candidate hurt joe biden's chances for re-election? david axelrod and larry hogan n will be e here ahehead. welcome back to "state of the union." a notable shift this week from the u.s. in its approach to close ally israel. at the white house president biden expressed frustration over israel's resistance to implementing humanitarian pauses inside gaza, and overseas u.s. secretary of state tony blinken said, quote, far too many palestinians have been killed and more needed to be done to keep civilians safe. >> here with me now is president biden's national security adviser jake sullivan. thank you so much for being here this morning. i just want to be clear. does israel need to do more to limit civilian casualties? >> well, first, dana, every loss of innocent life, palestinian, israeli, anyone is a tragedy, every single one, and we grieve for those who have been lost, those innocent lives who have been lost. at the same time, what israel is facing is a terrorist enemy who hides among civilians, who uses civilians as human shields. it has an added burden of trying to prosecute this campaign against that terrorist group while distinguishing between terrorists and innocent civilians. that doesn't lessen its responsibility to operate according to the rules of war, and we have continued to make that point both publicly and privately. we will continue to do so as we go forward. >> is israel operating according to the rules of war? >> dana, i'm not going to sit here and play judge or jury on that questionment what i'm going to do is state the principle of the united states on this issue, which is straightforward. israel has a right, indeed a responsibility, to defend itself against a terrorist group that just in the last couple weeks has come out and said that it would like to repeat october 7th over and over again until israel no longer exists. a hamas spokesperson on the front page of "the new york times" said the entire objective of the group is permanent state of war with israel. so that is what israel is up against. at the same time, as i have said and as president biden and secretary blinken have said, we're democracies, as democracies we have to be different and we have to abide by the rules of war. we have to do our utmost to protect innocent civilians. that means being targeted and careful in military operations to try to reduce and to try to avoid any loss of civilian life. >> on that note, israel says its forces are engaged in intense fighting around the al shifa hospital, the largest in gaza. doctors without borders says there are some 600 patients including infants in that hospital with no food, water or electricity. israel says beneath that hospital is a major hamas command and control center. first of all, is that the u.s. understanding? >> well, dana, i'm afraid i can't get into intelligence matters. you can see even from open source reporting that hamas does use hospitals, along with a lot of other civilian facilities for command and control, storing weapons, housing its fighters. without getting into this specific hospital or that specific claim, this is hamas' track record, both historically and in this context. >> israel says it is -- >> that puts an added burden on israel. >> israel says hamas is using this hospital as a place to control and command -- command and control their terrorist activities. what is the u.s. position? >> right. what i'm saying is i can't speak to intelligence matters here live on camera with you. i can just say that we know from a lot of different sources, including open sources that are not classified, that this is a common practice of hamas. >> so given that -- the reason i asked the question, of course, is how should israel proceed with this hospital, given the fact that not only are there civilians in this hospital, but there are sick and injured civilians in this hospital? >> well, dana, i think your question just points out the difficulty and complexity of this conflict. you've got a terrorist group using civilians as human shields, even using sick and injured civilians as human shields. you've got -- at the same time an israel defense force that is seeking to try to root out this terrorist group and to make sure that it can no longer represent a threat to israel. a hospital puts this question into stark relief. the bottom line for the united states is that we do not want to see firefights in a hospital. we do not want to see innocent patients who are sick or wounded be injured or killed in the crossfire. so that is how we look at this issue,