a little girl named abigail, turned 4 years old. she spent her birthday, that birthday and at least 50 days before that, held hostage by hamas. today she's free, and jill and i together with so many americans are praying for the fact that a she is going to be all right. mike: president biden speaking about the 4-year-old israeli-american girl that was own colluded in the recent group of -- included in the recent group of hostages for transport through the rafah crossing, alabama bail'den -- abigail edan, one of the 17 hostages released today. i'm mike emmanuel. mr. biden adding he would like a longer pause in order to get more hostages released from gaza. alex hogan is live in jerusalem with the latest developments. >> reporter: hi, mike. we just saw three thai hostages and one israeli-russian hostage move through the rafah crossing, and all the other hostages have just arrived at the or air base, but one of them was airlifted to the hospital because of serious medical concerns. but this is a look at all of the hostages who have been released today. worth noting in this group of hostages there are three sets of families released together. ella and elie, they were spending the weekend with their dad when they were taken along with the father, his girlfriend and her son. they were all taken hostage, and those three bodies of the participants and the -- parents and the little boy were later found near the border. another family released today, the goldstein family. these children were taken hostage. their father and the other sister, they were murdered before they were take then hostage. another family, when they were taken along with her mother, the husband was the very first person to sit down in front of the israeli military headquarters and begin demanding that the government bring them home. his words today, turn to action. and he's the one who actually found little abigail edan, this american citizen, this dual citizen. she was covered in her or parents' blood. he put her in the safe room with his family only to later find that they had all been taken. so again here tonight, mike, people are celebrating the lease of more hostages. this means that tomorrow we will likely see 11 hostages released, the last of the 50 in this brokered deal as a result of all of this, israel today releasing once again 39 palestinian prisoners. mike? if. mike: alex hogan starting us off live from jerusalem, many thanks. president biden returning to washington today after speaking just last hour from nantucket about the first american hostage released by hamas. lucas tomlinson is live in nantucket with more. hello, u lucas. >> reporter: mike, president biden sharing the good news this morning in nantucket saying that the first american hostage has been freed, little 4-year-old abigail. and the president was also very descriptive about the trauma she enendured, her mother killed right in front of her, her father trying to shield her before he was gunned down, and then little abigail taken into gaza and held hostage over 50 days. one can only imagine what a she endured during those 50 days in captivity, mike, likely not seeing the sun, held inside those tunnels in very darkrooms for many days. the president also talked about his goals for the future. one of them is he wants to see this pause, this ceasefire extended to get more hostages released. >> well, that's our goal, to keep this pause going beyond tomorrow so that we can continue to see more hostages come out and surge more humanitarian relief into those in need in gaza. this is working and woft pursuing -- worth pursuing further. it's in every smile and grateful tear we see on the faces of those families who are finally getting back together again. >> reporter: as we saw from alice, here's the photo again of that little 4-year-old, abigail edan, she turned 4 years old on friday, mike, now receiving probably the greatest present of all time, the gift of freedom, the gift of life. president biden says he's been working behind the scenes with the leaders of qatar, egypt and israel for weeks now to secure the release of these hostages. here was president biden when asked by a reporter what the ultimate goal is with hamas. >> we're looking for a way to end this so the hostages are all released and hamas is completely, how can i say it, no longer in control of any portion of gaza. >> reporter: it's very notable there. of coursing we've heard many times from israeli leaders their goal is for the complete eradication and elimination of a hamas, to kill all the leaders and destroy the terrorist organization. president biden there saying his goal is that that nas -- hamas no longer controls gaza. president biden most likely while he's flying back to washington with, perhaps later today, says he will speak with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu later today, likely to talk about an extension of this ceasefire and perhaps if conditions of future aid to get the ceasefire extended. right now it appears some different goals there, mike. mike: lucas tomlinson live from nantucket, thanks very much. joining me now is the former prime minister of israel, naftali bennett. welcome, sir. >> hi there, mike. mike: so you heard the reporting that president biden would like to extend the ceasefire to get more hostages out. your reaction to that, sir. >> well, we have two goals. the first goal is to eradicate and eliminate hamas. we have to wipe hamas off the face of the earth. after what they did and what they say they're going to do again and again which is try and massacre, rape, murder israeli children, parents, moms, dads, we cannot continue with this entity existing, and the second objective is to release the hostages. to some extent, there's tension between these two objectives. right now we're in this deal which provides rough roughly 10-12 hostages per day of pause, but there is a price for the day of pause because it prolongs the existence of hamas. once this interim deal is over, the idf if will go full force to eradicate hamas. mike: i realize you're not the current prime minister, you're a former prime minister, so your analysis is significant, but you're not the the guy making the decision right now. your thoughts on an extension, what would it take for there to be an extension of the ceasefire? >> right now there's a specific arrangement where if we get 10-12, i believe 12 hostages per day, we're willing to do that. that's the price tag. but up to 10 days. after a which we continue fighting. and we're not fighting because we want to fight, we're fighting because we have in choice. no country could allow a hamas nazi state on its border. mike: do you worry this pause in fighting is hurting israel's momentum? if. >> first of all, of course it is, the some extent. i don't want to be blind to reality each when it's up unplease -- unpleasant. obviously, in battle you want to hit your opponent and when your enemy is down, that's when you want to, i would say, squeeze it in order to bring victory. so it is a pause, but i can tell you with i'm meeting soldiers, i'm meeting commander es, i'm meeting the people of israel. everyone here is so steel resolved to defeat hamas, so that's e what we're going to do. mike: how do you feel like the ground campaign, the military campaign has been going prior to this pause? >> it went very well. and the result of a very successful ground campaign where we just barged into gaza against hamas and the terrorists with massive force, and it brought hamas to ask for this deal. so, obviously, the performance of i e df is very good and very effective. but we're going to have to, you know, reignite the whole machine in order to defeat hamas on the southern side. we've conquered and taken over the northern side of gaza, now we need to take care of the south. mike: my sense is a lot of american elected officials are very supportive of israel in this conflict. there has been some criticism today coming from connecticut senator chris murphy. i want to play that and get you to react to it. >> benjamin netanyahu believed that the you could ignore the palestinians, that you could try to squash their desires for a state and, ultimately, that would bring peace to the region in israel. that's just not the case. mike: we've heard president biden talk about a two-state the solution. he's saying that the prime minister ignored the palestinian desire to have its own state. your thoughts, sir. >> listen, in gaza they got a state. we gave them a full blown state in 2005. we pulled out of gaza to the very 1949 line, handed them over the entire land to the p if a, and they had the opportunity to choose to build and turn it into singapore in the middle east with the beautiful beaches, great weather. and instead they took all the a billions of dollars they got, and they turned it am maastan -- hamastan. i'll also say something that's unpleasant but it's true, hamas enjoys massive support of the public in gaza. unfortunately, thousands of civilians participated, over a thousand civilians participated in the massacres of on the 7th -- october 7th, and hundreds of thousands of them supported it from remotely. so we've got a problem. the last thing we're going to do now is rebuild another palestinian terror state that will attack us, massacre us, shoot rockets at us. mike: we are showing our viewers right now arrival of red cross vehicles carrying the prisoners who have just been released. obviously, concerns for their health. we've heard some preliminary reports suggesting malnutrition, a big issue. but the great news is those folks are free. naftali bennett, grateful for your time, sir. thank you so much, have a wonderful day. >> thank you. mike: for more on the biden administration's handling of the hostage situation, let's bring in mark dubowitz who just returned from a week-long trip to israel where he met with senior diplomatic and military officials. welcome. >> thank you, mike. mike: you heard president biden suggesting a longer pause in fighting to get more prisoners out. your thoughts. >> look, there's overwhelming pressure on prime minister netanyahu and the israeli government to get the hostages out, right? the israeli society that cherishes every life, they celebrate life, and unfortunately, they're dealing with a terrorist e enemy that celebrates death, and so they have no choice but to agree to this ceasefire to get these hostages out, to get these babies, children, women, mothers and fathers out. and hamas will, of course, play games with the psychological fragility of the country in order to try and advance their own terrorist aim as. mike: you heard your friend, the former prime minister, say i think about 10 days would be the max for a pause. does that seem to make sense to you? >> well, it would seem to make sense in order to get most of the hostages out. i'm fearful that hamas won't agree to this and they'll start to play games. they're already playing games. they agreed to provide both children and mothers and families. they already -- they didn't do that today. they've said that they're not going to provide soldiers back. i mean, there's young's e reilly soldiers -- israeli soldiers, women is and men, who are there. i'm fearful that they're not going to honor any agreement that they commit to, and they want to keep those hostages both as bargaining chips and i fear one day to kill them. mike: what are you hearing from the israelis about their partnership with president biden and their overall mood at this point? >> i think they're very appreciative of president biden and of the american congress, the american people for the overwhelming support that the united states has proviedment -- provided. i personally think president biden probably deserves ap a for his hamas if policy, but he deserves an f for his iran policy because behind the scenes is the supreme leader who is orchestrating all of this. he has provided hundreds of millions of dollars to hamas, billions of dollars to hezbollah, the other terrorist organization on the northern border, the houthi terrorists firing missiles at israel as we speak. so he, behind the scenes, has surrounded israel by the ring of fire, and he's activating terrorist proxies on every quarter including dozens of attacks on u.s. forces in iraq and syria. mike: absolutely. so what more should the president do, in your view? >> stop releasing tens of billions of dollars to iran. he provided $6 billion in exchange for u.s. hostages, now $10 billion he's earmarked to give back to the iranians, and he hasn't enforced oil sanctions against iran which has provided probably $25-35 billion in additional oil for this regime. it's quite a policy where on one hand israel has to fight that marx an iran-backed proxy, and on the other hand, the president of the united states is providing tens of billions of dollars to this islamic regime in tehran that is a threatening america and israel. mike: what about the difficulty of the israelis carrying out this remuscle of hamas -- removal of hamas with television camera as and all kinds of cameras everywhere? it's not pleasant. >> oh, listen, it's brutal. if you can imagine the cameras accompanying american allies in world war ii, every single action of's israel is under intense scrutiny, and they're certainly not getting a fair shake from most of the media in how they fight this, and it's the most brutal urban combat where hamas is using their own civilians as human shields. hamas has no compunction about killing hundreds of thousands of palestinians if they could in order to achieve their terrorist objectives. mike: mark dubowitz, grateful for your analysis and your time today. >> thanks for having meing mike. mike lawmakers up against the clock to pass more funding bills before the holidays. reaction from republican congressman matt gaetz, that's him, after the break. ♪ ♪ postal service. with easy, more affordable ways to ship. so you can deliver even more holiday joy. the united states postal service. delivering for america. icy hot. ice works fast. ♪ heat makes it last. feel the power of contrast therapy. ♪ so you can rise from pain. icy hot. sleep more deeply. and wake up rejuvenated. with purple's new mattresses - fall asleep 20% faster. have less aches and pains and sleep uninterrupted. right now save up to $900 dollars off mattress sets during purple's black friday sale. visit purple.com or a store near you today. for the better part of the century, harry and david has been making gourmet gifts that bring people together. to share traditions and make new memories. to bring us all closer, even when we're apart. no matter when and no matter where, life is a gift best shared. harry & david. life is a gift. share more. in order for small businesses to thrive, they need to be smart, efficient, savvy. making the most of every opportunity. that's why comcast business is introducing the small business bonus. for a limited time you can get up to a $1000 prepaid card with qualifying internet. yep, $1000. so switch to business internet from the company with the largest fastest reliable network and that powers more businesses than anyone else. learn how you can get $1000 back for your business today. comcast business. powering possibilities. >> we want to help ukraine resist russia, so in return for providing additional funding for ukraine, we have to have significant and substantial reforms to our border policies. >> president biden has been drug on his 50 years of foreign policy experience to walk a narrow tight rope over a wide chasm quite effectively. now, that's in sharp contrast to the republican party over ukraine. this is the party that, as we heard from senator cotton, likes to invoke ronald reagan, the man who helped liberate ukraine from russia. mike: that was some of the back and forth between senator tom cotton and congressman oxen claus on "fox news sunday". for more on that, i'm joined by florida republican congressman matt gaetz. welcome, congressman. >> thanks so much. i can't get the image out of my mind of president biden on a tight rope after that statement. quite something. mike: well, so there is an effort to get funding for israel and ukraine passed through congress by christmas. should there be a border component included before lawmakers do that? >> i believe all these issues should be addressed separately. however one feels about ukraine or israel over our own border, i think we should all responsibly acknowledge that they deserve their own dignity. the problem is most republicans don't support continuing u.s. involvement in ukraine. that becomes a political weight. and most americans do support continuing to keep our close alliance wees reel well -- with israel well resourced and on the right track. really what you hear from a number of folks in the senate, republican and democrat is that they want to use the goodwill americans have toward israel to drag along our continued involvement in ukraine. as to the border or provision specifically, i'm increasingly concerned that on the border the problem isn't money. we know exactly what to do to fix our border problem. it's the remain in mexico policies, it's the title title 42 authorities that president trump had put in place, and it's the safe third country provisions that didn't have people trekking all the way into the united states for an asylum claim that they would never ultimately show up to report. so i'm not for the joe biden $100 billion supplemental that will make things more challenging on the border and certainly won't make us safer abroad. mike: but do you worry about what happens to ukraine and the war in europe if the united states backs off supporting the ukrainians? >> i'm more worried about a nuclear russia engaging in system sort of escalatory accident that could draw the united states into literally a nuclear conflict than i am about broken down russian tanks in the donbas region. i don't believe that the american people want to pay another $100 billion to figure out which guy gets to run crimea. we seem to almost be hitting a point there in the conflict where the russian-speaking territories look very differently than what you see from the western-leaning cities in ukraine like kyiv. so i'm far more concerned about what'll happen to our people if we consider -- if we continue this tom foolery. mike: all right, let's go to the middle east. more hostages are being lease ared including that precious 4-year-old american girl. how do you grade president biden's performance when it comes to the israel-hamas conflict? >> we're certainly glad that she is home, that any hostage that is released, but your last guest talked about how the biden policies toward iran have actually animated more violence from hamas. so i would give joe bide an f because with -- bison an f because he's allowing billions of dollars to be accessed from iran. we already know what iran will do with that. they will use it to extend their malign influence. and it's worth noting that even the biden administration's own inspector general at usaid is saying that a lot of this humanitarian assistance that biden was just trumpeting from nantucket actually ends up in the hands of hamas. so let's not fund hamas through the iran, let's not feed hamas through usaid and other so-called humanitarian programs. mike: so what more should the president do in terms of pinching iran and being more careful9 with the aid to hamas? is that your view? >> well, i don't know that we have the situation in gaza where we can send aid that isn't controlled by hamas. in a lot of ways, it's very similar to what we dealt with in somalia in the '90s where we wanted to insure people had food and medicine, but providing that provision was often scooped up by war lords. so i think the best thing to happen, frankly, for the people of gaza, for the people of israel