Israel, and over gaza city. Joining us now, nbcs senior White House Correspondent gabe gutierrez, nbc Foreign Correspondent raf sanchez in israel, david friedman, former u. S. Ambassador to israel in the trump administration, former Obama Deputy National Security adviser ben rhodes, and former Israeli Foreign minister sidney libny. Gabe, first to you, the white house apparently has been on an extended call with Prime Minister netanyahu. Talk to us about the speech, it could be one of the most important speeches of his term. What do we expect . Thats right, andrea. Theyre the second on camera remarks since the fighting in israel in gaza began over the weekend. And as you said, a very long call this morning, the president and the Vice President meeting with interNational Security team and also as of just a few moments ago, still on the phone with israeli Prime Minister benjamin netanyahu. The president is expected to offer his support for israel, reiterate his support for israel. Yesterday, releasing a Statement Calling what is happening in israel and Gaza Unfathomable and calling on americans to stand shoulder to shoulder with israel. Now, certainly the president has sent a Carrier Strike group to the eastern mediterranean, a show of power and also potentially to act as a deterrent. As you know, with the president reiterated in every written statement or on camera remarks so far is this idea that other actors in the region, enemies of israel should not take advantage of the situation in order to mount some sort of attack against israel. So we expect to hear that from the president and also potentially to hear more information about those 11 americans who were killed, it is possible the death toll could go up. The National Security team here expects it to. And also we could hear more about potentially word of any american hostages being taken by hamas. Again, those remarks expected to get started with the next few minutes. At last check, the president and the Vice President still on the phone with Prime Minister netanyahu, andrea. Thanks so much, gabe. I know youll be standing by. Ben rhodes, do you expect the president to have any new policies to announce, especially on the subject of iran . There has been combined statements from the u. S. And israel from officials that they have no, quote, smoking gun about iran. But iran is certainly been arming and Training Hamas for decades and as they say, there would be no hamas without iran. So, what is the implication of iran being stated as behind this . Well, look, i think, first of all, what the president is going to do is detail the types of support hes providing to israel, and the types of support that may be necessary going forward. And that likely includes a substantial amount of military capabilities, including the capacity to say replenish the iron dome system, which is so important to protecting israelis from rocket fire. But i also think, you know, that Aircraft Carrier is very much a message not to both iran, but also to hezbollah, and lebanon to stay out of this, and to not escalate. And to indicate that the United States military is at the ready, should this escalate into a broader regional war, should other actors probably principally hezbollah choose to get involved. I think hell want to issue a warning to iran and its proxies to stay out of this. And in terms of the support for hamas that has been ongoing from iran, clearly what the israeli objective here is going to be is to dismantle hamas. The u. S. Is going to have a role to play from an intelligence sharing capacity, in that effort. But, again, i think that what the administration would likely prefer is that this not escalate into a broader regional war. That ultimately is not in anyones interest here. And so therefore i think his remarks will be more focused on the immediate military and intelligence support to israel, the concern for hostages including americans who are being held presumably in gaza, but then a warning across the region to not see this further escalate. And one quick point that senator murphy, who as you know is on Foreign Relations was saying on morning joe this morning is that they cannot Resupply Iron Dome with american equipment, that it is israeli made equipment, they need an appropriation, a supplemental, they need money to do that and that cannot be done without having a Speaker Of The House. Thats just another example of the paralysis in washington that will affect not only more money toward ukraine, but now what could be a ukraineisraeli supplemental. Nothing can be passed until the Speaker Stalemate is resolved, right, ben . Yeah, thats right. I mean, you have a Financing Issue that always comes into play with iron dome and every gaza war, i think, ive lived through a couple of them myself, there is an emergency supplemental to finance the replenishment of iron dome. So, and this one is has the makings of being the biggest one yet. And so, that is going to be necessary, and that cant be done. It is also the case, andrea, that a lot of senior military positions are not filled with confirmed people because thats held up. It is also the case that our ambassador to israel, jack lew, is awaiting a hearing. So are other key ambassador positions across the region. So i hope that this shakes congress out of its the House Republican caucus out of its complacency here. There is also an outstanding Funding Request for ukraine, and as well. So a lot of National Security issues are stuck up on capitol hill. And i did just want to say on the Iran Intelligence piece, i think that i would not expect him to be assigning responsibility. This is going to take time to figure out how we missed this. And who was responsible and just who was involved in the planning. So that, i think, is a longer term process. As a former foreign minister, we heard from the Israeli Embassy here in washington that the Israeli Death toll has now passed 1,000 people. And, of course, there is the dire hostage situation. The response to hamas has to proceed by air, didnt say by ground, but the response, the retaliation has to proceed whether or not there are hostages there. Yes. It is not only about retaliating and it is not only the huge number of those that the are in this massacre, really horrific pictures and stories that we are hearing and you cannot take it off your mind. But it is not only retaliation. There is a good question how the future of israel look like and also what the future of palestinians in gaza will look like. And for many years we have we are trying to act against gaza, but what they did in the last two or three days is something that is it is not acceptable. It is terrorism in the most in most vicious manner against families and children and babies. Those that were taken and those that were murdered. And there is no hope for peace in the region, but hamas in control in gaza, there is no hope for the palestinian and we cannot take it anymore. I was a member of the Israeli Cabinet against hamas and really enough is enough. And we need to change the realities on the ground. They shouldnt control gaza anymore and we need the support of International Community while doing so. So we are truly grateful for the position of President Biden and u. S. Administration. It is very important. And it is important also to remember that, i mean, we left gaza strip. We put out forces. We gave at the time hopefully a Better Future to those living in gaza and when hamas took over, theyre not willing to accept the right of theyre not representing any palestinian cause for freedom or state. It is about mere existence of israel, they represent a religious conflict, religious conflict is unsolvable and this is similar to hezbollah in lebanon. Shia and suni, but both represent religious ideology that is not representing of hamas doesnt represent the palestinian cause and lebanon, hezbollah is not representing the lebanese interest. It is about ideology, control, especially of hezbollah by iran. We need to stop this and to free gaza from hamas. It is so interesting to hear you say that to our american audiences. We have talked in the last couple of months about the protests against the netanyahu coalition. You were very much against those policies. I am. So to hear you united with the government right now, totally united in terms of basically their goal is to decapitate hamas once and for all, it is not to be tolerated. Yes. This was my position for many years. And this is needed. It is the interest of israel right now is about our security, life of our citizens, and therefore we need to cooperate and talk together. I know that you have to go. But it is very good of you to take the time for us today. And i want to go next to raf sanchez, back to raf, we talked to you an hour ago. Youve seen a lot in the last 30 minutes since we checked in with you. It is good to see you outside, not in a bunker. Tell us whats going on. Reporter well, andrea, it has been quiet for the last 20 minutes or so, which has been a rare thing in the southern israeli city of ashkelon over the last couple of hours. As you and i discussed last hour, it is now 8 10 p. M. Here. Hamas said early in the day that they were giving the residents of ashkelon, the israeli civilians here until 5 00 p. M. To evacuate the city. No one really knew if this was rhetoric or if they truly had something in mind. But at the stroke of 5 00 p. M. , this seemingly unrelenting Rocket Barrage began. It is by far the most intense barrage of rockets that i have been through since the start of in war four days ago and it underscores that despite the intensity of israeli air strikes in gaza, hamas retains the ability to fire rockets in great volume at cities all across the south of this country. Now ben mentioned earlier one of the practical things that israel is looking for from the United States as you said, andrea, is money, to pay for these iron dome missile interceptors. They cost Tens Of Thousands of dollars each. Theyre shooting down these largely improvised hamas rockets that cost perhaps a couple hundred dollars each, it is a very, very expensive proposition to defend your country from thousands and thousands of rockets. So israel will be looking to the u. S. For supplemental aid on that front. I think one of the other slightly more intangible things that many israelis political leaders, Security Leaders will be looking for from President Biden is a commitment to hold the diplomatic line as it were. Israel is fully aware that in this moment it is enjoying, if thats the right word, a widespread global sympathy. There is shock all across the planet. Even people who are often critical of israel are stunned at the scenes of carnage in the south of this country. But if as we expect israel moves ahead with a Ground Offensive inside of gaza, one of the most densely populated places in earth, there is going to be potentially severe civilian casualties on the palestinian side and pretty quickly the pressure will grow on israel to call off that offensive and one of the things israel will be hoping the United States will do is hold the line diplomatically, give them the political and diplomatic cover as they try to achieve their goals on the battlefield. It is worth saying that we still dont really know that those goals are. We have not yet heard from Prime Minister netanyahu if the plan is truly an allout Ground Invasion with the view of regime change inside of gaza, toppling hamas, it is not at all clear, andrea, what would replace it. Many people might look to the Palestinian Authority, the internationally recognized palestinian leadership, which is in the occupied west bank. But you remember, andrea, that the Palestinian Authority were in charge of gaza briefly after the israelis left in 2005 and their control there did not last very long. They were overthrown pretty quickly by hamas. So, politically militarily, diplomatically, it is just not at all clear what the path forward for israel is in gaza. Indeed. An election that the u. S. Agreed to, Green Lighted and hamas was elected. Raf, thank you. Stay safe. Ambassador david friedman, want to talk to you about your perspective. Do you think the u. S. , the president of the United States has been Strong Enough in his support for israel . I think the last couple of days have been encouraging. And, you know, ive been a critic of the Biden Administration almost since but the last couple of days have been important moving the gerald ford into the region. Warning iran, thats important. And i applaud the president for doing that. The real question is how do we get here . And one of the primary ways we got here was empowering iran. If you look at how many barrels of oil iran is selling today, compared to three years ago, it is massively it is a much Richer Country. We can debate whether 6 billion was used or not used or held in escrow. Iran has become a much Richer Country under the Biden Administrations watch and that money has been used to help finance hamas, used to help finance hezbollah, in addition the Biden Administration has been funding the Palestinian Authority, which pays incentives to terrorists to kill jews. The more they kill, the more money they get. We turned on the funding, the Biden Administration turned on the funding to unrwa, which helps these schools produce plays where half the kids dress up as terrorists and half the kids dress up as jews and terrorists kill the jews and the parents applaude. There is too much lubrication into the Terrorist System for this to happen. This was such a sophisticated attack, planned for so long. It doesnt just happen by hamas on their own. They needed and obtained the help of iran. They were in a position to help. They were no longer suffering under the sanctions in place during the trump administration. We got here, i think, by reason of many mistakes by the Biden Administration, but it is not the time to look backwards. We got to look forward, win this war, have to obliterate hamas and anything that the United States can do now toward that end will be appreciated by israel and by someone like me who has been a great critic in the past. I want to bring back ben rhodes. Ben, we have been told, you know, very authoritatively that that 6 billion has not been spent and what john kirby said this morning was that they are considering refreezing it. So they are responding to that criticism. But, you know just on this specific issue of the 6 billion, not a single dollar of that money was spent. Thats the first point. I know people have said, well, money is fungible and if they knew there was 6 billion, maybe somebody in the iranian system therefore spent some extra money on hamas. The reality is that this attack was clearly planned for many, many, months and this deal that involved this 6 billion in irans own oil revenue was only agreed a few weeks ago. I just think this is a total false attack that makes no sense. The idea that, you know, months and months ago, when hamas began to fund this attack, they somehow envisioned a scenario in which iran was going to get some of its own oil revenue as part of hostages this is not the issue. There is an issue, obviously with iran providing support for hamas and hezbollah. They did Tune Der The Bush administration, they did it under the obama administration, they did it under the trump administration, they did it under the Biden Administration. The Iranian Revolutionary guard core has a Black Market Economy that finances a lot of the activity across the region, that is immune from sanctions. Sanctions were imposed, a lot of them in the obama years by the way. Look, i think right now the focus has to be on warning against further escalation from iran, keeping hezbollah out of this, and you see the Israeli Defense forces are trying to do that, delivering warning shots along that border. And then trying to determine how do you really go after the military wing of hamas that carried this out, and dismantled that organization, while trying to recover these hostages. And, of course, being mindful that there are 2 Million People including a million children living in gaza. This is extraordinarily complicated and i dont think, you know, trying to fix, blame to a separate diplomatic deal t