Investigation. And today the u. N. Security council is expected to vote on a resolution calling for full access to the crash site and an International Investigation. Well check in with our nbc colleagues in russia in a couple minutes. Also, we are closely following the situation in the middle east. Israeli air strikes pounding gaza again today. Officials say more than 500 palestinians have been killed since the beginning of the offensive. Yesterday was the deadliest day. 20 israelis have been killed including 13 soldiers who died during heavy fighting yesterday. And the u. N. Security general and u. S. Secretary john kerry are headed to egypt for talks on the crisis. Israel has every right in the world to defend itself, but were hopeful, very hopeful that we can quickly try to find a way forward to put a ceasefire in place so that the underlying issues, so that we can get to the questions, but you cannot reward terrorism. There cant be a set of precondition demands that are going to be met. So we support the Egyptian Initiative joined in by israel and others to have an immediate ceasefire. Were going to have a live report from our nbc colleagues on the ground in gaza in just a couple minutes. So its been a tough weekend, to say the least. Well check on the markets this morning. Europe is lower this morning. Well see if it is falling over the u. S. Futures after the big rally we saw on friday or the recovery rally we saw on friday. The s p opens lower by three points and the dow is lower by 23 with the nasdaq down by 3. In europe theres talk of the new ultimate tim to putin whether we have sanctions from europe. The ftss lower by 19 points. Germany is lower by 61 points. Big selloff in italy lower by 186 points near. 90 . Heres what happens in asia, japan is closed. So we are not showing you what happens there. Hang seng and hong kong lower by 67 points. Shanghai is lower by 4. 5 points. Oil despite the disruption, no big rise in the price. Nymex is at 103 dollars a barrel. Ice brent is lower as well. The yield is still below 2. 5 as we saw the stock market rally. The tenyear sold off a bit but the yield never got to 2. 5 as we saw people moving into equities. As for the dollar this morning, stronger against the pound and the euro, weaker against the yen. The pound is going to cost you 1. 70 and the euro is 1. 30. This morning gold is higher at 1315. Thank you, michelle. The Holding Company has filed for protection. Right. I thought we were worried about that in the world markets. Was this not the worst they were wondering would happen . When it comes to portugal or europe . That was the bank we were worried about. Right. We were. Well, the bank itself, are you saying that the bank is no, the Holding Company. No, but it was the bank that everybody was confused about or concerned about because they were worried it was the beginning of the european banking crisis renewed. But as people look more and more at that situation, it looks like a situation of really very bad governance of latin america in the 1980s and the 1970s, so they are thinking it is isolateisola. And portuguese debt was the biggest rally of last week. Thats good. Well go to moscow now to join jim maceda there for us. One of the top stories, the International Debate over the plane crash site in ukraine. And nbcs jim maceda is joining us from moscow. Saw you last week. Hello again, jim. Reporter hi, there. We have heard some remarkably angry comments today from the likes of the australian and dutch Prime Ministers, not to mention the unsurprising bitterness coming from the ukrainian Prime Minister. But none of this, joe, seems to have swayed putin to cut ties with the rebels. Theres been a lot of talk over the past few days about the crash of malaysian flight 17 being a gamechanger. But what we have seen is that so far the game in ukraine hasnt changed. The war is still raging on there. There are reports of fighting going on today inside donetsk, the city of 1 Million People with tanks reportedly now in the city center. So what we are seeing is, i think, putin paying lip service once again to peace but using his proxies to defend his very specific interest. So theres no doubt that putin is facing the biggest crisis of his presidency because of this plane crash. Putin, the former kgb lieutenant colonel, bust know what did or did not happening to the boeing 777. The United States thinks it knows but he really must know. And if there is a direct russian connection to the crime, analysts here are telling us that putin will do absolutely everything that he can to hide it, to drag out any investigation so that he can continue to kind of plausibly deny everything. And he just waits things out. Hes still believing that he can win that battle. That europe will not have the stomach for the tough secretarial sanctions that might hurt him. And by the way, he has an 83 Approval Rating from russians here to back him. Back to you. All right. Jim maceda, we appreciate your reporting. And it is at this point, its all going to be recriminations and cleaning up the site, the whole thing is unfortunate. I dont know what well finally hear. Eventually you would think that you would hear im sorry or something. Then they would have to admit they were involved and im not sure they want to admit that. From putin or the rebels . No. Havent we got a pretty good idea what likely happened overall. They initially shot one down a couple days before that. They were kind of happy. Then it is like, oh, no, we made a mistake. So its just awful. I think the question now is, does europe finally do something very significant when it comes to sanctions . We have been asking and asking and they have been talking and talking. What about china . Does china do anything about this . They could, but i think thats one bridge way too far. Oh, yeah. It prompted a war in ukraine all year. That was the point over the weekend. We kept emphasizing that it became a european conflict at that point because so many europeans were on board. Joining us now to discuss the situation in the middle east and russia is ben white, chief economic correspondent of politico and cnbc contributor. We wouldnt bring you in here to talk about your expertise on the ukraine crimea region. But we will bring you in to talk about the beltways response. So thats what we are talking about. I can talk to you about that. What was interesting over the weekend is republicans hit the president very hard over the series of International Crises that dont seem to be improving under his watch. They want to see a lot more tough response to putin on this, in particular, sanctions on him and perhaps sending nato troops to try to secure the site there. What i find interesting, politico has a new poll out this morning on domestic Political Attitudes towards international entanglements, and 17 said the United States should be more involve maryland the situation in ukraine. That was before the plane was shut down, so the numbers will probably go up after this, but the americans are increasingly not wanting us to play a much bigger role in ukraine. While republicans are very critical of the president , and rightly so, but the National Opinion on him getting involved in the International Crisis is very low. And republicans like rand paul tend to move in line with what does that put us in our place in the world if we do nothing . It probably doesnt help our national standing, but the question is, what do we do . After a war in iraq and afghanistan, getting involved in the area where there doesnt seem to be a solution in the middle east where we see the same thing happen over and over. In gaza it is hard. I wouldnt say its the typical lines drawn between where people are, but there are those that would say, look, if we had rockets landing here, we would do the same. But then kerry, you heard the hot mike where he said sarcastically, the outrage in paris and other european countries, many times it seems like theres a lot of empathy with hamas really and with the situation. And the civilian palestinians, not really hamas. But the battle lines are drawn there as well. It is dangerous american politics to be seen as anything other than very strong in israel. I think people are very willing to say what is israel doing. Ive seen people say, because the rockets fired by hamas usually dont hit anything, and because when israel responds, there are more casualties. Somehow that puts israel in the wrong. Thats the prison of the American Media for sure. Thats what im talking about. I think it is interesting, why is john kerry in cairo when hamas obviously rejected the idea of talking to egypt about a ceasefire. Michelle, you know more about this than me, but it seems like hes in the wrong place right now. Would that be the first time he was nevermind. It strikes me as odd hes going to a capital where hamas is not interested in talking to egypt and their brokering of a ceasefire. If you want a ceasefire, where is it going to come from . Did anyone notice complete failure of iran over the weekend . Thats the one thing that is amazing because of ukraine and because of gaza, nobody has talked about the fact that by the way we have not really gone anywhere on that front either. Well, theres not a lot of successes that this administration can point to in terms of Foreign Policy. The u. S. Gets four more months to dress up concessions to iran. But then the question, does this play into the 2014 midterm elections and do democrats get hit as soft on Foreign Policy . Maybe they do, but americans dont seem that concerned. I know americans do not want another entanglement, but it is different when, its a different level when president obama, the minute he becomes president announces in the middle east, were not the same country anymore. Dont worry about it. Syria, redline, no, right . Those if we have maintained a strong stance, sometimes that means you dont have to get militarily involved in the first place because people see you as strong and know that you would do something. Putin obviously does not view us that way. And rightly so. I agree with you. Explain this, ben, in Morning Money you have a piece that says russian billionaires freak out. Im wondering why given the fact it seems we are as timid as we think we may be. The article that you quote from says russias businessmen are increasingly frantic that this will lead to crippling concessions and are too scared to say so publicly. As jim maceda reported earlier, people say this is the Tipping Point changing moment for sanctions on ukraine. I mean, on russia. I dont think thats necessarily true. It depends on the germans, are they willing to get tougher, i doubt it. This doesnt seem like the moment where the sanctions bite, but they are freaking out that their assets get frozen and putin pushed it too far. And the next question is, does putin even care . If they go that far . Does he care . He may care much more he may care much more about his own expansionary policies and the geopolitics on the ground. His desire for expansion. Much more so than the billionaires with their assets frozen. Well go to israel to get the latest on the middle east. Amman is joining us from gaza. Amman . Reporter good morning, guys. Youre talking about the issues facing the people here and no doubt accord on the united nations, gaza is facing a humanitarian crisis. Look at the number of misplaced people. They are responsible for 80,000 palestinians sheltered at 61 different u. N. Schools. They have to make sure they have food and basic me testies. In addition to that, the Health Officials are overwhelmed by the risiing casualty toll including 80 People Killed in one neighborhood. And disturbing news from the southern part of the the territory. And israeli strike killing 27 other people including women and children. Now, when you put all of that together, human rights organizations say it is a disproportionate use of force that israel is using against the civilian population. We have heard time and time again israel saying they are using surgical strikes to target hamas members, but the reality on the ground tells a different picture. We are seeing neighborhoods destroyed and entire buildings collapsed. It doesnt seem surgical according to the palestinian and medical officials trying to recover the bodies as they have been over the past 48 hours. But for its part, the Palestinian Group hamas is still fighting strongly and firing rocketed. And yesterday the single deadliest attack on israeli soldiers. 13 soldiers were killed when they entered this neighborhood in east gaza and came in close contact with hamas fighters who apparently launched a pretty bold attack on the soldiers killing 13 and injuring dozens more. So a very intense day of fighting yesterday. One that does not show any signs of slowing down today. We have been hearing over the course of the past half hour or so dozens of shells landing in the eastern part of gaza. Air strikes that we saw a short while ago with palestinian rocket fire into israel. So it does raise questions as to who is winning and how this comes to an wednesday the diplomatic efforts underway with q qatar and others that could bring about an to end the violence. Back to you. You can even hear with ayman, you cant help but think, wow, the force is assymetric, but hamas must know that this is going to happen that way and the Palestinian People get hurt and hamas keeps pushing and pushing and then they know they are going to have opinions sway their way. It will help to stop shooting rockets. Thats what you ask yourself, can the force, if you are not the one instigating that hamas would say israel by the existence is instigating, but if you are not instigating in terms of offensive moves and just being subjective to it and respond, do you measure that response in a way that doesnt include that you were the one that wasnt instigating it in the first place . If you want to stop that up city investigati instigation from hamas, i dont know if it works, but israel has to have a disproportionate response from having this happen in the future. But it is hard when youre being bombed. Then women and children in all the conflicts are being used as shields. Which is disgraceful. So the rest of the world watches. Joining us is the professor of the International Affairs program at the new school university. Nina, what im getting from your comments is that what we were talking about earlier and was written over the weekend that suddenly there are so many different nationalities on board the plane that all of europe is now drawn in to what had been a conflict in ukraine. This could fundamentally change the ability to get tougher sanctions signed off on by a lot of europe, is that how you see it . Absolutely. I think it is really the time for Vladimir Putin to face the moment of truth because before that it could be dismissed, not dismissed but at least explain a way as a local conflict. Now it really is a conflict and russia looks to the world as a mass murderer who doesnt want to accept responsibility. Vladimir putin last night moscow time at night, who addresses a tragedy like that at night . Who are you speaking to . So he issued a very short address on the kremlin website saying, well, ukraine is to blame and we want International Investigation and nobody should use this for their advantage. So there are momentarily three problematic issues with this statement right away. And first of all, russia doesnt accept responsibility and hampers the investigation because it has been four days and he finally calls for International Investigation and wants it to be fair. That really shows how hypocrite call this regime is. And i think earlier there was a comment that putin may not care that his billionaires are very scared. Well, maybe, but he pushes the International Community to see how far it can go with the sanctions. Lets push putin and see how squared or not scared he can get with the International Community going that far. What if theres retribution. What he if he says the gas you get from me in the winter you dont get. This conflict is not going anywhere unless putin do they have the stomach to do it . Do you think western europe can take the stand to be selfpunishing . Well, western europe needs to decide whether it can take the stomach to do it or it actually wants to bring the violence home. Because we know a lot of the headlines are really condemning putin and russia with that, so the countries need to decide whats more important to them. As i said, this conflict is not going away and this is just if it is not going away and putin has not stopped with this, this is just the first disaster that only happens. So i guess i cannot be responsible for saying what the government should do, but they certainly should try much more than just a conversation and condemning putin in private conversations. So nina, we watch this unfold over the past six months, and there were times when we thought, wow, hes not going to stop with crimea. Hes going all the way. But then it looked like the troop buildup, it looked like he almost was appeasing the west to some extent or lulled us into a false sense of security. But meanwhile, do you think he was in there sort of getting ready to still causing trouble, still funding the rebels, still exacerbating the situation, but could it be now that hes been thwarted, this really kind of, i dont want to use the term blew up in his face, but if this wasnt planned and all of a sudden we are focused on all the things hes been doing where he really hasnt been honoring the commitments to not doing anything, to not make things worse, he has been all along and now it almost seems like this could be where he got caught. And now maybe it ends up being a positive because we all know what hes been doing all along. Absolutely. I think it is a school of thought that before the International Community was willing to take him at his word, although of course understanding at the same time that they may not, the