John, what do you do for a living . Caller had a heart attack. Disabled. Host income and where does it come . Caller on social security. Nonstarter. Is a i own my own home. The only thing is with my health bad, it hen it goes so doesnt matter how muchoff make. You dont have enough, you know, ability to actually spend it. Host so you feel that were in a class warfare here in the u. S. . Caller i live in a small town, the small thrown is dying. Populated byown is people who have lived here all of their lives. Most of the jobs are of city, staflt, you know, county, and federal government jobs. Those are all owned by people who have grown up here. Now, we do have some factories here. Those people are immigrants that have moved into else. And everywhere theyre increasing in town. And theyre theyre the only the that are working in lowpaying jobs. And theres no chance of them a had three schools. Like the the people immigrants or Everything Else, cast off to one school. The two towns together represents like 5,000 people. Schools. Three high you know . And if you lived in the big schools for igh less than 2,000 kids or 1,000 kids is unheard of. Have three fully functioning high schools. Host so lets go back to our morning. Is class in america . Caller yes. can i get to caller its a caste system poor people f the are shoved off to certain lower schools. Theyre not allowed into the better schools. Host thank you, sir. Rick in fairfax, virginia here suburbs. Not push the right line. Get the right line. Line. Well get the right here is rick, fairfax, virginia; 50,000. To good morning, what do you do for a living . How old are you . Your education level . Caller 50 years old, a bachelors in business. Retail in fairfax. Underemployed. Caller pretty much, id like to start a business. Host how long have you worked fairfax . N caller long time, ten years. Host okay, why . Oh with you, ie honest study the economy. Study politics a lot. I want to make a few points. Congressional e budget office, overall federal taxation is on average effectively progressive. Ceo effective gle tax rates and theyll see theyll see theyve done 10 reports on that over the years. Econdly, the incomes the shares of incomes have not really changed a whole lot. You include the government also alan ion and reynolds of cato and others have looked at that. Total l problem is which entrelated cost s reating 8 trillion per year, 5. 5 trillion of the spending. Bout 2. 5 trillion of regulations and other indirect costs. Ost youve thrown a lot of figures out here. What point are you trying to make . Caller im saying that the problem is the waste within the 8 trillion which is about in my estimation 2 trillion per year. Than the ore accumulated wealth of the bottom 50 . We waste more in my opinion in ne year than the total accumulated assets of the bottom 50 . Meaning to ve been ask this question what ive is s trying to do, set up a new kind of forum, inaking of the class problem america. Ive been talking to the organizations in dc. In trying toowhere set up like an independent like blogger forum. A what i wanted to ask you to could cspan potentially sponsor a forum. Who rick, as someone watches cspan on a regular basis. You know we dont on the next Washington Hill willpatrice look at the jobs numbers for august. The centerewis from for strategic and International Studies examines the security of information stores on the cloud. You can join the conversation on facebook and twitter. Washington journal live at 7 a. M. Eastern on cspan. Here are some highlights for this coming weekend. Caters the, mean the communicators. Watch the latest debates on cspan. A debate between kay hagan and her republican opponent. And from the california governors race, jerry brown and republican nominee. Mikeht on book tv, gonzalez hell he thinks republicans can make gains with the hispanic vote. Sunday at noon on in depth, conversation wihth mary frances berry. America, the making of the hoover dam. Then the pardoning of president richard nixon. You can email us. Join the cspan conversation. Like us on facebook. Forum examines the israelipalestinian conflict. Supremeat, the Nebraska Court hears oral arguments concerning the keystone xl pip eline. Then president obamas Closing Remarks at the end of the nato summit. A group of foreignpolicy expert participated in a discussion on the israelipalestinian conflict. Representatives from both sides of the dispute discussed the political and humanitarian implications of the latest conflict in gaza. The event is hosted by middle east institute and the foundation for middle east peace. It is an hour and 20 minutes. Take you all for joining us this afternoon. After 50 days of war, israel and hamas reached a ceasefire on august 26. The office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs reports 2104 were killed including 1004 hundred 62 civilians, 495 children and 253 women. The tabulation is ongoing. The key question is what will it take to transmit the current truce into a longer endeavor. How can we avoid getting here . Gain the center for the middle east policy at brookings and a founding board member of the american egyptian rule of law association. Deviously serving as an advisor and permanent status negotiations with israel from 2004 to 2009. Michael is the Program Director at the institute and a current participant at the atlantic council. Officerforeign surface a book thatlishes you should all read. Middle east and north africa division, an expert on middle rights issues. The bimonthly middle eastern magazine report to set up the discussion here, first i would like to go to howard and michael to discuss some of the domestic political dynamics among palestinians and among israelis that have been driving the events of the past few weeks, the reconciliation agreement between the palestinians. Go to joen and i will with comment on International Humanitarian law and questions raised by the conduct of both sides during the gaza war. Take it away. Inc. You, matt. Thank you all for being here. I was asked to talk a little bit about the impact on palestinian domestic politics. On the surface it seems pretty , superficially, the main impact is that thomas has hamas hasonger become stronger. Politically, it has been strengthened. He was seen as marginalized in the process and seen as being ineffective. Seen theou may have recent poll by the palestinian you never know the full name. The Palestinian Center for research. Hamas went from being very weak. From being quite strong, even within gaza, it holds true. Ss reality is that hama resistance has been more effective than the approach focuseds been centrally on the diplomatic process. He has been ineffective not just in gaza but you have to look at it in context of the broader middle east Peace Process which is his bread and butter. He is all about his credibility and the legitimacy of negotiating a two state solution. It has not gone all that well. Even the broader goal of National Liberation. Certain extent, at least momentarily, they have been able to restore some sense of palestinian pride and it is important to not underestimate the importance of these intangibles for both. The symbolism is very important for a National Liberation movement. , the newfound popularity might be fleeting, but i think it is what abbasre than has going for him. His credibility rests almost entirely on the negotiations process and bringing about a two state solution which is dependent upon the u. S. Surface, i think the picture is a little bit more complicated. Hamas, the at within lines between them have been blurred over the years. If you look inside, you see internal cleavages with both camps. I think those have been exacerbated by this conflict. You have this division between the leadership inside gaza and outside, which is classic palestinian history. The distinction between leadership in the territory, palestine you also have the military political split which i think was exacerbated during the war. In various moments, it wasnt clear who was calling the shots. To think ofher ways it in terms of radicals and pragmatists. The internal cleavages have been intensified by the conflict and they need to be worked out. The same is true on the other side of the political equation in palestine. Plo are notoriously dysfunctional politically. There is chronic dysfunction in these institutions. Fatah itself, it has been true for a long time. More specifically to the gaza seen iwe have wouldnt call it isolation, but he is becoming a little bit more alone since he is personally committed with the negotiations process. That is dependent on the United States and others in the inner circle of the plo pa leadership are beginning to realize that that is a deadend. So he is sort of the last remaining holdout in terms of the americanled Peace Process approach. So that is part of the equation. And fatahd, howamas have grown stronger or weaker visavis each other but both have been weakened in absolute terms, in terms of the broader palestinian political arena. Its problematic because we dont currently have viable alternatives. And we have not yet seen a credible or viable third wave or however we want to term it. We have to look at palestinian politics in terms of broader politics. The trends within very much reflect the trend in the broader arab world. Specifically political dysfunction. The same sorts of contradictions that led to the arab spring or alsowas the arab spring exist in palestinian society. Crisis in the leadership and this is true across the region. There are dysfunctional or nonfunctioning Political Institutions in the case of the palestinians both the pa and the plo. You have this generational divide where a new generation of hasers or a new generation a very different set of demands and their elders have allowed for. All of this does not necessarily bode well. You do need Political Forces to sustain ae able longterm uprising or Mass Mobilization of that sort. You do need a credible organizational structure on the ground. Or one reason or another, the two main groups are not necessarily interested in much more narrow parochial ways that would be needed for Mass Mobilization. Were still advising the palestinians, which im not, but if i were, i would say that the notrity now needs to be on negotiations or resistance, but on fixing the palestinian house and putting the palestinian house back in order. First and foremost, because i think gaza depends on it. I think its impossible to envision any sort of reconstruction much less improvement to the situation without genuine and practical hamaspa conflict on the ground. We see that reflected in the ceasefire talks and in the terms of the ceasefire where it is clear now and before the war that there needs to be a return to gaza to allow the borders to be open. Active artistic patient and support. Essential for them to be grow. O survive, much less it is also true because in the , it depends on not just institutions, but i wouldnt expect to see elections any time sooner. It might actually complicate things. Is the actually needed Palestinian National consensus. I think it is probably equally true. Palestinian on politics. Palestinians need to rethink their basic assumptions of their national aspirations. I will end on this note. They are important old and new palestinian constituencies that were exasperated or intensified by the gaza conflict. Thes the cradle of movement. In the west elite and the gulf and elsewhere. And also, palestinian citizens of israel. A sense of pan palestinian solidarity that i think was awakened by the gaza conflict. Both of those constituencies will need to be accommodated in one form or the other. It may be in the context of israeli politics for palestinian citizens of israel. That certainly the diaspora has in the rethinking of internal palestinian politics. Bearing in mind that gaza is, in many ways, a crosssection of palestinian the global Palestinian Community in which it is made up of 60 or 70 descendents of refugees from 1948. Michael, just to set things up a bit, the recent poll that we saw showing hamas having benefited by the war. It was overwhelming public , one was the stated goal of diminishing and not crushing them. Also shown that netanyahu now finds himself in trouble with competitors to his right like bennett and lieberman. Can you address that . Thanks for putting this panel together. I think it is useful when thinking about israeli politics in the contacts context of , beforermath of gaza the gaza war and where things are now. They have real challenges of the , the serious nature netanyahu personally. In many ways, it has been the invisible man. More vocal opponents are actually in the cabinet. The view was firmly in can firmly in control. It did not create any political crisis for bb. First, there were low expectations across the political sector. In fact, many people did not want them. Really did not present much of a challenge domestically. Another factor was the sense that the situation for israel, despite many warning signs on the horizon was not quite dire and they are forced to make a move. It was a focus on how maas hamas, before the war, at its weakest point. They assume this was a situation that was going to continue. Much of the discussion was focused on the pa and focus on abbas, despite the fact that these talks have collapsed. Then we moved during the war and there was a huge out pouring of support. Any time there is fighting in. Srael it still shapes the israeli psyche in ways that have changed possibly forever. Israelismajority of will not tolerate any type of rocket fire going to israel. While rockets are coming in, netanyahu really had blinding support to deal with it. The kidnapping and murder of the added toaeli teens what was already overwhelming support for a military campaign against hamas. Netanyahu really use this to his advantage. He sort of had a free pass initially on the shifting goals, depending on if the goals were to eradicate hamas, restore tunnels, theyte shifted as the war went along. As the war went on, it went from a high of about 82 down into the 30s. There was an Approval Rating of 3 at one point, and a drop of 50 is still not something that any israeli leader likes to see. In 2012, the israeli operation was relatively quick. Crucially, the rocket fire continues. Has it rejected, broken, or lapsed, they realized pretty quickly that they had no longterm strategy. Airstrikes were not going to be enough. And so, there was a sense toward the end that netanyahu had not handled things in the ideal way. Is over,the war netanyahus position is a bit less stable. Politicians are pushing things much more to the right. They now have to deal with challenges, both of him his own party. If you look at the polls that have come out over the last few days, it is clear that the right in general has benefited from the fighting in gaza. Have anywherels between 29 and 31 seats accrued. At the moment they controlled 31 but 11 of those seats, they are used [indiscernible] they made a deal before the election. Seats of their own, somewhere between 29 and 31. They currently have 12 seats and toa poll, anywhere from 18 20. They are anywhere from 9 12 and labor has stated the same and if an election was held today, you would probably have 120where between 80 out of going to parties on the right. With in it, theres serious pressure on netanyahu and his position has never been great and the u. S. , people think of netanyahu as far right and he is certainly right when the but not on the far right. Netanyahuit seems, has at the left. Are far moreembers rightwing than netanyahu. Many of the more right wing anders who are all younger sort of amendment 13 party they said the u. S. , it netanyahu did not go far enough and advocated israel to read occupy for however long it takes to stamp out hamas. Netanyahu is not willing to it realizes himself he isnt feasible but he faces his own party. The chair of the Central Committee and who was the deputy minister until netanyahu fired him the first week of the war for criticizing the governments approach is convening the Party Congress later this month where no doubt there will be nothing but lots of vocal criticisms on the conduct of the war. Outside of netanyahus party as i mentioned is the Jewish Home Party is much more popular now than it was. Bennett is taking serious strides to capitalize on that. He announced he would like to make changes to the constitution that would make it a more Secular Party which is significant because hes looking to appeal to the right and for the first time i believe he actually has a shot at being the bearer of the right and perhaps even becoming pregnant mr. And so all these things are pushing netanyahu steadily to the right and it seems like the announcement of the 980 acres that were prepared on the state land because in the absence of the occupying, netanyahu know that he has to do something and the easiest way to do that in the politic of the israeli right is to announce the longterm planning processes for settlement. In general, they dont want to risk a hamas takeover in the west bank and the aftermath of the type of the war and this type of fighting generally makes israelis more hawkish and security conscious than they would otherwise be. So the trend in my view is not going to the abyss. Whatever the elections are and there is a wide speculation they will be within the next year, whatever the next elections are i have very little doubt of the parties are going to increase their share in the government. Whether that means a larger share or if they suffer at the hands of the ied there is going to be a likely more right wing. And of course, that is going to impact the relations of the palestinians going forward. And the Peace Process more generally. I am going to turn to joe to address the International Humanitarian issues relating to not only the war but conduct of the war, bombardment and the use firing mortars by hamas and of the policy of the blockade. One of the key elements of the demand is worth rendering this and even the blockade was a condition of the ceasefire that was not implemented and this is going to be one of the most important items for the discussion in the talks that i very much hope will take place in egypt. If you can take