Ballot initiative allowing anyone over 21 to buy marijuana. Politicses, businesspeople and Law Enforcement are wondering what comes next. Har woodruff Hari Sreenivasan talks to andrew kohut about the pew centers postelection report card, with the candidates, the campaigns, and the news media getting low marks. Brown david brooks and ruth marcus analyze the weeks news. Woodruff and how much did the president ial candidates spend on social media . Ray suarez has some answers on the daily download. Take a look at this, the Obama Campaign spent 47 million on digital sending. And the Romney Campaign spent 4 my 7 million. A 10 to 1 gap. Woodruff thats all ahead on tonights newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by computing surrounds us. Sometimes, its obvious, and sometimes, its very surprising in where you find it. Soon, computing intelligence in unexpected places will change our lives in truly profound ways. Technology can provide customized experiences tailored to individual consumer preferences, igniting a world of possibilities from the inside out. Sponsoring tomorrow starts today. Bnsf railway support also comes from Carnegie Corporation of new york, a foundation created to do what Andrew Carnegie called real and permanent good. Celebrating 100 years of philanthropy at carnegie. Org. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. And friends of the newshour. And. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Brown there was no letup today in the battle between israel and hamas, the Palestinian Group that rules gaza. Air strikes echoed across gaza, and rockets landed near tel aviv and, for the first time, near jerusalem. The combined death toll reached 30 27 palestinians and three israelis. We begin with a report from john ray of independent Television News in gaza. Reporter a sleepless night in gaza gave way to another morning of missiles. Israel promised a lull in their assault, a chance for words to speak louder than bombs. But on neither side was there a ceasefire. And if the egyptian prime minster came armed with a peace plan, he kept it to himself. This was far more a display of Muslim Brotherhood with hamas. Hesham qandeel called gaza a tragedy, and israel the aggressor. The tragedy is deeply personal, and it unfolds at the gaza City Hospital where they rush the dead and the injured. Boys like yea, just ten years old. I was buying bread for my mother, he says, when the rocket came. Dooah, a girl of 14, was hit my shrapnel on her way to a wedding. All i remember is the flash of red light, she tells me. Israel insists it is striking targets that are carefully selected. This was the ministry of the interior, obliterated. Israel is reducing the symbols of hamas rule to so much twisted metal and smoldering rubble, but they have not yet stopped the rockets. And while the missiles continue to fly, any chance of a cease fire that sticks seems slim. Nor is there a monopoly on suffering. More palestinian rockets hit home today, while sirens sounded in tel aviv and jerusalem, extending what israel calls a reign of terror far beyond the gaza border. There is one basic difference between us and our enemies they deliberately target civilians and deliberately hide behind civilians. And we do everything in our power to minimize civilian casualties while we exercise our legitimate right to self defense. Reporter israels called up 16,000 reserve troops. The border looks like the marshalling point for an invasion. At some time, the order must come to pull back or advance. Woodruff the fighting triggered protests throughout the muslim world today after friday prayers came to an end. In egypt, crowds in cairo and alexandria waved palestinian flags and chanted antiisraeli slogans. Thousands of people also turned out in yemen to denounce the israeli offensive. And in turkey, a onetime israeli ally, people in istanbul called for the death of the jewish state. Brown and for more on the conflict, we are joined by hisham melham, Washington Bureau chief for al arabiya; and Dan Schueftan is director of National Security studies center at the university of haifa. Gentlemen, one thing i think a lot of people, myself included are wondering how did this flareup seemingly so quickly. Dan schueftan. Well, since hamas took over we had for a while a thousand rockets per year, then came Israeli Escalation and and it went down to a small number of rockets every year, last year again we came to about a thousand rockets against israel. And this intensified in recent weeks to the point where israel had to take action. Israel was saying for about two weeks, i mean people here were dealing with the elections and other things. But it was saying it must lead to a point where either it stops or we will have to take action. When it didnt stop israel took action. Brown what do you think happened to build telephone up . We have never seen quiet on the border even from 2008 until now. And a few days leading to the israeli decision to take on, assassinate a Major Military leader of hamas there were skirmishes and casualties on both sides. So this is really not a total surprise. But what happened, this confrontation is taking place against a changing internal regional dynamic. This is the first. Brown you mean the much larger picture. Absolutely. The much larger picture is that this is the first serious confrontation after the changes in egypt and the changes within the hamas leadership. The growing empowerment of hamas in gaza at the expense of the marginalized Palestinian Authority in ramallah. And you have the amir 6 qatar visiting hamas in gaza. You have the egyptian Prime Minister visiting today. Brown the kind of thing we would never have seen and we did never see. Absolutely. Now hamas is getting direct Financial Support from qatar, Political Support from turkey and egypt. On the israeli side you have upcoming election, the israeli Prime Minister saying essentially our deterance should be we should remind the palestinians once again or hamas of our deterences, we have a longhand and that is why the decision came. Brown when you think about the can el cancel says on both sides, in israel the international reproach came quickly and will come even more. No, at the moment there is very wide support for the israeli operation. I mean the president of the United States went as far as saying that hamas must stop its fire first. There is an understanding in europe. Of course the usual suspects. Brown i meant in the region, im sorry, you are right. The region is hostile to israel and is becoming more hostile to israel and thats exactly the point that hamas was banking on. The assumption that the new regime in egypt also muslim brothers and hamas is also, the Palestinian Muslim brothers so they assume that israel will be afraid of clashing with egypt and therefore israel will not respond even when a million israelies have to sit in shelters because their cities are being bombarded by rockets before the israeli action. Im not speaking after. For months and months you have had a million israelis under threat in israeli city its, and there was pressure inside israel from the population saying hey, you know, this is impossible. More than a million israelis cant suffer for so long. So the government was told by the israeli population that it must do it. And in spite of the fact that the youth would be suspected of doing it because of the elections, and the palestinians believed that because of the elections is legal israel would not do t the government had to do it. Brown when you think about the potential for escalation, though, can either side win this . I mean what are they after . The grim reality of this conflict, particularly in hamas and israel is that both sides, even when they bloody each other and end up with many body bags and casualties, mostly civilian palestinians, both of them in a crazy surreal way will claim victory. This is to the going to change the political reality. Even if the israelis invade gaza as they did in 2008 when they inflicted killed 1300 palestinians, mostly civilian, there was no political solution. Today the only thing that is still changing as i said, there is a regional strategic dynamics that are changing and domestic dynamics especially palestinians are changing, the american position is still the same and the americans say we cannot talk to hamas and therefore were not doing anything except giving the israelies it tacit approval and support. At the end of the day this administration will need egypt, will need turkey, will need someone to talk to hamas. Otherwise the israelis can buy themselves a few months of respite, a year or two and then again that grim reality will face us again and will present us with the same problem. And thats why this crisis cries out for American Leadership. If there is no American Leadership, it will continue. The situation in jordan is teetering right now. We have a new transition coming on in egypt. You have conflagrations within syria. The whole region is teetering and the whole region is brittle, politically and strategically. And into the mix now the israelis come with this major operation against gaza. They cannot live in the region and claim that they are to the going to be touched by the reverberations taking place in the region. Brown do you see a kind of political solution . And what will the u. S. Role be. I disagree with a lot of things that was said now. But one thing i very strongly agree. There is no political solution. And there can to the be a political solution because what you have in gaza is an organization dedicated it to the destruction of israel, dedicated to killing of jews. This is what they say openly. I mean this is not an interpretation of what theyre saying. This is what theyre saying. As long as the threat exists they will fight israel. They are committed to an antisellity antisemitic of killing juice jews, its in their charter n their document t is what they are openly saying. They are not leave israel alone regard will of what is happening. So once israel withdraws totally from the gaza strip they started shelling israeli cities. And i also agree that whatever israel can achieve, and it can achieve quite a lot. It achieved four years of tranquillity, relative tranquillity. But only can achieve relative tranquillity for a while and then it will come up again because the hamas is committed to the destruction of the state of israel. Brown just a brief last word here. But youre saying it require its American Leadership but do you do you see i dont see it happening, thats why. Brown it cant happen. No well, no you cannot say there is no American Leadership, otherwise are you leaving the sides to their own devices and there will be more conflict and tragedies between palestinians and israelis at a time when as i said the whole region is teetering. And in the end, the israelis live in that region too. Its not in their longterm interest to allow the situation to fester. Yes the egyptians will maintain the peace briefly business real. But look what is taking place in sinai. Throughout the region that requires thinking that israelis get out of their traician diddal way of thinking that just by military means we can deal with this issue. Brown we have to leave it there tonight, hisham melham, and Dan Schueftan, thank you very much. Thank you. Woodruff twitter and other social media sites lit up with eyewitness accounts from the middle east. But who should you trust . We offer answers online. Still to come on the Newshour Margaret Warner on syrias war; a showdown over marijuana use; grading the campaigns; brooks and marcus; and the money the campaigns spent on social media. But first, the other news of the day. Heres kwame holman. Holman within days, iran will be ready to double its production of weaponsgrade enriched uranium. The International AtomicEnergy Agency reported the finding today. It means tehran could be within three months of obtaining enough uranium for a nuclear warhead. Iran has insisted it has no plans to make nuclear weapons, but it refuses to stop its enrichment program. Former cia director David Petraeus told lawmakers today it was clear early on that terrorists attacked the u. S. Consulate in benghazi, libya. Petraeus answered questions behind closed doors one week after he admitted having an affair and resigned. Republican congressman peter king of new york said the generals account differed from what he said right after the attack, when the administration was blaming a muslim protest. The testimony today was that from the start he told us it was a terrorist attack, a terroristinvolved from the start. I told him my questions have a very different recollection. The impression we were giving was the overwhelming amount of evidence was that it was arose out of a span takenuous demonstration and was not a terrorist attack. Holman petraeus said today the cia blamed terrorists in its initial talking points, but that reference later was dropped to avoid tipping off suspects. U. N. Ambassador susan rice used the edited version in remarks five days after the attack. Some republicans have accused her of downplaying the terror link to avoid hurting the president s reelection bid. But Senate Intelligence chair Dianne Feinstein defended rice today. We have seen wrong intelligence before. And it all surrounded our going into iraq. And a lot of people were killed based on bad intelligence. So and i dont think thats fair game. I think mission takes mistakes get made. Holman the benghazi attack killed u. S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other americans. In afghanistan, 17 civilians were killed today when their bus set off a roadside bomb. The victims were on their way to a wedding. Separately, two nato Service Members were killed in a roadside bomb attack in the eastern part of the country. There was hopeful talk today about avoiding the fiscal cliff after president obama met with congressional leaders at the white house. A series of tax increases and spending cuts will kick in on january 1, unless the two sides can come to agreement. Today, the president said action is of the essence. Our challenge is to make sure that, you know, we are able to cooperate together, work together, find some common ground, make some tough compromises, build some consensus to do the peoples business. And what the folks are looking for, and i think all of us agree on this, is action. Holman afterward, house and Senate Leaders expressed confidence they can get a deal. The president is pushing for highincome earners to pay more in taxes. And House Speaker john boehner said republicans are willing to offer higher tax revenue as part of a deal. To show our seriousness weve put revenue on the table, as long as its accompanied by significant spending cuts. And while were going to continue to have revenue on the table, its going to be incumbent for my colleagues to show the American People that were serious about cutting spending and solving our fiscal dilemma. Holman on the democratic side, Senate Majority leader reid promised work will continue on a deal over the thanksgiving recess. He said, we all know something has to be done. Wall street took some hope from that white house meeting. The Dow Jones Industrial average gained nearly 46 points to close at 12,588. The nasdaq rose 16 points to close at 2,853. But for the week, the dow and the nasdaq fell nearly 2 . Also today, j. P. Morgan chase and Credit Suisse agreed to pay 417 million in a federal civil settlement. They allegedly sold mortgage bonds they knew could fail before the 2008 financial crisis. It looks like twilight for twinkies. Hostess brands announced today its going out of business, eliminating 18,000 jobs. The Company Makes such iconic products as twinkies, ding dongs, and wonder bread. Hostess said the final blow came when thousands of workers rejected cuts in wages and benefits and went on strike. Those are some of the days major stories. Now, back to judy. Woodruff and to an update on another conflict in the middle east, the ongoing civil war in syria. Margaret warner is on a reporting trip to the region. I spoke to her a short time ago from antakya, turkey, soon after she returned from spending the day in syria. Hello, margaret. This was your second trip into syria in just the last few days, what did you see in. Warner judy, today we spent most of the day in an area just from the west and then north from aleppo where we were seeing a lot of fighting. And this is an area that now is under the control or at least being held not by the Syrian Military but the rebels, Free Syrian Army as they call it and all around you can see the signs of the devastation of the fighting thats gone on for months and months with burned out tanks and bulletridden buildings and bombed out buildings, even mosques, the roads are complete down to the subbed, some of them. The other thing that has really been hurt is the infrastructure whether its power, the lack of fuel, the lack of basic medical care, with the last hospital having been bombed out last week in this one particular area. So people are really, really struggling there. Woodruff and margaret, what do the people say to you they want . Warn