Shoulderfired missiles. However that should not be enough to reach an aircraft flying at 30,000 feet or so. Two french fighter jetted in the region had been dispatched to try to locate the crash scene as well. And also looking for the crash scene, this particular air algerie flight operated by a spanish company, swift air, and it has a relatively clean safety record, a few accidents dating back to 1977. Air algerie has a checkered safety record. At this point, no confirmed word of wreckage, there have been reports out there, but we get conflicting reports over west africa, 110 passengers and crew of 6. I would only make the following point, as it related to aviation safety. You talk to most aviation experts and they tell you, for whatever reason, there always seems to be a cluster of events, when you start having one or two, there seems to be a cluster and we go back to this remarkable period of safety and aviation. I think it would probably be, and i think most experts think its unfair, to kind of group in that the shootdown of malaysia 17, that had nothing to do of course with flight crew competence or with the ability of that plane to maintain its altitude or anything else. Of course the hostile act towards that plane. The other point i would make, according to an m. I. T. Statistician, your chances of being involved in a fatal plane crash, anywhere in the world, are 1 in 4 million. Your chances of being involved in a fatal plane crash in the developed world are 1 in 25 million. That means you would have to fly every day for 60,000 years until you were involved in that kind of crash. It is still a remarkably safe way to travel, despite the recent cluster of events weve seen around the world. Thank you. Lets go to kier simmons on the ground inside Eastern Ukraine for the latest on the mh17 investigation. Reporter a week after mh 17 was downed, theres still wreckage scattered across the area, most of it perhaps tampered with, to some extent, has not been moved. Worse, peoples possessions left lying around, not collected. Worse than that, we found in some cases, actual human remains marked with a white ribbon, they had been notices but no one has come to get them. Despite the scenes in the netherlands where they are trying to give people who died some dignity, they are still not getting that kind of dignity here in Eastern Ukraine. Partly because the fighting continues. Theres shell in distance on the outskirts of danesque where i am now and fighting that part where mh17 has gone down has gotten more intense in recent days. Kier simmons, stay safe. Lets bring in former pilot, Anthony Roman and michael sharer, Washington Bureau chief at time for the politics of the russian ukraine standoff. The cold war ii, the west is losing putins dangerous game, and generating a ton of buzz. We heard from tom costello, easing our fears about flying. Far more likely to die on the way to the airport than in a plane crash. Im someone thats very scared to fly, it seems like every morning you wake up on twitter, another plane has gone down. Help ease our fears. Tom is absolutely right. These aircraft accidents seem to happen in clusters, and the mh17 debacle is a manmade event. Its not an aviation disaster so to speak in terms of weather or the crew. So, we would have to discount that from the aviation safety scenario. But airplanes do crash, statistically you are safer in an airplane than you are on a elevator and statistically in a elevator youre incredibly safe. Its still the safest form of transportation in the world. And safer now than it ever has been in history. However, aircraft do crash, but the faa, the canadian authorities, European Aviation authorities, some of the asian authorities have done a remarkable job, along with fabulous engineering. The engineering today is remarkable, the cockpits are xloout completely computerized, redundant systems, even in smaller aircraft that we call the turboprops, jet engines with propellers, everybodys afraid to fly in, very, very safe. The state department spoker earlier about this ongoing situation in ukraine. This is what they said. We have new evidence that the russians intended heavier and more powerful, multiple rocket launchers to the separatist forces in ukraine and have evidence that russias firing artillery from within russia to attack Ukrainian Military positions. All the while, to the point of the times piece, putin is basically inflated, feels having toer than ever and motivated to keep going. Theres no consequence for these actions. The president condemned, World Leaders around the globe condemning the fact there were weapons in the hands or the area of the ukrainian separatists that allowed the plane to be shot down. But putin is not backing down. And really, theres not much that europe shows a willingness to do. Put this in the frame of the broader putin strategy here. Hes trying to establish russia, once again, as a real power in the world and to diminish the u. S. Power and on this issue on the issue of war, hes got leverage. They dont want to push themselves back into recession by reducing energy costs and theres no willingness to do anything but the sanctions weve seen, which are incremental and not affecting putins power or the russian economy just yet. Let me ask you, when you look at this kind of investigation and see what the dutch and aussies are doing, see a feeling its been a week, there have been a lot of problem on the ground, whats the most important thing that they have to do now . You know, at this point the crime scene and im calling it a crime scene simply because that aircraft was shot from the sky and its a civil aircraft and Civil Aviation should be considered sacred, it has been contaminated. It should have been treated as a forensic scene from the beginning. We have the cockpit thats been cut in half, we have other evidence that the tail has been lifted by a crane and moved. The bodies were treated disrespectfully. At this juncture, the best we can hope for is to recover what evidence remains despite whats been tampered with. Even the black boxes have been taken, the flight data recorder, and the voice recorder. And whether they were tampered with or not remains to be seen. Whether they were damaged and segments are missing, remains to be seen. Michael, so much of this for putin is about protecting russia for westernization and building a bowl work between them and western nations. At a time when the west was hoping and trying to bring russia fully in to the Global Community, why is he so afraid of west . He doesnt see it as the Global Community help sees it as a power play by the United States to create a Community Around itself. He doesnt believe and he said this clearly that the United States should be the only superpower in the world. He wants europe to identify itself independent of that, and he wants to create influence around russia, like in the cold war, obviously different in character, and thats a lot of what this is about. Ukraine is very much in the backyard of russia, both geographically and historically. And he just does not want the u. S. To feel like it can help shape the course of events there. And hes, i think, arguably having some success here. Its not as if the Ukrainian Government is about to topple but its clear hes succeeded in creating enormous instability in ukraine, taking away control of Eastern Ukraine, and there are no signs right now, despite the announcement president obama made the day before this plane fell from the sky of new sanctions that putin is slowing down his supplying of heavy weapons to the rebels here. There have to be some vulnerabilities there, though, michael. Time framing this as cold war ii, others are framing this as a new cold war. We know how the last cold war ended and it didnt end well for the soviet union. Is putin really operating from a position of strength here or is he trying to cover in a sense with the aggressive tactics and nationalists rhetoric, is he trying to cover for weakness internally in terms of the economics in russia, in particular . The economic of russia are not terribly dire right now. Part of his popularity there is because he controls state media, hes been able to keep people on his side and theres a huge nationalist strain in the country. But the economys done well over the last couple of decades theyve lost quite a bit of value since putin invaded crimea. They have lost but it hasnt affected yet. There could be longterm effects some far it hasnt affected the daytoday lives of many russians. His popularity in polls in russia is far higher, mostly because of nationalism than before. Its true the soviet union was a very different thing than russia is now top say cold war ii is not the same as the last cold war. Russias a state most entirely dependent on Energy Exports to fuel its exports. Theyre in a situation which europe does not have many al tentatives. Theres in a situation where nobody in europe or probably the world has an appetite for another european war. Theres only so much that nato and european allies can do to russia if they are very clear and they have been very clear, not willing to start shooting across borders in europe. So, you know, i think over the long term, whether putins hand is still as strong two or three years from now, we dont know. I think its really hard to argue, if you bring in other things like syria, iran, that russias position in the world is weaker now than it was six months or two years ago. Exactly right. Seeing that lack of appetite play out around the world at this point. Anthony roman, Michael Scherer thank you. Rocket fire and shelling in the skies over israel and gaza. The death toll hits a grim milestone. The latest from the ground as the cycle rolls on for this busy thursday. [guy] i know what youre thinking youre thinking beneful. [announcer]beneful has wholesome grains,real beef,even accents of spinach,carrots and peas. [guy] you love it so much. Yes you do. But its good for you, too. [announcer] healthful. Flavorful. Beneful. From purina. Yyyup. With xfinity internet soyour family can use all their devices at once. Works anywhere in the house. Even in the garage. Max whats going on . Were doing a tech startup. Were streamlining an algorithm. Were going public [cheering] the fastest inhome wifi for your entire family. The x1 entertainment operating system. Only from xfinity. Israel says hamas may have been responsible for an attack on a u. N. School in northern gaza, where at least 15 people were killed and dozens more wounded. Israeli tank shells were originally blame for the bloodshed, but israel now says rockets launched by hamas landed in the area and he they may be the cause. At time school was being used by shelter. It the third time a School Shelter has been hit. More than 20 rockets fired into israel today, according to the israeli army. Some of which were intercepted near the tel aviv airport, hours after the faa lifted that ban on american commercial flights going into israel, the first flight bound for tel aviv, scheduled to depart newark in an hour. Nbcs Martin Fletcher in tel aviv with more. Reporter the fighting is continuing to intensify. We say that every day, but thats the way it is, israeli army continuingite push in the north. Extending severe fighting in the south to the southern part of the gaza strip. Theres an aerial field, where most of the fighting is. Israelis are targeting tunnels, secret Tunnel Network that hamas has built to extent from gaza into israel. Israel sworn to find them and destroy them all. Theres also rocket launching sites. Theres heavy fighting, civilian was kalts among the palestinians, mounting quickly around the 800 number because of the fighting down there the emphasis today, right now, has been in the north in a small town, in the northeast of gaza. There, another tragedy, in the United Nations school where about 160 people who run away from their homes because it was simply too dangerous, they were hiding there hit by a shell, at least 15 palestinians killed, many more wounded. Now of course, hamas immediately blamed an israeli rocket. But israel issued the israeli army issued a statement saying theyre investigating the issue but they say there were rockets fired by hamas, so israels suggesting it may not have been them but hamas. Now there was a big battle go on in that area, Israeli Army Spokesman warned the school to evacuate the refugees, they didnt there was even a small truce for a couple of hours today but in bitter fighting in that area, a shell hit the school and landed among the refugees. Now, the question does seem to be open, was it an israeli shell or a shell fired by hamas . Either way, it doesnt really matter much for the civilians who were killed and wounded, and it brought the death toll up over the 800 mark up to 3,000 palestinians wounded. And pressure is building on israel to stop the massive bombardment that is firing into areas of gaza. The ceasefire attempts by kerry seem to be moving along, hes in cairo. Hes going to jordan. Theres a sense of maybe a humanitarian ceasefire will be introduced within a few days. The sides are so far apart, israel and hamas, at this stage, it doift understand how that is going to happen. Only good for israel is that the faa, americans lifted the ban on flights into ben gurion airport, American Airlines on the way, first one will arrive tomorrow morning and european air lines following seat, relieving that isolation israel was beginning to feel at the airport. Nbcs luke russert joins us now, brother of the show. Hes got the ear of the folks on the hill, especially the house. And you know, america backs israel with 3 billion in military support annually, far more than we give to any other nation. And when we look out and see folks like the u. N. Human rights chief saying that shes investigating israel for possible war crimes, investigating both sides but were not giving money to hamas, were giving money to israel. America feels involved in the situation. Are people on the hill privately, because you cant say anything like there is publicly, privately saying maybe we should consider doing something differently visavis israel. Interestingly enough, since obama came into office and changed the israeli u. S. Relationship to a degree, trying to hold israel more accountable for how they reacted in regard to International Affairs youll hear that privately from some democrats, were in a difficult position by whats happening. However, publicly, theres absolutely no reason to not side with israel 110 , politically in the u. S. , because israel remains popular. If you look at recent polling. And you dont want to go down in a rabbits hole labeled antisemitic or youre not a friend of israel. I bring you back to what happened in 2007, representative from virginia, jim moran, said apac israeli lobbying Group Pushing the iraq war. To this day hes still stigmatized by that as being an antisemitic and opponent of israel its a very difficult thing publicly if youre critical of them in their Foreign Policy on the hill. The public face is united, Bipartisan Group of senators out last hour speaking about the middle east crisis, all sounding very much like they were on the same page. Lets take a listen to that. I think this is the most systemic use of human shields in modern history. One word explains the reason theres a lot of innocent life, hamas. The best way to protect palestinian children is to stop trying to kill israeli children. Yet despite that, united front we saw in the 2012 election, mitt romney tried to make a Campaign Issue out was president obama supportive enough of israel. Sure. You saw mitt romney say his first vis eight broad would be to israel. You had netanyahu endorsing romney, the business relationship. That didnt work out. But its not something that democrats even in president obamas own part ever wanted to go down that road trying to afly more pressure publicly. President obama hasnt suffersuffe suffersuffer politically. At the end of the day, he overwhelmingly won the jewish vote nationally. The idea of shared values, a lot of folks, wanted to put on president obama, why would you stand up with hamas or giving them a vehicle . Theyre a terrorist organization, cheering in the streets when 9 11 happened by hamas individuals we dont want to be on the same side of than politically its very difficult to discuss nuances of the larger dr struggle when thats the argument pushed in that context. I want to jump on than republicans say theres a mix of views when it comes to Foreign Policy, the hawkish wing, mccains and grahams and on the other side, rand pauls. How does that change the die namic . Does it change given how republicans rand paul, interestingly enough, full throated in his defense of israel, hes wanted to move bills that would not allow for any aid to go to palestine to the United States as long as hamas had any governing role. But to cut aid to israel want in terms of israel. Hes antiisrael. Hes very much in terms of trying to be supportive from what ive raeead. The Republican Party proisrael. I dont remember the specifics but a bill during the debt crisis around there, we want to cut government funding here, here, here, here, one thing we wont touch is aid to israel, thats still good. Thats reflected of the evangelical support. And if you look at the way in which israel lobbies members they do it in a wise manner. A lot of new members, first foreign trip they go on when they dom congress is israel, they learn about the culture, the civiliation zai civilizatio democracy in the middle east. Luke russert, everybody. Well see him filling at 4 00 for alex wagner on now. Up next, we are following several severe storm systems moving across the country. Already confirmed fatalities. The Weather Channel tells you what to expect, where you are, next. birds chirping softly in background. loud engine sounds what hows it going . Heard you need a ride to school. Oh, thats pretty cool big day at school . I know just the thing to help y