my advice for everyone is to go with golo. it will release your fat and it will release you. good to be with you, i'm katy tur. breaking news out of new york city. donald trump jr. just took the witness stand here to testify about the trump organization and decisions to inflate or deflate assets to lower taxes or secure bigger loans. joining us now, nbc news senior legal correspondent and coanchor of "saturday today" on nbc, laura jarrett. don jr., a defendant and now a witness. what's the expectation? >> the first of his siblings to testify. it's interesting, part of the structure around here is that the dad, former president, was running the show. but at least in the attorney general's telling of this, all of the kids were actually intimately involved. those were their words, intimately involved in how the business was operating. and when it comes to don jr., he's the one signing off on financial statements. that's the hook for them here. they have all of these pages. >> also, donald trump was president, and he handed over the reins of the business to his two friends. >> and eric trump was the one running the day-to-day acquisitions, real estate development part of it whereas don jr., at least according to the documents in the case, was sort of the one working on the revocable trust. part of what you can see them walking in there, i imagine what he'll be questioned on is, sir, when you stated these financial statements were true and accurate, you were essentially representing to the insurance companies that you had done everything to check the accuracy, is that correct, and when he was asked this in his deposition, he essentially sort of punted and said, look, i was not involved in the nitty-gritty of the financial statements. i left that to other people. he could, you know, try to change his testimony here but he's not going to do that. >> even if he wasn't involved in the nitty-gritty or the daily ebb and flow of it, he still is in charge of the company, doesn't it still fall to him, the responsibility? >> that's part of the debate here. in a company like this, some would argue that the former president is really in charge of this at the end of the day, and eric trump testified as much in his deposition. he said, look, when it came to doing certain deals, if my dad said he wanted to do it, we did it. so i think it's an interesting trick box here. they don't want to lay liability at the feet of their father, who, by the way, the judge has already decided on the core fraud claim, but there are remaining claims. we talk about this case as if it's done. there are claims of insurance fraud, false statements on financial statements. the core fraud was the only thing decided on summary judgment, which was pretrial. the judge has to decide the other claims, and the other claims have a higher standard of intent. >> the tax fraud, what is that standing specifically on tax fraud? >> it relates to what was submitted and the representation made to the lenders. that's theru of this. one the insurers testified today, the former president says th insurance company has never lost money. it was a good deal. it wasn't a goodl. we would haverged higher interest rates if we knewse were being inflated in their view. it's sort of a done deal in some ways because the judge has decided the crux of this, but the penalty here for the kids could be important because the ag is not just seeking financial penalty. she wants to make sure none of these kids can serve on corporate boards ever again in the state of new york. >> just in the state of new york? >> she only has authority for the state of new york. >> let me ask you about taxes specifically. when we were first talking about this story when michael cohen raised it years ago, he said donald trump would not only inflate assets to get better loan deals, but deflate assets to pay less taxes. >> that's sort of a side show for now. it potentially could be on the table in later cases but this is really about boosting the financials. a perfect example is on the financial statements saying things like the trump tower triplex was actually 30,000 square feet, when, in fact, it was a third of that. making statements like that, sort of doing these little tweaks on the financial statements to make things look better for him than they were in reality. >> so don jr., as a defendant and a witness now, how does he defend himself on the stand. can he take the fifth? >> he can, but remember in a case like this, if he takes the fifth, it's a civil case, so if he thinks he's going to say something that could implication himself criminally, he could take the fifth. the judge gets to make a negative inference. >> what does that mean? >> you basically didn't want to say the truth because you were worried it was going to implicate you in a crime. if you say i'm going to invoke my fifth amendment rights to protect myself, the judge gets to say, that's not so good. >> what about saying, i don't recall? >> that's a little bit different, and that you typically see in a case like this a lot which sort of allows someone a little bit of wiggle room, which is not the same as saying that didn't happen or, you know, even i don't recall. it's sort of these hedges that you can do. but i think you're going to see him essentially say, look, i didn't have any involvement in the day-to-day operations. he's going to stick to his deposition testimony because they know they already have that on tape. >> what about the idea, and they have argued this, that listen, it's real estate, and you can inflate or deflate assets. it's based on a subjective determination. what anyone is willing to pay, and with the trump brand on top of this, who knows what someone would be willing to pay? >> i think that's one of the more persuasive arguments they have, and i think if it was in front of a jury, a jury might be persuaded bid that type of argument. it's not in front of a jury, and the judge has decided legally on some of the claims, that doesn't work. the pure fraud claim he has decided in summary judgment for the state, that's not going to fly. >> let me ask you about who was on the witness stand before him, a hedge fund guy, an expert witness for the ag, what was he testifying about? >> he was talking about the insurance rates and how the interest rates were better for the trump organization because they were inflating those assets. and it's trying to get at the harm there, which is part of the ag's case is they have to figure out this penalty. and they're saying we should get $250 million in ill gotten gains because of how they inflated these assets over a period of years. it wasn't just one year. it's a series of years that the ag says this went on. >> they also argue, the trump people, that they're being unfairly targeted because donald trump was president and the attorney general doesn't like him, and other people don't face these same sorts of charges. are cases like this common in new york or any other state? >> no, but it's also hard to sort of imagine a scheme where somebody sort of had the same number of assets and they were all organized in the same amount of, you know, different pots, and it's hard to say -- >> it's a unique scenario. >> yeah, it's hard to say apples to oranges in a case like this. i think certainly there have been plenty of financial fraud cases brought by the attorney general's office, and nobody is disputing that she has the authority to do that, and i think as for the claim about being politically motivated, you know, she brought this case way before he was running for president. it has happened to take this long to get to trial through delays and appeals, which she is certainly entitled to do. it isn't as if she filed the case right before he was running for president. >> we're going to see after don j and an update from the court as soon as somebody comes out. but we're going to see eric trump potentially tomorrow. next week we'll see donald trump, the former president. we'll also see ivanka trump, is donald trump jr.'s testimony going to provide us anything about the others? >> he's been combative. called it a kangaroo court. we'll see how combative he gets with the ag's office today. eric trump is an interesting character, as our lisa rubin has pointed out. he will go over and actually shake hand with the attorney general. that's not something you see certainly the former president doing. we'll wait and see whether she has any report on what don jr. is doing in the courtroom. ivanka, an interesting character. he's not a defendant in the case, but the judge ruled she needed to testify about a couple of key issues about the old post office hotel, we remember the issues surrounding that, and her involvement as it relates to that. the judge says she has to testify even though she is no longer a defendant, which as you can imagine did not go over well with her father who was blasting the judge, again, overnight, saying leave my children alone. >> the questioning has started and we do have eyes and ears in the room. we have ears, we don't have eyes. >> no cameras. >> and some specifics about his training, but in terms of color, the reporters in the courtroom say he appears at ease with his hands grasped together, he occasionally rubs his thumbs or fidgets or corrects his posture, and sits up straight. that's what we got out of the courtroom. we'll way some more. >> hopefully more on the testimony soon. coming up next, latest out of gaza where the first foreign nationals are being allowed out. we'll talk to an american still stuck coming up. ming up. right now get a free footlong at subway. like the new deli heroes. buy one footlong in the app, get one free. it's a pretty big deal. kinda like me. order in the subway app today. this is spring semester at fairfield-suisun unified. they switched to google tools for education because there's never been a reported ransomware attack on a chromebook. now they're focused on learning knowing that their data is secure. ( ♪♪ ) and we are watching a brewing fight on capitol hill that will have global consequences. new republican speaker mike johnson does not want to pay for ukraine anymore, and when it comes to sending money to israel, he's attaching some strings, setting him at odds with both democrats and republican senate minority leader mitch mcconnell along with the congressional budget office which finds his bill would decrease u.s. revenue by nearly 30 billion. we'll explain in a moment. it puts him at odds with long stands republican dogma who stands by israel no matter what. a complication for republicans, yes, but also for president biden who wants an aid package now, and secretary of state, antony blinken who will no doubt have to address the holdup when he travels to israel later this week. blinken is redoubling diplomatic pressure during another round of shuttle diplomacy throughout the region. hoping to get a deal to secure hostages over the rafah border crossings, evacuations that started today, however slowly. 335 foreign nationals have now made it out of gaza and into egypt, but fewer than ten of them are believed to be americans. according to u.s. officials who estimate the total number of americans still trapped in gaza as somewhere around 400. blinken will likely be looking ahead to what is next. an internal israeli documents laid out options including one that would displace all of gaza, an inflammatory proposal but not necessarily a likelyne. as "the new yoes" reports quote, the two state solution, israelis and palestinians living side by sid in their own sovereign countries is getting a new hearing, just in foreign policy circles in washington, london, and paris but also more quietly among the combatants themselves. we're going to get into that as well. first, let's go to the ground, ashdod, israel, is where we find nbc news foreign correspondent, raf sanchez. what is the latest in terms of what's happening on the ground? the idf has said, or we are led to believe that the idf is now in gaza city. >> reporter: the idf certainly seems to be encircling gaza city. we are seeing israeli ground forces cutting off the northern half of gaza from several directions. they're going south down the coast, west from the middle of gaza, and the goal seems to be to cut off the northern half. now, they say that is hamas's stronghold inside of gaza, but of course it is also the major urban population center. it's home to a million people during peacetime. we think about 2/3 of that population has followed these israeli warnings, and they have fled from the north to the south to the relative safety of the south. civilians have been killed by israeli air strikes in the south also but the focus of the fighting does seem to be in the north. the israeli air force today striking the jabalya refugee camp inern gaza for second time in two days. they say they were targeting a hamas command and control center, which was deliberately hidden under le's homes inside of that refugee camp. our cameras were actually at the nearby indonesian hospital where a wave of wounded people, many of them civilians, were rushed in after that israeli strike. several dozen people were killed yesterday in that strike inside the jabalya refugee camp. we know israeli forces are taking casualties of their own. israel's military says 16 soldiers have been killed in the last two days. prime minister netanyahu is saying he will not agree to a cease fire. his argument is that a cease fire is basically a victory for hamas. it means they have 230 hostages in their hands. it means they are still in charge in gaza, and it gives them an opportunity to reconstitute militarily and to prepare israel fears for another attack like what we saw on october 7th. now, so far, the united states is not joining the calls for a complete cease fire. but we do expect secretary blinken when he's here in israel on friday to re-up what the u.s. is saying should be a series of humanitarian pauses, which are pauses in the fighting to allow for more aid to get into gaza. we did see some aid crossing through rafah today, but the u.n. and other humanitarian organizations, katy, are saying it's nowhere near enough. >> when we define refugee camps, it's important to define what you're talking about here. you think of what we saw in syria, tents in a fenced in area, that's not exactly what the jabalya refugee area is. can you explain it to us? >> reporter: yeah, katy, it's an important distinction. the majority of the population in gaza are palestinian refugees, which means they are descendants of people who were displaced in the 1948 war. very very few of them were actually alive in 1948, but they are the children, grandchildren, great grandchildren. these refugee camps have been around basically as long as the state of israel, you're right. they're not camps in the sense of tents. they are, you know, when you're in gaza, it can be difficult sometimes to tell where gaza city proper ends and where these refugee camps end. they tend to be more impoverished areas. one of the clues, if you're in them, if you look overhead, you can see this spider head of electricity lines, improvised electricity lines to try to get power to these different houses which were supposed to be temporary, supposed to only be there for a little while, and instead have stood for decades and decades, many of them now, katy, destroyed, and it is not at all clear when those hundreds of thousands of people who have fled from the northern half of gaza do eventually return home, how many of them are going to have a roof over their heads. >> raf sanchez, thank you very much. joining us from cairo, egypt, is nbc news foreign correspondent meagan fitzgerald. talk to me about who was able to get out of gaza today, and what we expect in the coming days? >> reporter: well, katy, you know, while there is this list. this is a list that has the names that were submitted by the countries of these respective foreign nationals that were able to leave gaza today, we know this was a deal that was brokered by four different countries, it was the united states. it was qatar, egypt, along with israel, but the timing of when the rafah border crossing opens, falling in the hands of egypt. making sure that the right people are leaving, so says this list, in the hands of egypt. we know that hundreds of people were able to make it out of gaza today, crossing across the rafah border crossing, and it will reopen tomorrow for the remaining citizens of different countries that are expected to leave. now, we do understand that at some point, when these people transition from gaza and through the crossing there, there's this medical examination before they load these buses and are then on their way. now, we have some reporting after speaking with the niece of this 71-year-old woman who has been trapped in gaza, obviously for the last more than three weeks. she went there to fit prosthetics for kids. she's a prosthetics expert. she along with her coworker because all of the americans released today are humanitarian aid workers, they are making their way to cairo before they continue their journey back to the united states. they're the lucky ones, of course. her family rejoicing. there's a sense of relief, but you have to keep in mind that of course there's hundreds of other americans that are still stuck in gaza that are desperate to get out. we talked to one of them earlier today who said there's no communication as to when he will be able to transition across the border. so while we are looking at great progress that's being made, there's still a lot of work that needs to be done, katy. >> meagan fitzgerald, thank you very much. let's talk to one of those americans who is still stuck. joining us on the phone because the internet connection is bad over there, abud vocal, thank you very much for joining us. tell us about where you are and what's going on. >> hi, katy, thanks for having me on. we are right in the city. we have been here for over two and a half months since the idf has asked everyone in gaza city and north gaza to head south for what is presumably a safer zone, and we have been sheltered in rafah city. we're seven minutes away. and have been waiting for any word from the state department for us to safely cross into egypt. >> there's a list, as you know. do you know where you are on that list? >> we are not on the list. last night local time we heard the reports in the local press that the rafah crossing would be open, and to allow the much needed aid for some wounded during the right to receive medical treatment in egypt, as well as some foreign nationals. so we were pretty excited. we thought we would be actually up on the list. to help broker the deal, and we have been promised multiple times by the state department for departure, and then a few hours into the night, we did receive communications from the state department. it is happening soon, although not happening today on november 1st with the first crossing. and within 72 hours, we would receive information of date and time for departure. as of today we don't know when that will happen. we were hoping and expecting a new list for tomorrow as that seems to be new tier. new lists have been issued and so far we are standing in place and hoping for our names to show up on the list. >> abood, i hope your name gets on that list quickly and you're able to get out there. who are you currently with, it's your wife and child? >> we arrived about a week before the war started in gaza from what was supposed to be a two-week trip, and we've been here ever since. we were in northern gaza at my parents' house, and we have no idea if either one stands given the air strikes that are taking place in these neighborhoods, and we've had to switch locations in the last basically moving all the way down to southern gaza strip in rafah, again, in preparation for us to leave. and even since we moved here, air strikes continue to happen nearby. and last night was a quite active night, basically, near where we're staying. we could hear air strikes and artillery nearby. pretty much kept us up most of the night. >> it's so scary. you know, we talked to your sister a couple of weeks ago when this all began, who is also there visiting family. she's there with her three kids. her husband left right before and went back to the states and she's been trapped. how is hanine doing? >> she is exhausted. we are exhausted, my wife and i with a 1-year-old. she has three. we're all sheltering in the same place. not just us. a total of 40 people sheltering in a single family home. this is all because of, you know, a million people had to move south on a day's notice, basically, so everybody had to figure out a place to stay, and we decided that we will face the same fate, whether that's a good one or an unfortunate one. so she's doing well. she has a newborn who's two months old. so she's quite exhausted and i know hanine, and our family, we spent many hours at the crossing with the children just to come back and not be able to cross. and actually, she attempted to go very early in the war, attempted to go to rafah crossing with her children and an air strike hit the actual crossing and she had to flee. so far we're safe and as low of a bar that sounds these days, we're fortunate every morning to wake up and live another day. >> i really hope everything turns out okay. i hope you guys are able to stay safe. i hope your names are on the list if not tomorrow, the day after and i hope we get to see you in new york to talk about your experience which i imagine has just been awful and very scary. thank you very much, i'm happy the phone connection was able to hold for the few minutes we had to speak. >> thank you, katy. thanks for having us. joining us now is former israeli consul general in new york, ambassador, elon pinkas, it's so difficult to talk about this whole story. this war and all the sides of it. it's especially difficult when you talk about the people who are currently victimized on both sides. how do you feel when you hear someone say they have been trying to get out and they're not able to. they fled south but they find that the rocket fire is following them. >> i feel for him. i hope he gets out. there are thousands of others there, and i feel their pain, honestly, i feel their pain. no one should be put in this situation. no one should experience what he's experienced, especially not with young children, and what can i say, my heart goes out to him. but my heart also goes out to the israeli hostages and to the israeli murdered, and the israeli families who are agonizing. my heart, you know, i don't want to turn this into, you know, a dr. phil episode, but my heart goes out to everyone involved in this tragedy. >> i totally feel you on that. it's all from top to bottom. let me ask you about what happens next. we've talked about it a little bit. i think it's worth revisiting. there was an internal document, an israeli document that came out that laid out an a, b, c, proposal. i know you have seen it. but just for our viewers, the proposal was -- and this is the one the document said was most viable, to remove all gazans out of gaza and into the sinai peninsula, into egypt, it's extremely inflammatory for palestinians and the arab world. is that really honestly a consideration? >> no, absolutely not. but let me frame this and put it in context. it was written by a insignificant, inconsequential, silly minister who heads a bogus ministry called the ministry of intelligence, which no one takes seriously. that said, it should be taken seriously in a way because this is exactly the kind of type of government that mr. netanyahu set up or the coalition that he built in december of 2022. it was then the u.s. president and the u.s. secretary of state and a bunch of senators who were visiting who warned mr. netanyahu of placing extreme right wing ministers and what you see in this document that will never see the light of day, but nonetheless, i understand why people are taking it seriously. they warned him against forming such a coalition, so here we are, and it is what it is. what can i tell you? i make no excuses for this hideousness, sorry for the term, but that's what it is. >> let's talk about what could come next. "the new york times" has reporting, which has mirrored conversations i've had with experts in the region about the possibility of a two-state solution, it was so horrific that it's going to force the issue of creating twos. gilliard share who i you know, but for viewers, ed the israeli palestinian negons ithe late '90s me to being realized as a two ate solution, listed caveats for the israeli/palestinian talks. the two sides would have to start with a political process focused on disengagement over the details of two states. both would needew leaders since the existing ones have proven to be unwilling or incapable of viking a deal. above all, hamas would have to be vanquished and the gaza strip demilitarized. what do you make of what he's suggesting and this reporting that this is being discussed more, this idea of a two-state solution even among the combatants. >> i could not agree more. it's not because we worked together with prime minister on these negotiations. i think that substantively, he's absolutely right. here's the thing, katy. until three or four weeks ago, the conventional wisdom was that a two-state model, two-state solution is not viable, that the palestinian authority is too weak. that hamas cannot be negotiated with, but nonetheless, mr. netanyahu strengthened hamas in order to weaken the palestinian authority, only to then say, well, you see i got no one to negotiate. but here's the thing, the devastation and the magnitude of what happened on october 7th is such that there's a silver lining here. and the silver lining is expressed this that article, in mark landler's article in today's "new york times." this is not an immediate thing. this may be premature, you and i talking about this, or the entertaining the whole idea of a palestinian state. this is the only game in town, the only viable, workable solution. i agree with that quote that you referred to about this needs to be baby steps or gradual or phased and the modalities need to be different, but there could be -- and let me add a different dimension -- there could be an interim phase in which gaza and the west bank are put under an international trusteeship. it is predicated on the following equation, that the hamas cannot govern, certainly it cannot be trusted to govern, nor to provide security. that's evident. but israel doesn't want to occupy, neither the gaza strip nor the occupation of the west bank sustainable. in the meantime, there needs to be a intermediate or midterm solution, and that could be a trusteeship. a trusteeship was tried in kosovo and earlier in cambodia, and namibia, without going into the details. the idea basically is that the u.n., the arab league, the saudis with the support of the u.s. nato and under the auspices of the u.n. take hold of gaza, and leave the west bank for a temporary period of time until the two-state solution is negotiated. i know this sounds like political science fiction at this point. but going back to your question, it is coming back to the top of the agenda. >> yeah, i mean, october 7th is awful, what we're seeing with the bombing and the innocent civilians being killed in gaza, also awful. it would be nice to think there could be potentially a silver lining to come out of this and a future peace, a stable peace. ambassador alon pinkas, i have a bunch of questions, you'll have to come back. coming up next, we're going to go back to new york city where donald trump jr. is on the stand. the court is in recess. lisa rubin was inside the courtroom, and she's going to join us in just a moment. done go anywhere. go anywhere like the new deli heroes. buy one footlong in the app, get one free. it's a pretty big deal. kinda like me. order in the subway app today. i think i'm ready for this. heck ya! with e*trade you're ready for anything. marriage. kids. college. kids moving back in after college. ♪ finally we can eat. ♪ you know you make me wanna...♪ and then we looked around and said, wait a minute, this isn't even our stroller! 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(vo) make the switch. it's your business. it's your verizon. as we said at the top of the show, donald trump jr. has taken the stand in new york city in the trump org civil trial. court is in a brief recess. let's get to reporting on the ground. joining me now from outside the courthouse is nbc news legal analyst, lisa rubin. you're only outside because court is in recess. you have been sitting in and listening. what do you make of don jr. on the stand? does he have a strategy? >> he seems to have a strategy. so at the beginning of this case when the attorney general opened, they played a clip from don jr.'s deposition where he admitted he didn't know much about what's called gaap, generally accepted accounting principles. he joked the only thing he knew was what it stood for, he boasted, as a freshman. today he's owning his ignorance, admitting on the stand, clearly, openly, almost proudly that he doesn't know anything about gaap or other accounting standards or the accounting standards board that sets those rules. he's basically saying i have nothing to offer in that respect because i relied on my lawyers and accountants to do that work for me. i paid them millions of dollars. that answer in part was struck by the judge who found it to be nonresponsive. the attorney general was peeve bid that. i as a former lawyer can see, that's where we're going to see don jr. go. this wasn't my responsibility. it was on the lead accountant. my brother and i and father we're all innocent of an intent to commit fraud. we relied on the people who worked for us. >> how far does that go when you're at the top of the organization and you're said to have full control, your fingers and everything? >> reporter: yeah, i'm sorry, katy, i missed part of the question. can you repeat that, please. >> of course. how far does an argument like that go, that they never intended to commit fraud when you are at the top of the organization, and you are actually signing off on these documents? because it's not a jury, how far does it go with the judge? >> reporter: i don't think it's going to go very far for a couple of reasons. first of all, when trump became president, he handed off day-to-day control of the organization to his son don jr., to allen weisselberg, cotrustees of the trump revocable trust, took all the assets of the trump organization and moved it into a trust co-headed by weisselberg and trump jr. that's number one. number two, there are documents in the record that show that trump should have known better. i'll give you one key example. in 2016, the statements of financial condition were based in part on evaluation of trump's apartment at trump tower that listed it as having 30,000 square feet. we all know, that's one of the most egregious examples of over valuation here. don jr. is the person who signed the letter to mazars saying the information about the assets is true and correct. >> we'll let you get inside for the end of the recess and continuation of his testimony. and 21-year-old patrick dai is making his first appearance in federal court, charged with making violent online threats against jewish students at cornell university under user names like hamas fighter and kill jews. the department of justice says dai allegedly threatened to stab and slit the throat of any jewish males. to rape and throw off a cliff any jewish females and to be head jewish babies. he threatened to bring an assault rifle to campus, and shoot all you pig jews, the joining us now, intelligence correspondent, ken dilanian. i know it's shocking to read what we wrote, and we don't like to promote that sort of language and those threats. i think also, ken, it's important to fully state what's out there so people can't say it's not really happening or it's not big deal. tell me what happened, what we know about what's happening in court, and what he's been charged with. >> couldn't agree more. the complaint says dai is a junior at cornell, and he posted these vile messages on a web site frequented by cornell students, and in addition to the ones you mentioned, he posted a specific threat, you say, to shoot up 104 west, which is a kosher dining hall next to the jewish student center. he's charged with making an interstate death threat, which is punishable by five years in prison. the complaint says that they trace the ip address where the threats originated to his computer, interviewed him, and he admitted to making the threats. his parents have told the "new york post" that he was suffering from mental health challenges, that he had to leave school for a while, that he was depressed. he spent the night in jail last night, and was scheduled to make a first appearance in federal court in syracuse at 2:30. so he may be in court right now. >> ken dilanian, thank you very much. and in front of congress, fbi director christopher wray warned the threat of terror against americans here in the united states hasn't been this high since the rise of isis. nbc's stephanie gosk has more on what he said the fbi is worried about. >> reporter: as israel's war against hamas rages on, a dire warning from fbi director christopher wray. >> the ongoing war in the middle east has raised the threat of an attack against americans in the united states to a whole other level. >> reporter: wray telling the senate homeland committee the fbi is concerned violent extremists will be inspired by hamas and other foreign terrorist groups to attack americans. >> we assess that the actions of hamas and its allies will serve as an inspiration, the likes of which we haven't seen since isis launched its caliphate several years ago. >> reporter: the antidefamation league has seen a 400% increase in anti-semitic incidents, compared to last year with college students frequently targeted. >> when we are hearing from students saying they are being harassed. >> reporter: tuesday, fbi director wray highlighted the alarming surge in anti-semitic hate nationwide. >> this is a threat that is reaching in some ways toward historic levels. >> reporter: all part of his warning that threats against american jews and muslims are growing, inflamed since the war began, including the killing of a 6-year-old palestinian american child in illinois allegedly at the hands of his family's landlord. wray said the fbi arrested a man in houston who was studying how to build bombs and posted online about his support for killing jews. >> stephanie gosk reporting for us. a former idf soldier who fought in gaza in 2014, what he saw then, and what it made minimum believe the solution is now. minimum believe the solutio w. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ get it with gurus. cargurus. announcer: try tide power pods with 85% more tide in every pod. who needs that much more tide? everyone's gonna need more tide. it's a mess out there. that's why there's 85% more tide in every power pod. -see? -ah. right now get a free footlong at subway. like the new deli heroes. buy one 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(♪♪) this is day 16 of us not having electricity. not even a second. like this light is my flashlight, and this is an l.e.d. light. >> reporter: noar first sent a video diary from the south of gaza. she's far from her home. >> i have been here in the south for maybe nine days. i don't really know because when you're under such circumstances, you lose track of time. access to food is one of the most difficult, most tiring things now. my brother today spent more than five hours in the bakery to get bread. people fight in bakeries. water is also extremely difficult to access. we have to fill it in bottles. it's like a very big gallon, and we try to reduce your use of water, but how can you do that, like water is very -- you need it for everything you do. >> that was noar diab, a 20-year-old student from gaza city, speaking to nbc news as part of a digital documentary called search for safety, the desperate struggle to survive in gaza. she evacuated to seek safety, but as you heard, she is sheltering in unsafe and unstable conditions. and there's not promise of safety from an israeli air strike or an errant strike fired by hamas. joining us is former idf soldier who fought inside gaza in 2014, benzi sanders, in his new york times op-ed "i fought for the idf in gaza it made me fight for peace," says the promise to eliminate fighting is a lie. thank you very much for being with us. explain what you saw and why it makes you believe it's not possible to root out hamas now. >> well, i was sent into gaza in 2014 also after a horrific terrorist attack in which three israeli teenagers were murdered. obviously that pales in comparison to the horrific images and suffering and death and kidnapping that we saw on october 7th. but the images that i see now of bombardments and tanks and idf soldiers engaging with hamas militants in tunnels and in urban, basically post apocalyptic urban environment, reminds me of my own experience, and after we went in and we suffered our own casualties, killed off thousands of palestinians in that operation, i came out and i looked and i started thinking about what we accomplished, and i saw that actually what happened was that hamas just got stronger. and not only did it get stronger, it got stronger with the help of my own government. my own government thought that it was convenient and preferable to bolster hamas while it simultaneously delegitimized and called palestinian initiatives from the palestinian authority at the u.n. diplomatic terrorism, delegitimized palestinian human rights activists, human rights organizations, designating them as terrorist groups, and facilitating the transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars to gaza into the hands of hamas, and they just got stronger. all of that for preventing the creation of a palestinian state, preventing hope, really, for palestinians to achieve the same rights and freedoms that we cherish so much for ourselves. and that is actually crushing palestinian hope which also plays into the hands of hamas. not only is this a view of human rights activists like myself and like my colleagues, both israeli and palestinian, but even the former head of the imi alone has said in order to defeat decisively terrorism like the terrorism carried out by hamas, you need to create an alternative because hamas is not just a terrorist organization, it's also an idealogy. an idealogy of violent resistance. in order to defeat that idealogy, we need to work toward creating an alternative, a future for palestinians and israelis who live in safety and security with rights and independence. >> how do you get to that alternative? >> well, we're doing everything in our power not just this government, but successive governments, to prevent the possibility of getting to that alternative. we're pushing palestinians off of their land, we're expanding settlements. we need to be doing the opposite. there are settlements, forget about the fact that settlements are illegal according to the vast majority of international law analysis, there are settlements that have been built against israeli law. these are called outposts. they're illegal even according to israeli law. israel doesn't enforce its own laws. violent settler groups are out en masse, more in the past three weeks than ever before. it's been on the increase even before this violence broke out. >> this is in the west bank, so we can be clear. the west bank. >> yeah. this is even in the areas where hamas has not taken over, we're oppressing, allowing for the destruction of those -- any hope. i think we need to pursue the political solution. you know, i don't know the exact formula we need to negotiate, we need to figure that out. our current government in the founding document of the coalition agreement in this government says the founding principle is that the entire land of israel is -- the jewish people have the exclusive right,en inclusive to the entire land. we need an aboutface in our approach to the palestinians, otherwise we'll find ourselves after this war, really we don't have a vision, don't have an idea. we're bombing and killing thousands. we're sending our own soldiers to horrific fighting in which many are being killed and injured. we don't have a vision. i think this is a horrific mistake. we made it to stop. we need to commit and make -- an just in words, not just -- israel, we need also our partners or the people who believe in a future for israelis and palestinians to also make demands that there is actual commitments on the ground, not just lip service to the idea of a future palestinian state and palestinian independence. >> thank you so much for joining us. i encourage everybody to read your op-ed in the "times." it's really interesting. your background is really interesting, as well. thank you. >> thank you. >> you can see more of "the digital documentary" we mentioned at the top of the show, "search for safety" at nbcnews.com and youtube. next, what house republicans are leaving out of their israel aid bill. pano ai chooses t-mobile for business for 5g solutions... ...because t-mobile helps pano ai innovate, so they can stop the spread of wildfires. now's the time to see what america's largest 5g network can do for your business. right now get a free footlong at subway. like the new deli heroes. buy one footlong in the app, get one free. it's a pretty big deal. kinda like me. order in the subway app today. at humana, we believe your healthcare should evolve with you, and part of that evolution means choosing the right medicare plan for you. humana can help. with original medicare you're covered for hospital stays and doctor office visits, but you'll have to pay a deductible for each. a medicare supplement plan pays for some or all of your original medicare deductibles, but they may have higher monthly premiums and no prescription drug coverage. humana medicare advantage prescription drug plans include medical coverage, plus prescription drug coverage. and coverage for dental, vision, and hearing, all wrapped up into one convenient plan. plus, there's a cap on your out-of-pocket costs! humana has large networks of doctors, hospitals and specialists across 49 states. so, call or go online today and get your free decision guide. humana - a more human way to healthcare. right now get a free footlong at subway. like the new deli heroes. buy one footlong in the app, get one free. it's a pretty big deal. kinda like me. order in the subway app today. the house is back today, and a new speaker comes along with it along with a long list of problems. at the top of the list aid for israel and additional aid for ukraine. with republican support for ukraine waning, the window of opportunity is closing. joining us is punchbowl news co-founder and political contributor jake sherman. so mike johnson, i'm thinking of the "snl" sketch from over the weekend. what's his name? mike johnson, super rememberable name. i keep forgetting it because of the sketch. mike johnson is not a fan of ukraine spending, a lot of the conference is not a fan of ukraine spending among republicans. senate republicans want ukraine spending. democrats in the senate want ukraine spending. the president wants ukraine spending. it sound like we're going to be at an impasse over this aid bill. >> well, just to be clear on the ukraine piece for johnson, he has softened -- he's voted against ukraine funding pretty consistently, but he has softened on that in recent days and weeks, i guess days since he's become speaker. basically saying we need to do it, but i'm not doing it with israel funding. that's a -- just a reality of where the house republican conference is, katy. but it's a very strange move that speaker johnson is undergoing right now where he tried to offset the $14 billion for israel with $14 billion of cuts to the irs, the congressional budget office said, no, that doesn't fly, it's going to drive up the deficit. the senate said we're not interested in this kind of bill, and we want an israel-ukraine bill, effectively is what the leadership said. what's going to likely happen is that the house is going to pass -- if they can pass the israel bill tomorrow, which we'll see if they can, they're going to pass it, the senate's going to pass back a completely different bill, and we're going to be in the same place where we are right now which is no additional aid to israel that is in the pipeline. so a strange move for johnson early on the speakership. i'll wrap it up here, but if he didn't do this $14 billion of cuts from the irs, this bill would have flown through the house and through the senate with 400 votes in the house, 75, 80 in the senate. i don't understand why he did it. i can think of a lot. that's one way. the better talking point? my first week as speaker i passed bail for our ally and got it signed into law with 400 votes in the house. that sound like a better talking point if i were thinking about it. but who am i, what am i? >> you are jake sherman. because you've asked, why don't we put up what "the washington post" says about you. "jake sherman's shining hill on a city." i wanted to get a copy to show everyone the three-page spread profiling you but i couldn't find a physical copy. that's all i could do at the last second. it does detail so many scoops, jake. i think you should open an ice-cream shop along with punchbowl news. >> that was as corny as it gets. thank you. >> i thought it was pretty good. shake sherman, thank you so much, good to see you, my friend. we'll watch what happens next on capitol hill. that's going to do it for me today. "deadline white house" has a whole lot of news, so do not go anywhere because it starts right now. hi, there everyone. it's 4:00 in new york on a day where we are covering a veritable tsunami of news with major developments in the slew of legal battles bearing down on the disgraced twice impeached four times indicted, president. as we come on the air today, the ex-president's son is on the stand in a manhattan courthouse. he's testifying in the civil fraud trial that could