now "my take." the european crisis you have been reading about in the newspapers is worth watching very carefully. it has now morphed into something much bigger than a european crisis. it could batter the entire global economy, which is pretty fragile anyway. you read a lot about greece. the real problem is italy. you see, greece is a nano state and makes up about 2% of the european union's gross domestic problem. italy, on the other hand, is one of the seven or eight largest economies in the world. its debts are greater than those of spain, portugal, ireland, and greece combined. and it has long been governed in an almost cartoonishly bad manner. italy is too big to fail, but it also might be too big to bail. even germany may not be able to credibly bail it out along with all the other troubled countries. so what can be done? i don't think the leading proposals will work. creating eurobonds or giving brussels broader powers to tax and spend. those things won't happen. governments oppose it in europe. people oppose it in europe. and anyway, creating a tighter european union will take about ten years to sort out. markets need reassurance now. so, i have a proposal. we need a bazooka. a big bazooka. you see, facing a similar crisis in 2008, treasury secretary henry paulson talked about the need for a sum of money large enough to scare markets into submission. >> if you have a bazooka -- >> he called it a bazooka. but the problem is this -- all of the e.u. combined doesn't have a big enough bazooka. who has the money italy and spain would need? take a guess. they have $3 trillion in foreign exchange reserves alone. yep, china. in fact, today there are $10 trillion of foreign exchange reserves sitting around the globe. that is the only pile of money large enough from which a bazooka could be fashioned. the international monetary fund could go to the leading holders of such reserves, china, but also japan, brazil, saudi arabia -- and ask for a $750 billion line of credit. the imf would extend the credit to the troubled e.u. economies, italy and spain particularly, but would insist on closely monitoring economic reforms and granting funds as restructuring occurs. the credit line would more than cover the costs of italy and spain for two years. the imf terms would ensure the two nations remain under pressure to reform and set them up for growth. now, the chinese would have to devote at least half the funds. what's in it for them? a new global role. this could be the spur to giving china a much larger say at the imf. in fact, it might be necessary to make clear that christine lagarde would be the last non-chinese head of the imf. in a world awash in debt, power shifts to creditors. it's happened before. after world war i, european nations were battered by debt. germany was battered by reparation payments. the only country that could provide credit was the united states of america. for america, providing desperately needed cash to europe was its entry into the councils of power, a process that ultimately brought a powerful new player inside the global tent. today's crisis is china's opportunity to become a responsible stakeholder in the global system. and if this doesn't happen, by the way, hold onto your seat because we are in for a rough ride. let's get started. for the last eight months, jeffrey immelt has held two jobs. he is, of course, the chairman and ceo of general electric but also moonlights as the chairman of president obama's council on jobs and competitiveness. in other words, his second job is to get a first job for the one out of six americans who are looking for work. so what is he going to do? i talked to him about jobs, the american economy, and general electric. when president obama asked you to head up his jobs council, what did you come in hoping to achieve? what's the one thing you thought you would be able to get done? >> i took it just as pure play, and the one thing i hope to get done is to create more jobs. you know, in other words, fareed, i have tried to stay focused on this in a very tactical way and really, i think, building the amount of confidence that's required to actually improve job creation in the united states. >> taking this position, have you learned something about the difficulties, the opportunities of job creation that's different from just running g.e.? >> you know, one of the things that this made me do is reach out more and try to see it through the eyes of small business. and when you really try to put yourself in their perspective, they have all the problems g.e. has, only on steroids. so in many ways, you know, one of the roads out of this is there's got to be some simplification of regulations in the united states. the fact is that g.e. and ibm and jpmorgan, we're big enough companies that we can muscle through regulatory, you know, pressure. we can comply, do the things we need to do. if you're a $50 million business it's just so much harder. i become much more aware of the challenges that basic fundamental small businesses have in the united states. it's given me a much better appreciation of what they go through. >> what is it like working with president obama? >> he's a good listener. he's tough-minded. i tell colleagues in the business community it's not like your first shot on goal is going to get through his pads. he's tough-minded, and he's a good listener. >> you know, a lot of people in the business community think he's an empty capitalist or too left wing to be president. you see him. you talk to him about capitalism, jobs, the economy all the time. >> look, i know he cares deeply about job creation. i know he cares deeply about the united states. do i agree with everything that the president says or everything he stands for? probably not. in fact, definitely no. but at the same time he's my president. and i believe when the president asks you to do something you say yes. so that's the context with which i took the jobs council assignment. i like president obama, i respect president obama. >> you are a republican, right? a registered republican. what do you say to republicans where you now see the entire party largely unified around the idea that the only thing that the government can really do to create jobs is to cut the budget, cut the deficit, slash spending? there is very little appetite for any kind of affirmative government policy, let alone investment. is that the right path? >> look, in my essence, i make aircraft engines and gas turbines and sell them to customers around the world. i'm not really a politician. you know, i don't really want to set public policy. but i believe in balance. does the debt, deficit need to be reduced? absolutely. right? is government too big in many ways? absolutely. but does the country still need to invest in education? does the country still need to invest in infrastructure? does the country still need to invest in the types of innovation and r&d that are going to make this country competitive in the 21st century? yes, we do. the advantage i have is i live my life in beijing, in rio, in paris, in moscow and i see the rest of the world investing in competitiveness. i see the rest of the world wanting to gain share versus the united states. and so i think a balanced approach ultimately is what most business people, most ceos would like to see. >> you know that a lot of people look at ge as a poster child for the problem with the corporate tax collection. they say -- >> look, we paid tens of billions in taxes over the last decade. we wrote off massive amounts during the financial crisis in ge capital, and our tax rate year to date this year is over 40%. so like many ceos, i am dramatically in favor of a new corporate tax system that lowers the rate, ends loopholes and puts us on the same basis with germany, uk and japan and everybody else around the world. i completely agree with where the simpson/bowles commission came out on the tax system. let's get after it. >> what about investment? you're sitting on piles of cash, and people say you're opening businesses in china, hiring people in china, but you are not hiring people -- >> we're hiring 15,000 people in the united states this year. you know, we are investing in the u.s., but we are also investing in china, we're also investing in india. look, more than 60% of the companies outside the united states, 70% of our backlog -- i wish all my customers were in chicago. really, i do. it's the easier way to run the business, but my customers are in brazil. my customers are in canada. my customers are in japan and china. we are one of the country's biggest exporters. i think the country should applaud that. you know? that's nothing to be criticized. and so, look, i'm just not going to apologize. but we are also going to create jobs in the united states. we are also one of the best exporters. we are one of the biggest r&d spenders. every one of my competitors is global. we are a 130-year-old company. we compete with hitachi, siemens. we compete with toshiba. we don't have u.s.-based competitors anymore. and believe me, all of them get government support, from the german government, from the uk government, from the chinese government. i just think, you know, we criticize global companies like ge when in many ways we can help build competitiveness in the united states. >> tell me about the jobs council. what specifically can the united states do? you have divided the challenge in a sense into a short term and a long term. tell me about the short term first. what can we do to create jobs? >> we are going to do an industry-wide sector by sector jobs plan and we'll finish it by the end of the year. we didn't want to focus on legislative solutions. it was kind of nonpartisan, nonlegislative. nobody on the council -- and there are 26 of us. none of us believe there is a silver bullet for job creation. there will literally be dozens of ideas that go into creating jobs. early on what we try to do is focus on supply and demand, reducing regulatory burdens. we wanted to put people back to work quickly. so we had ideas in education. create 10,000 more engineers every year. we had ideas around reducing cycle time, so getting visitor visas, shorten cycle time to put together -- to create jobs for 100,000 or 200,000 travel and leisure workers. very simple, very focused to build confidence. those things are all under way. >> back in a moment with much more with the jobs czar, jeffrey immelt. just one phillips' colon health probiotic cap a day helps defends against occasional constipation, diarrhea, gas and bloating. with three strains of good bacteria to help balance your colon. you had me at "probiotic." 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[ crunching, sipping ] be happy. be healthy. can i try yours? woohoo! yes! ♪ it was the best day ♪ it was the best day yeah! ♪ it was the best day ♪ because of you [echoing] we make a great pair. huh? progressive and the great outdoors. we make a great pair. right, totally. uh... that's what i was thinking. hmm. covering the things that make the outdoors great. now that's progressive. call or click today. if something is simply the color of gold, is it really worth more? we don't think so. chase sapphire preferred is a card of a different color. unlike others, you get twice the points on travel, and twice the points on dining, and no foreign transaction fees. call now or apply at chasesapphire.com/preferred. i tell you what i can spend. i do my best to make it work. i'm back on the road safely. and i saved you money on brakes. that's personal pricing. what do you think it would take for american companies to be able to gain productivity by increasing employment rather than decreasing? because the last few years what you have seen was an increase in productivity by shedding jobs. >> again, in the end you need demand. you know, in other words, none of our names are above the door, right? we all work for investors. and investors want us to invest in growth, but they don't want us to run operations that are less competitive or that are inefficient. but if you look -- you know, fareed, we've got 60%, 70% market share in the commercial aviation business making jet engines. our plants are full. we are adding people in every factory. we're adding people in the supply chain. now, 80% of the products go outside the united states. they go to the middle east, to china, india. the airlines that are growing are going there. so, if you can see growth the tendency is to want to hire people and not to be unproductive but to fulfill demand. i think people need to see more certainty of demand. now, you know, i personally would say, would i like there to be more certainty on tax rate and health care policy? sure. i'd like to see all those things. but none of that's stopping me from investing. to a certain extent that's a crutch. >> what would it take to make bigger investments in the united states in manufacturing, in areas like that for companies? what would convince you to do it more? >> i think it's about having good, educated well trained work force which we have many times but still needs to be in place. having good, stable understanding of what tax policy is going to be. now, look, some states -- in the u.s. you have 50 different let's say ceos and you have different incentive packages and things like that. those are important, but they are rarely the single reason why people put factories anyplace. just certainty of education, certainly of tax policy. a well-trained work force. really, i personally think at the right wage level, $15, $20 an hour, lots of work could come back to the united states in manufacturing and be competitive with other parts of the world. >> tell me about the role of government. you travel around the world. you notice that south korea, china, the governments are active in promoting businesses, industry, sectors. you face this in the wind turbine business where clearly the chinese government is making a powerful push to get market share from general electric. do you wish that the united states government were more active? >> i believe in the american way, the american system. now, the government in the u.s. has always been a catalyst to drive growth. always. always. this is not president obama versus president bush or things like that. the nih has been a catalyst for the world's best health care system. the department of defense has spawned the internet, has spawned modern transportation technology for generations. the nuclear industry was built on the back of the department of defense. so for generations, more than a hundred years, the government has been a useful catalyst to drive this great capitalist system. so, number one, there is a role -- i think a small role -- to be played by the government in risk-taking and helping to evolve where we go, right? number one. number two, it just so happens that the biggest competitor in the world today has a system where the government fundamentally runs the play. i mean, i have been going to china since 1984. i get the five-year plan from the chinese government. i make our team digest them, study it and analyze it because they actually do it. so we now have a new competitor who runs a different play. and i have always been paranoid about competition. i think it's good for the united states to be paranoid about competition, to study and say, okay, a, do they have a way we should understand? b, how do we beat them, compete with them or what do they do? we need to be reflective. i'm not sure. i know what the right answers are for ge. i'm not sure i'm smart enough to figure it out for the entire country, but we have to recognize that competition has changed, that the biggest competitor plays the game in a very state-driven way, and we need to understand that. >> are you optimistic though that we will -- a lot of the problems you see that need to be fixed to get american employment up, to really transform the jobs situation, these are big changes, the long-term challenge, educational system, whole system of reforming the bureaucracy, getting much more deeply invested in infrastructure. we are not doing most of these things right now. are you confident we'll be able to do them? >> i'm optimistic and confident because i believe in the end our system works. i look at where we are today as a natural progression of economic crisis, anger, fear, anger, all that's kind of playing out. in the end, we've got to work together. in the end, we have to find ways to drive common solutions to bigger problems. i think that's true for the private sector, businesses working together. i think it's true between the public and the private sector. but ultimately there is a sense of teamwork that's very much a part of the american culture. there is a sense of partnership that's very much a part of the american culture that i think is -- will ultimately play out. >> my thanks to jeffrey immelt. you can see more of this interview with immelt and with the ceos of general motors, dow chemical and starwood hotels and senator hutchison of texas all on "restoring the american dream: getting back to work." that's my special airing tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern and pacific. there is a lot of talk in washington about fixing the unemployment problem. we'll tell you where we need action. quick ways to get people back to work. we'll be right back. [ indistinct talking on radio ] [ tires screech ] [ crying ] [ applause ] [ laughs ] [ tires screech ] [ male announcer ] your life will have to flash by even faster. autodrive brakes on the cadillac srx activate after rain is detected to help improve braking performance. we don't just make luxury cars. we make cadillacs. to help improve braking performance. it feels like help is never far away. it feels like you're protected against life's little mishaps. it feels like you'll make it home. that's what it feels like to be a member. the healthcare law gives us powerful tools to fight it... to investigate it... ...prosecute it... and stop criminals. our senior medicare patrol volunteers... are teaching seniors across the country... ...to stop, spot, and report fraud. you can help. guard your medicare card. don't give out your card number over the phone. call to report any suspected fraud. we're cracking down on medicare fraud. let's make medicare stronger for all of us. now for our "what in the world" segment. can you remember what explosive crisis america and the world was fixated on last summer? it wasn't the deficit, jobs or europe. it was an oil disaster. remember the bp spill? tons of crude gushing into the gulf of mexico? well, in the weeks and months that followed, there was a lot of discussion about how to make sure it didn't happen again. but what struck me this week is that we have a new dangerous drilling zone right on our doorstep. cuba. estimates suggest the island nation has reserves anywhere from 5 to 20 billion barrels of oil. the high end of the estimates puts cuba among the top dozen oil producers in the world. predictably there is a global scramble for havana. this chinese-constructed drilling rig is owned by an italian oil company and is on its way to cuban waters. norway, and india will use the rig to explore for oil. petro giants from brazil, venezuela, malaysia and vietnam are swooping in. of course we can't partake because we don't trade with cuba. but what about at least making sure there are some safety procedures that are followed that would protect the american coastline? you see at 5,500 feet below sea level these oil rigs off cuba will go even deeper than the "deepwater horizon" rig that blew up last year. the coast of florida is 60 miles away from cuban waters. what if there is another oil spill? will it be quick and ease stairway clean up? no. the nearest and best experts on safety procedures and dealing with oil spills are all american. but we are forbidden by our laws from being involved in any way with cuba. the trade embargo keeps us from doing business with our neighbor but also bars us from sending equipment and expertise to help in a crisis. if there is an explosion, we'll watch while the waters of the gulf coast get polluted. this is obviously a worst case hypothetical but is the danger we should plan for and one we can easily protect against if we were allowed to have dealings with cuba. this mess is an allegory for a larger problem. we imposed an embargo with cuba 52 years ago at the height of the cold war when we were worried about soviet expansion and the spread of communism. >> those are russian-made ballistic missiles. >> well, there is no more soviet union and i don't think there is a person in the world who believes america could be infected by cuban communism today. but the antique policies remain. antique policies designed to force regime change in cuba. well, the castros have thrived for five decades using american hostility as a badge of cuban nationalism. all the embargo has done is keep cuba impoverished and cut them off from the world. cuba has an internet penetration rate of 14%. only one out of seven people can use youtube. only one out of 20 cubans has a mobile phone. and now we will stand silently and watch as other countries drill for oil, reap the benefits and endanger our coastline. but, hey, we're making sure cuban communism stays contained. we'll be right back. introducing the schwab mobile app. it's schwab at your fingertips wherever, whenever you want. one log in lets you monitor all of your balances and transfer between accounts, so your money can move as fast as you do. check out your portfolio, track the market with live updates. and execute trades anywhere and anytime the inspiration hits you. even deposit checks right from your phone. just take a picture, hit deposit and you're done. open an account today and put schwab mobile to work for you. 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[ male announcer ] absolutely. many medicare advantage plans can give you doctor, hospital and prescription drug coverage all in one plan. remember, the annual enrollment period is earlier this year. call unitedhealthcare now or visit us online to get this free answer guide from unitedhealthcare medicare solutions. call right now. hello, everyone. i'm fredricka whitfield with a check of the top stories. the lawyer for two american men locked up in iran says a bureaucratic hurdle stands in the way of their freedom. josh fattal and shane bauer were convicted on spying charges after straying across the iranian border two years ago. their bail has reportedly been paid, but a judge who must sign off on their release is on vacation until tuesday. investigators may have found clues that could help them figure out what caused that deadly plane crash at an air race in reno, nevada. they have recovered parts from the plane's tail. it's believed a damaged part called an elevator trim tab may have played a part. the death toll is at nine. gop candidate ron paul scores a victory in a delegate-rich state. the texas congressman won california's republican straw poll. he captured nearly 45% of the vote, far ahead of rick perry and mitt romney, who finished second and third respectively. i'll be back with more news at the top of the hour. back to more of "fareed zakaria: gps." it's been a tired few days in the middle east. an egyptian mob burned cairo. ambassadors to egypt and turkey have been forced out and the arab world is coalescing around proposals to vote for palestinian statehood in new york this week. joining me now to make sense of all this, four experts. elliot abrams held top foreign policy positions under presidents reagan and george w. bush. rashid khalidi is an american historian who teaches at columbia university. bret stephens is the foreign affairs columnist for "the wall street journal." welcome. rashid, what is the strategy here that the palestinians hope to accomplish? because the u.s. is going to veto any kind of palestinian statehood in the security council, which is the only place where they can get it. so what's the point of going through this exercise? >> it's true that there will not be a palestinian state member of the united nations process at the end of this process because of the united states veto, if they go for that. i don't think it's clear what their strategy is. it may be changing. they are under enormous pressure not to go ahead. i should say that nothing they do will change the reality on the ground. the occupation will continue, settlement will continue. the united states will be an obstacle to any sound, peaceful, just resolution of the conflict. but it may change the diplomatic atmosphere. i think this may be the most important result. it's going to lead to severe sanctions against the palestinians, very likely by our congress and unquestionably by israel should some kind of statehood resolution pass. even observer status of a palestinian. >> is it a mistake? >> i myself think this is not going to advance palestinian statehood. but if it ends the illusion among palestinians that the united states is going to help facilitate real self-determination for the palestinian people, it's probably not a bad thing. >> brett, what about the issue of what it does to israel? you will have the spectacle in the general assembly where the vast majority of countries in the general assembly will vote with the palestinians and against israel. you will probably have a handful of countries voting with israel. does that matter, do you think? >> israel is used to being in the minority in the united nations. it has been for a long time. i think your question gets to the heart of the palestinian gambit is all about, which isn't trying to achieve any kind of genuine state tood. it's another tool in an arsenal to delegitimize israel. president abbas wrote an op-ed a few months ago in "the new york times" in which he spelled out that the goal or one of the goals of this declaration is to expand the ambit with which palestinians can make claims against israelis including in the international criminal court. one reason that israelis and particularly the israeli military fears what the palestinians are now doing is they fear that their generals and officers will find themselves being arrested when they set foot in germany, france, the uk, you name it, because there is a particular lawsuit pending against them. so it contributes in the israelis' eyes to efforts by the palestinians to ostracize not only in the court of public opinion but in the international courts. >> i think that's going too far, brett. i think it's a dumb move but it's not purely an anti-israel move. it's an attempt to get something going off the dime. it's a dumb way to do that, and it's not going to work. but the palestinians are facing a situation in which the israels haven't been forthcoming in doing anything to move the situation because they're more satisfied with the status quo. the real question is how can everybody get the parties talking to each other rather than doing stupid demonstration acts that don't advance negotiations. >> i think you're too kind to the palestinian leadership. there is no great demand on the part of the palestinian people that he go to new york. in fact, there are a lot of doubts amongst most palestinians, according to polls. i think you have to ask why is president abbas doing this personally. what is it about him that leads him to do this? he is a decreasingly legitimate president. he hasn't held an election. he keeps kicking off elections. he has said he's going to retire. he is the man who lost gaza. this is about some symbolic victories for mahmoud abbas as an individual. it's going to hurt palestinians. it may help him in the history books in some ways. >> the point you were making, do you sense that you're seeing this stuff in london where the israeli orchestra was playing and there was an effort to delegitimize it. it contributes to the feeling. tom freeman said netanyahu can address congress and he'll get a standing ovation. but he'd get that if he read the phone book. >> a captive assembly in front of congress, yes. >> the point was could he do it at any american university campus, any western university campus? >> no. >> there is a sense that israel is under siege. >> it's under siege and it develops a bunker mentality, which makes it take further actions which don't lead to progress. the tragedy of the situation is everyone knows what it should be at the end of the day -- two states for two peoples, but the local parties aren't willing on either side to make the full compromises necessary, and the united states is too self-absorbed or unable to move them forward. the situation persists and goes backward. it's just like watching a train wreck. >> in a sense what's happening is symptomatic of the broader problems of the middle east, the fecklessness of the palestinian maneuver at the u.n., a lack of progress on -- towards any kind of resolution just tells you that this is a conflict that's in stay tis. it's going to remain there for a very long time. broad and important things are happening throughout the rest of the middle east. if i were the prime minister of israel, the least of my concerns would be what happens at turtle bay in the next few days. my real concerns are the future of the relationship with egypt, particularly the matter of the sinai, and the depressing turn of events with turkey. >> aren't they related? that is to say, the turks and egyptian rsz responding -- in both cases, the turkish republic and the egyptian public, that wants the governments to be anti-israel because of palestinians. >> that's part of it. part of it is that the delegitimization is from turkish actions. all that was required was an apology for the murder of turkish citizens. activists, whatever they may have done on that boat. apology. it may have prevented the burning of the embassy. would have been an immediate policy for the deaths of five egyptian soldiers. whatever they want to say beyond that. that's all that would have been necessary. >> just to finish, the other thing is, yes, popular sovereignty is gaining ground many the middle east. turkey is now more democratic than it's been for a long time. egypt hopefully will be. that's something that if israel is wise they will come to terms with it. >> we'll come back in a moment. it feels like help is never far away. it feels like you're protected against life's little mishaps. it feels like you'll make it home. that's what it feels like to be a member. what makes us number one in motorcycle insurance? we love bikes. we love riders. and most of all, we love to ride. perfect hair every time. leading the pack in motorcycle insurance. now, that's progressive. call or click today. and we are back with rashid rashid khalidi, bret stephens, gideon rose, talking about the middle east. elliot, we were talking about popular sovereignty and the middle east. i remember a piece you wrote in the weekly standard, which said first tripoli, then ramallah. you were castigating the obama administration for wanting democracy in every part of the arab world except the palestinian territories. i'm wondering, after you watch what a more democratic turkey's foreign policy is, after you watch what a more democratic egyptian foreign policy is, after you watch what perhaps a new libyan foreign policy will be toward the united states and toward israel, which i know you worry about, maybe it's not such a good idea to have democracy in the palestinian territories. >> well, i think it is. it's the lack of legitimacy and democracy that leads someone like abbas to do something stupid in new york. he's better off holding an election. he was not forced to do this. i think the leadership question is critical here for turkey as well. this is why i disagree with rashid. i remember when he wept to davos and for no reason at all attacked shimon peres. he has a policy. he has a plan. the people of turkey are not demanding he impose a hugely anti-israel policy and threaten war in the mediterranean. he's leading turkey that way. that's not turkish democracy. that's errjuan. >> i was there as well when he went back at 4:00 a.m. he had 100,000 people in the airport waiting to besiege him with cheers of joy. >> it works. he's an irresponsible and dangerous leader. that's the problem. >> when we don't like the outcomes it's demagogue and when we do it's democracy? no. >> egypt, libya, a story in "the new york times" this week about libya. is this now something we are going to have to worry about? everyone says about them in both egypt and libya, not a majority but probably the most organized force. are we likely to see a newer foreign policy? >> we are likely to see a new form of activism by islamists who are able to come above ground now that these kinds of regimes have disappeared. and we will see how that -- >> should we worry about it? >> we'll see how these people operate in the new hopefully more democratic political climate. >> this is tv. >> we should worry about behavior, not the character or religion of the groups involved. the key is to set up clear red lines for what kind of absolutely impermissible behavior -- violence, complete suppression of minority rights locally. those are things we should make local parties pay penalties for, but other than that we should let the natural messy democratic politics play out while trying to do what we can to make it benign. >> to it benign. >> to gideon's point, the near sacking of the israeli embassy in cairo, wasn't the islamists involved, it was soccer h hooligans of no religious description. it does get at a real problem in egypt, you a well-organized islamist movement, partly muslim brotherhood, partly other groups, a weakly organized and intellectually incoherent secular movement. the group capable of deposing mubarak in tahrir square earlier this year, has no real political agenda, except to get on the bandwagon of being -- or organization. >> of getting on the bandwagon of being the hate israel gang in egypt. that's a problem all of these countries are going to confront. as the aide said, the best lack all conviction. >> hate israel -- you don't kill five israeli soldiers and create the kind of reaction you got. i'm sorry, five egyptian soldiers. >> a number of israelis were killed -- >> i understand. >> come back to these issue. i heard a talk you gave about the aran spring and you were quite pessimistic about what was going to happen. why -- you spent 25 years promoting democracy everywhere from the reagan administration downward. are you worried -- you must be worried in the arab world it's not working out? >> of course i worry. we all have to worry as we watch islamist groups and extremist groups come out from under and try to make their case. but the ante dote has to be democracy too. the ante dote has to be to make the argument, not for us, for people in those countries, to make the argument this is a dead end. this is wrong. this is not the kind of islam we want in this country. whether it's egypt or libya. we cannot ultimately, i think we found this out in the arab spring, suppression will not work forever. there's got to be an argument within the islamic world, particularly within the arab world, about what kind of societies they want. it will be a bumpy rite ride. we're going to need to do things like help protect our ally in israel from what may be the kind of thing we're seeing in turkey which is just trouble making. but this is a reminder, by the way, this is not about palestine, egyptians have had several wars with israel. egyptians have had a negative view toward islam. nothing to do with palestine. the notion if you prove conditions on the ground in the west bank the egyptians will say it's fine. i think it's -- this is a long difficult path ahead. >> you, obviously, disagree. you think attacking the palestinian issue will diffuse some of the an it ti israeli sentiment in the arab world. >> absolutely whatsoever in most countries, certainly in the arab world, israeli treatment of palestinians as seen on television and the press and seen more as there is a freer press, is a central issue in feelings about israel. not hate israel. you kill egyptian soldiers and increase the thing. there is a base level of concern about palestine. you can see that of the waving of palestine flags in tahrir square. at the time of the gaza and lebanon war. you have to look at what's happening. >> having solved the israeli/palestinian issue we will be back. thank you all. my doctor told me calcium is best absorbed in small continuous amounts. only one calcium supplement does that in one daily dose. citracal slow release... continuously releases calcium plus d for the efficient absorption my body needs. citracal. ♪ whoa! hey! 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[ male announcer ] introducing cadillac shield. the most comprehensive suite of owner benefits offered by any luxury auto maker in the world. if something is simply the color of gold, is it really worth more? we don't think so. chase sapphire preferred is a card of a different color. unlike others, you get twice the points on travel, and twice the points on dining, and no foreign transaction fees. call now or apply at chasesapphire.com/preferred. french president nicolas sarkozy and british prime minister david cameron traveled to libya to meet with leaders of the national transitional council. our question of the week, the gps challenge which is, before david cameron who was the last british prime minister to visit libya. was it a, william gladstone in 1893, b, winston churchhill in 1943, c, margaret thatcher in 1980 or d, tony blair in 2004? stay tuned and we'll tell you the correct answer. make sure you go to cnn.com/gps to try your hand at the full gps challenge. while you're there check out our website, the global public square. it is terrific. you'll find fresh content every day about the world we all live in. don't forget follow us on twitter and facebook. this week's book of the week might seem like a bit of a departure for me titled a "a jane austin education how sticks novels taught me about love, friendship and the things that matter." no, you don't have to have read jane austin. this is a fascinating beautifully written book. it tells us what we can learn about real life from great literature. for the last look. one of the recurring themes you might have noticed from watching "gps" we look at places where the united states has fallen behind. america's 15-year-olds are ranked 19th in science and 24th in math. and we talk about ways to bring us back to number one. innovation, reform of government, et cetera. there is a new survey out there that should put an extra spring in the step of all those americans who are getting depressed. it turns out we are back on top. we beat france. we beat italy. ♪ we beat spain. ♪ we beat brazil. ♪ so what's the category? the category is cool. social network asked 30,000 people from 15 countries what is the coolest nationality? and we came out number one. congrats, america. by the way, belgium, you finished dead last. the correct answer to our "gps" challenge question, d, tony blair went to libya in 2004 to make the deal in the desert with colonel gadhafi, part of libya's normalization of relations with the west. go to our website for more gps challenge. if you want to know how we're going to solve this jobs crisis don't miss the special "restoring the american dream, getting back to work" tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern and pacific here on cnn. i'll talk to america's leaders about how to create jobs. thanks to all of you for being part of the program. i will see you next week.