189. as i said, more than 100 still unaccounted for. meantime, south korea s prime minister is resigning, saying he takes responsibility for what he called an inadequate response to the disaster. [ sirens ] sirens across israel, marking holocaust remembrance day with ceremonies and events remembering the 6 million jews and others killed in german death camps and beyond during world war ii. the names of the victims will be read today at the israeli kness knesset, a day after president mahmoud abbas acknowledged the holocaust as the most heinous crime in modern history, strong language from the palestinian leader. still, israeli leader benjamin netanyahu said abbas can t embrace history at the same time as he, in his words, works with those who deny the holocaust
ron, thank you. want to bring in chuck todd now. so if the president s conversation with the palestinian leader abbas, if that fails tonight, if the behind-the-scenes arm-twisting fails tonight and there does have to become this veto of a vote on palestinian statehood, what would the political consequences be here, and what would they be abroad? well, i think the worry is more about the abroad. but the white house is a little bit concerned that when they added this meeting with abbas that it was somehow going to raise expectations that president obama could somehow talk, walk this back, get abbas to walk this back. ron brought up the domestic political problems that netanyahu has to deal with and why he s got to say what he s got to say internationally. abbas has the same issue actually. abbas can t back down. if he backs down, he threw it out there, if he backs down. in an odd way, at this point the u.s. is going to be hoping to explain to abbas that they re going to slow walk thi
was a similar effort in the final months of the clinton administration back in 2000. so it s not unusual. right now it doesn t look like there are a whole lot of partners out will. not a lot of trust. israelis did have a relationship with abbas, but now that hamas has forged this agreement to have this unity, israelis don t trust them by any mean, u.s. as you know regards hamas as a terrorist organization. so it doesn t look like the president if he s trying to revive the israeli palestinian peace process right now, there it s not a whole lot of confidence that they have in him and probably he doesn t have a whole lot of confidence in them either. so i assume we ll hear some generic, some general phrases, but not a specific presidential plan, full, a blif you will. i want to play a bit of an
administrations. if mr. netanyahu won t give and mr. abbas can t or won t give, why should the president invest himself? why can t the president say let s get roughly to the 1967 borders. that s where they were at camp david at the end of the clinton days. prime minister barak said i can t give you that. they got to close and it collapsed. now the president s having the conversations with so much else happening in the region. that would be kind of the middle ground, wouldn t it? sort of just between being very vague and general and being very specific. at least you say, okay, here s the starting point. we ll hear if he says, suzanne and hala, we ll hear from the president of the united states refers to those 1967 lines that the israelis have. that will be a significant statement if in fact he does, although that s been the long standing u.s. policy going back basically to 1967. suzanne, we re only a few minutes away. the president s over at the state department now. the secretary o
about 40 minutes from now. we re taking a look at live pictures showing you there the flag set up, the podium set up, waiting for the president to be speaking. that will be happening momentarily. now, of course we re taking a look at how the events a world away impact your security, our standing in the world. we ve got a few details ahead of the speech. the president is expected to say that the post-bin laden area is a time to reject terror and extremist views. the president will emphasize that the united states doesn t take a one size fits all approach to change in the region. and he s going to announce $2 billion in aid to help egyptian democracy take root. a tape was released that is bin laden speaking just days after his death. the speaker expresses support for the revolutionary change in the arab world. if. former imf chief dominique strauss-kahn will ask a new york judge to release him on bail. that s happening today. he is offering $1 million cash to be confined at