more fish. this is piers morgan tonight. good evening. we begin as we do every night with the big story. it s a very real threat of a war between iran and israel, one washington is desperately trying to avoid. no matter who wins the election in november, the president will have to face the reality that this country s closest ally in the middle east may be on the verge of attacking the islamic republic. the consequences could be catastrophic but is it too late to stop? joining me now is defense minister and former prime minister ehud barak. and a friend of the show. thank you for coming back, sir. you re here because tomorrow you go to washington to see defense secretary leon panetta on funding for a missile defense system for israel. this puts the whole atmosphere about israel s security to the central political fore right now and key issue is iran. everyone says it s a tale of two barack obama and ehud barak. you are the key figure who is keenest on taking military act
about what was really in the budget. so they wasted time writing something and then voting on something that absolutely nobody ever wanted. so what are we, the people supposed to say? hey, at least they agree on something like not having a functioning government? no, no, this was a fail. it s fails like this that send the americans hurtling closer o instingz. we cling to hope about a very special lunch that happened today where something may have gotten done to help our country avoid it. the president bought hoagies for himself and the other men needed to get a deal done, house speaker john boehner. the president brought the hoagies home to the white house. i guess did they cut it in half? brought it back to the white house and the two met in private to talk debt. the debt crisis is worse every single day in this country, and the battle over raising the debt ceiling is in full swing. it s going to happen again this year. remember the last time, we lost our credit rating. fr
powell quite a while ago. he said all the governments in egypt around the middle east have different names. some are called monarchies, some are called baathists. he said if you go to see gadhafi in libya or syria, and here you have gamel mubarak. all they want is their chosen son to be their successor. that s all they think about. exactly. they coined words for that in the arab world called the republican monarchist. now there s not so many coups and revolutions on the part of the military, we thought he would see a new decade of transition of power to the son. we thought we would see that in iraq, in yemen, and again in
of what the new government will be composed of and what the directions and reform that it might declare. so i think it is better not to speculate. when is next in line though? and i don t know if this is going to happen. no one knows. if president mubarak were forced to step down, leave office. who is next in line? who would take over? again, that s rather speculative. in terms of our constitution, the constitution clearly defines in that case the president is unable to undertake his responsibilities, the speaker of parliament undertakes that responsibility until elections are conducted in the span of 60 days. again, this is a matter of constitutional law. and one fugitiinal question. do you know the whereabouts of president mubarak s wife and son? i have no direct knowledge. although gamel was part of the national democratic party s main
i don t think there s a problem with that. i think that our core goals here, and, again, i m not a representative on behalf of the mosque. i m with the muslim public affairs council. but this is part of a bigger issue of people looking at mosques as potential threats, when in reality, they re just houses of worship alongside synagogues and churches and they should be treated that way. you know, these are peaceful people who are looking for a place to worship. and the organizers behind this project have nothing but goodwill to offer and want to be part of the fabric of new york. and i think that s why this project should go forward. and i think that people who were against it, you knower should be a part of the process. and should be guests in that mosque, just like everybody else. i know this mosque will have its doors open. edina, we tried to be a part of process. we tried we met with the imam. we met with the gamel brothers, and they lied to us. when we questioned them about the mo