panetta brought to the post and still does is the fact he hadn t spent time running the c.i.a. in countries like iran where intelligence is scarce, and we re looking at turmoil in syria as well, especially with russia getting involved by bringing in assets, that s something that he doesn t have. so what do you think chuck hagel would bring? what will be president obama s argument to congress in terms of these hearings that chuck hagel uniquely can bring to that post? at one point it was thought that what president obama was seeking was a republican who could help sell difficult defense budget cuts to fellow republicans but that s gone by the boards. i don t see any visible evidence of republican support for their former colleague in the senate. and one of the things that s awkward about this is that we
he also offered up this peace plan of sorts, some kind of negotiations with the cease-fire. essentially it s the same thing he s offered in the past. it s important to note he s giving russians diplomatic fire power. you guys wanted me to talk about having a new government. i m happy to talk about it and give the rebels a chance to pass, which they did. it s important to look at the optics. a cheering crowd in damascus at the opera hall and it was given live on states television and meant to rally the troops, especially the are regime royals. they control much of syria in the army and air force. rebels said this was a disgrace and they have no interest in talking while president assad is
figure out, we can do this but you re going to have to cut somewhere, otherwise we re just adding to the 1 1 the 16..4 krill ar16..4 trillion. reporter: there are people who say we need to do this, and others say we need to look at bills to make sure they are not putting through a lot of pork spending. bill: we ll see you at 6:00, okay. reporter: yeah. bill: plenty to cover later tonight. heather: how much does that jet to hawaii cost? just wondering. well intense fighting raging in syria around a strategic air base in the country s north. take a look. [sound of gunfire] heather: you re looking at amateur video said to be of the attack. we cannot confirm the images, but rebels have been attacking airports and military airfields
trying to weaken the government s air power, which poses their biggest threat. the escalating violence now raising serious concerns about israel s security. leland vittert is in go land heights, an area between israel and syria. are the rebels making any gains? reporter: right now so far there is a lot of bang, bang, that s what we are seeing in the video the rebels are posting online. not a lot of strategic games. the rebels are tries trying to lay siege to three to four regime air bases in the north that are used to bomb rebel position and also resupply government troops. these one of the things the rebels are trying to deny. the government forces are hitting back and so far have repullsed these rebels in each one of the instances. the thing to note when you re watching the video is how much better armed the rebels are because they ve stolen weapons from the government cases
they ve taken over before and who the fighters are is increasing a lot of concern around the middle east and the world. as we re learning the best fighter inside of syria are the al-qaida syndicate groups, al-qaida traders in iraq or the jihaddists, foreign fighters brought in to build an islamic state inside syria. heather. heather: we understand that israel is worried about their border. reporter: absolutely for 40 years the syrian israeli border has been very quiet and they counted on bashar al-assad to keep it that way. now there is serious concerns about these militants who are inside syria, particularly the al-qaida syndicate groups, the other jihaddists turning their focus from syria towards israel. israel is now building an immense fence that is about 12 feet small, steel reinforced lattice all along the syrian border to try to get ahead of these by the time the militants may end up winning inside of