attorney general wants tech giants to flag you. the lead starts right now. attorney general merrick garland grilled on capitol hill today from classified documents to abortion rights, fentanyl to rising crime. the wide-ranging topics have put garland on the spot. and five close calls in 2023 and it s only march 1st. the latest, a private plane came 565 feet from a jetblue flight loaded with passengers at boston logan. are these frightening encounters happening more often or just being reported more often? plus, protests turning violent. the faceoff between police and anti-netanyahu demonstrators in israel as crowds there call for a national day of disruption. welcome to the lead, i m jake tapper. we start with two high-profile hearings in capitol hill. one room joe biden sen battled pick to lead embattled pick to lead the administration finally had a confirmation hearing after being picked nearly eight months ago. republicans pressed phil washington, a 24-year a
he s saying that israel needs to get rid of this palestinian town. that sounds an awful lot like ethnic cleansing. has netanyahu said anything about this? reporter: netanyahu has not directly addressed the statements. the former prime minister now opposition leader lari apeed called it an incit. to a war crime. he was responding to why he liked a tweet that said the same thing, and he essentially repeated himself. afterwards he tried to issue some i don t know if i can call it a clarification saying i did not mean that we should by out the village, only to act in a targeted manner against the terrorists and supporters of terrorism and to exact heavy price from them in order to restore security to the residents of the area. the reason being hawara is often a flashpoint city where there is violence between israeli settlers and palestinians. this comment specifically is getting a harsh reaction including from the u.s. state department. take a listen.