headquarters in new york. breaking right now, we're waiting for the first news conference from the brand new speaker of the house, mike johnson. he won with a slim majority from the republicans but they were lined up this time around, which we have not seen in the prior three rounds. this happened three weeks after they ousted former speaker, kevin mccarthy. >> this is a beautiful country. it's the beauty of america that allows a firefighter's kid like me to come here and serve in this sacred chamber where great men and women have served before all of us and strive together to build and preserve what lincoln referred to as the last best hope on earth. >> martha: we'll hear from mr. johnson about what he plans to do as he takes on this very big role in the united states government. also, on the other front, a very big afternoon as president biden spoke today, he spoke quite briefly actually, in a news conference that everybody was waiting all day for about what we now know have been attacks on u.s. troops in the middle east. we've been getting trickling in and out information on what has happened to our service members. he had a message for iran. we're going through that message. raised some questions in terms of how this president would respond to these attacks. we'll talk about that in just a moment. here's a look at our bases in iraq an syria. there's 19 u.s. bases where our service members are in the middle east. these are the two places that have been hit already with drone and rocket strikes. more than 20 injuries. that number has been moving up and down lately. but 20 that we can confirm. we are told that they were not life threatening and that those service members have returned to duty. nonetheless, attacks on these two bases that are serious. mike tobin is on the ground. trace gallagher joins us from jerusalem and former centcom commander david petraeus standing by in just moments. mike johnson, the new speaker of the house is speaking a little bit as he comes down the steps. we expect to hear from him in a more formal manner moments away. let's watch this play out. >> on behalf of the house republican conference, we're unified and so proud to have elected mike johnson as speaker of the people's house. as many of you heard, i meant every word that i said on the house floor. i've had the opportunity to work with mike johnson and so humbled and honored to nominate him. he epitomizes leadership. he's humble, strong, well-respected not only across this conference but across this great neighbors. we know the stakes. we know we were sent here on behalf of the american people to serve as their voice, to stand up for them, to push back on the failed far left agenda of single party democrat rule led by joe biden. we're here unified in strength to reopen the people's house. so excited to hand it over to our whip, from minnesota. >> thanks, lease. good afternoon. good afternoon, everyone. thanks for bearing with us. the last few weeks probably looked like total chaos, confusion. no end in sight. from my perspective, this is one of the greatest experiences in recent history of our republic. while speakers races have been conducted behind close doors filled with political promises and threats against anyone that would not fall in line, the speaker's race under the house's majority have been open, honest, transparent. it took awhile for us to get here, but our conference has shown that we achieved tremendous success when we work together as a team. i couldn't be more proud to be part of this team with our new speaker of the house, mike johnson leading the way. [applause] mike is a strong man of faith and a strong fighter for a common sense agenda. he's defended americans individual liberties while fighting back against the democrats' radical agenda and the biden family's culture of corruption. he's been an important leader in our conference three years as vice chairman and as speaker, i know mike will keep our majority united as we continue to deliver on the commitments we made to our constituents. we've had some challenging times around here the last few weeks but our country has endured challenging times before. i have zero doubt that we will again. not only will we survive, we'll come out stronger and better because of it and the american people can be rest assured that with speaker mike johnson at the helm, our house republican majority will keep fighting to unapologetically stand with israel, reign in washington's reckless spending, secure our border and force the biden white house and schumer senate along with us as we govern. [applause] if these last few weeks have proven anything, we will never give up. i firmly believe that with house republicans now united and ready to get back to work as our new speaker-elect said, our best days lie ahead. with that, i'm going to introduce the other legend from louisiana, our majority leader, steve scalise. >> thank you, whip. this is a great day. a day that's been coming a long time. you know, if you think about what has happened the last three weeks, woil a lot of people outside of washington talk about dysfunction, this great group of men and women behind me have been talking about how to fix what is broken in washington. hasn't that discussion become coming for way too long? that's what the last three weeks have been about. that's what we've been struggling through. that's what we've been working towards and we resolved it today by electing mike johnson as our next speaker. what mike laid out is a vision. it wasn't just core principles that he talked about. but a vision for not just how to get the house back operating but how to get washington working better. how we fix this broken institution. how symbolic. mike talked in the house chamber about the symbolism of the house chamber, moses, in god we trust above the speaker's rostrum. so many symbols, washington, lafayette, the history of the great battles, passing the 13th amendment in that chamber. if you look out at this capitol dome that serves as a beacon to those around the world, the last three weeks, the statute of freedom was covered in scaffolding like we've been doing construction to fix this broken institution. how symbolic that the scaffolding is coming down as we elected a new speaker to fix this institution that has had problems for decades that needed to be addressed and went ignored way too long. i have seen this man in action since i was a state representative. for those people that don't know mike johnson, maybe they're looking to google, maybe they're looking to other places. those of us that have known mike johnson a long time and i've known him longer than most, i have seen a commitment, a self-service commitment to things bigger than himself going back to my days in the state house and when he came to congress, those same principles followed him. his belief, his faith that drives him so deeply that some mock him for. those are the principles that make this country so great. those are the principles that cause people that believe in freedom around the world to look up at that statue as a beacon of home for all around the world and what mike johnson will do for us and our country, getting us back on track, we are just getting started. but people are going to come to know and love what he represents because he fights for things bigger than himself. people have been ignored for way too long. it's my great privilege to introduce the 45th speaker of the house, my dear friend, mike johnson, the speaker. [applause] >> thank you, steve and tom. elise. this is an extraordinary team that has been assembled to serve the american people. steve scalise represented so much in louisiana. one of the things he represents is perseverance and hope. i was reminded of a scripture that says character produces hope. what we need is hope. people have lost their faith in our institutions, their faith is at an all-time low. one of the reasons they have lost it is because congress over the years has not delivered for the american people well enough. we're in the majority right now. we've gone through a little bit of suffering. we've gone through a little bit of character building. you know what its produced? more strength, more perseverance and a lot of hope. that's what we're about to deliver to the american people. [applause] we're going to speak with clarity and conviction and consistence to the american people. we're going to tell them what we're for, what agenda we're pursuing and why it's best for every american. why it will give them more liberty and opportunity. we'll speak to that clearly and act consistently. we're going to exhibit trust and teamwork, this group will deliver for the american people. i said it in the chamber and i'll say it here. we're going to govern well. i think the people will be very pleased with those results. we're so grateful. i'm so grateful and so humble to have gotten a unanimous vote on the floor by my colleagues here. [applause] we went through a lot to get here. we are ready to govern. that will begin right away. you've heard me talk a lot today and i'm not going to belabor the point. the sun is bright and it's too warm for the fall. we're going to suspend with the celebrations that follow a speakership. we have no time for either one. the american's people's business is too urgent in this moment. the hour is late, the crisis is great and america, we hear you. we are reporting again as i said in there to our duty stations that will begin in just a few moments. this entire group is going back to the house floor and we're going to pass our resolution in support for the nation of israel, our closest ally in the middle east. [applause] you're going to see an aggressive schedule in the days and weeks ahead. you'll see congress working as hard as they have ever worked and we're going to deliver. i want to thank you for being patient with us and i promise you it will be worth it. god bless you. let's go to work. >> martha: okay. important moment obviously for mike johnson of louisiana who is now the speaker of the house. he has talked a lot about history, about the magnitude of this moment for him. he's the first college graduate in his family. he talked about on the first day as a member of congress he was mourning the loss of his father just a few days prior. he talked about moses, the image of moses in the house of representatives and the long road it's taken to get here the last few weeks. finally republicans settled on mike johnson from louisiana. he said we're going back in, we're going to get to work and they're going to pass a resolution of support for israel. let's go live to our senior congressional correspondent, chad pergram who has watched this rocky process that has been resolved this afternoon. hi, chad. >> well chaos of order and order out of chaos. that's where they are right now. mike johnson is the 56th speaker of the house. they're going to vote on legislation a resolution to support israel. the first time they'll have a vote on something either than speaker of the house, which they voted on four times over the past couple of weeks. this is what members of congress wanted to get back to. this is an important moment to have the house getting back into session. the next question is whether or not they can fund the government. chuck schumer, the majority leader in the senate, he just commented a few minutes ago that he doesn't really know mike johnson, but he looks forward to sitting down and talking with him and trying to avoid a government shut down in about three 1/2 weeks. that's going to be the first really big order of business. the other thing that he's going to have to teal with is how they wrestle with this aid package that president biden sent to capitol hill to fund israel and also to fund ukraine. mike johnson, if you look at the current leadership team and kevin mccarthy, all of them had supported aid packages to israel. that's something that if you look at the voting record of speaker johnson, he's not supported in the past. there's going to be some disconnect how they handle that. the other issue is what is his relationship with hakeem jeffries. there's no love lost between the two californians, nancy pelosi and former house speaker kevin mccarthy. mike johnson and hakeem jeffries, they know each other a little bit because they serve on the judiciary committee together. beyond that, let's see what that looks like. the other thing we're looking for here, we might have mike johnson come right past this hallway if you're seeing the sprinting around here. they've been speaking outside. they're going to have votes on the house floor if the new speaker comes through here, the second speaker this year. third speakfer you include the 2 1/2 days that nancy pelosi was speaker earlier this year. we'll try to grab him. that is the charge facing mike johnson right now. i spoke to a senior aid a couple moments ago. i said what changes? they said well, nothing. meaning the math. we talked ad nauseam about the math and the importance of selecting a speaker of the house. they could never get that balance. the math does not change as they proceed the rest of this congress. they still only have that four-seat margin. that's going to make it very challenging keep all of their members together. we really don't know much about mike johnson's prowess to whip a vote, to get people to come together. he certainly was able to get all republicans to come together on this vote today. i tell you when it comes to legislation, that's another story. >> martha: it's a heavy left. that's a start for mike johnson as he looks for momentum in his new job. thanks, chad. chad pergram reporting live on this. he's carried us through the process the last few weeks as they have tried to get to this point. the fourth effort was the charm. president biden weighing in on the new speaker, mike johnson, with this statement from the white house. it says in part, as i said, when this process began, whoever is speaker is, i will seek to work with them in good faith on behalf of the american people. we need to move swiftly to address national security needs and avoid a shut down in 22 days. let's bring in "special report" anchor bret baier. good to have you with us this afternoon. this has taken awhile. do you think this is something that the american people will dwell on or will they get to know mike johnson and move along here? >> well, martha, good afternoon. i think it matter what's they get done quickly. if they can figure out how to deal with as chad mentioned the math, this one member vacating deal. that will be changed in the rules quickly because there is this level of exhaustion and embarrassment with this process. in that statement by president biden at the end, it says even though we have real disagreements about important issues, there should be mutual effort to find common ground wherever we can. that is how the new speaker started his speech accepting the gavel inside the house chamber. that would be quite something if they can figure that out. there's 22 days before house government shutdown possibility and the president is giving -- putting forward $106 billion in this national security funding for israel, for ukraine, for taiwan and u.s. southern border funding. that will be a difficult lift on all of those things. something that will have to be dealt with pretty quickly. >> martha: one of the things that is a hot to the pick on social media is how maga is or isn't mike johnson. it's interesting to note that matt gaetz that threw the chess board in the air and got this started is coming out and calling him maga mike johnson and saying how basically that he was able to engineer a far more conservative leader than kevin mccarthy was. looks like there's no love lost. there's been no repair in that relationship for sure. how does he navigate that question of how conservative he is, whether or not he can bring republicans together on these issues as they move forward, bret? >> it's a good question. obviously former president trump endorsed him an congratulated him this afternoon. by the way, the former president was getting sanctions in the courthouse. i'm sure you'll cover that later on. it was a moment that he has a closed a lie of the former president. he's at least talking in the opening speech about figuring out how to get all of the conference together. remember, the mast doesn't change. they still have this tight majority and they need to figure out how to get things that they can get done and pass. and there are some democrats that would like to get some of those big things done, especially in the coming weeks. >> ben doniche says he's an ultra social conservative and this will bring an end to the house's support for the ukraine war. as you point out, bret, that bill request from president biden of $106 billion will be front and center. something that they have to deal with soon. >> i'm not sure you can make that statement as of yet. i get a sense that speaker johnson will find consensus. there's a large portion of the conference that still supports the effort on the ground in ukraine despite push back from the republicans. >> martha: we'll see where this goes. as you said, he has to deal with the fact that he has a slim majority and he was in the fourth round to become speaker so he's going to have to figure out a way to herd the cats in his republican party and try the get something done here. bret, thanks very much. good to have you. we'll see you tonight at 6:00 on "special report." with that, we bring in karl rove, former deputy chief of staff to george w. bush. good to have you here. what is your assessment of the new speaker, mike johnson. we just heard from him. it was a humble speech, i'd say, one that put history before him and reverence for the office that he holds now. what do you expect given what everybody is saying about him so far? >> well, it's a gigantic test. he comes with less experience than any speaker i believe except the first speaker of the house who had no predecessors. it's a big challenge for him. he won't have a lot of time to get ready. think about this. he has three weeks to write a budget for fiscal year 2024. remember, what kicked this off is when matt gaetz decided he would shut the government down. give it six weeks to work out a budget for next year and he wanted to shut down the government. is he going to be so forgiving if speaker johnson now says i need more time to work out the budget for next year. so we need a longer continuing resolution. israel, funding for israel, funding for ukraine. i think bret was absolutely right. there's a significant sentiment on the republican side to aid ukraine. if he were to take an ultra maga position, the matt gaetz position, cut off ukraine right away, you'd see a discharge petition signed by over 218 republicans and democrats saying we want to bring this measure to the florida. he has delegate negotiation there. immigration, a major issue. think about this. he's got to have the ultimate responsibility for raising the hundreds of millions that republican house members will need in order to keep their majority next year. he's campaign is in northwest louisiana. he represents shreveport and most of the western edge of louisiana. his campaigns typically are 1.5 million. so recruiting good candidates and raising the money the keep the narrow republican majority is a big job for him and he has to begin right away. >> martha: that's exactly the place i wanted to go with you, karl. kevin mccarthy worked very hard across the country to try to get what he thought before the mid-terms in 2022 was going to be 25, 27 seats. that's what you were hoping for as well. he fell far short of that with a four-seat majority. so if they want to achieve any of the things that mike johnson just talked about in terms of cutting spending -- there are some indications that he wants to do a c.r. and get through to january on this. we'll see where it goes. can he be that muscle around the country to win a bigger majority in 2024? >> well, big question. we won't know the answer for weeks and months. those relationships -- he better do everything he can to keep kevin mccarthy in the game and ask kevin to take the leadership of the congressional leadership fund, the super pact that spent millions to elect republicans including a number of those like eli crane that turned around and knifed kevin mccarthy in the back for repaying him for his favor and raising millions by voting to kick him out. >> martha: when you look at the issue of funding the government and that obviously lies before him, he may get a little leeway until mid january. can he break it down in to appropriation bills, having to committees work on it? there's a lot of desire to see that among the american public. can he pull that off? >> well, look, the house has passed more bills -- we call them single subject matter appropriation bills. the house has done more of that than the senate has. we're at a point where, you know, it's difficult. yes, we may get an agreement on the defense budget and some other appropriations bills. in all likelihood, some of the appropriations will have to be put in to a continuing resolution. otherwise, we'll find ourselves in january and february well in to the fiscal year. the fiscal year began october 1. by the middle of november, we'll have basically 1 1/2 months of the 12 months already behind us. so, you know, this process is behind the eight ball already. johnson and the house have already done a good job of getting a start on this by passing more single public appropriations bills than the senate does. you still have to take the senate, pass a bill, reconcile and pass it back through the chambers. it's a difficult process when you control both chambers. in this instance, the democrats control the senate and the house controls -- the republicans control the house. if both houses were under the control of one party or another, there's differences between how the house wants to do something and how the senate wants to do it. let's not underestimate the difficulty of getting this done. the question is are matt gaetz and the anarchist caucus going to allow johnson the leeway to get this done more traditionally or insist upon we the house with a narrow republican majority should dictate to the senate democrats and the democratic president how they're going to fund the government. otherwise, we're going to shut down the government. i think that's an idiotic approach but could be exactly what the an a. -- anarchist caucus decides to do. >> martha: we'll see how strong mike johnson is and how well he can navigate this process. you don't leave it to happen in the final days before you run out of time. that seems to be the way this organization works. thanks, carl. good to have you with us. let's bring in pat fallon of texas that helped get speaker mike johnson over the hump this afternoon. congressman fallon, we saw you out there with him moments ago. tell us about what we should expect from your colleague mike johnson who is now the speaker of the house. just getting used to that. >> thanks, martha. mike johnson is a bundle of talent and energy. you just saw that. people kept saying, we can't get to 217, which is the magic number. mike got to 220. every single republican member present voted for him because he brought us together. listen, we understand that also there's a big task ahead. lots of tasks. he's the perfect person to lead us through them. >> martha: one of the things we've been talking about here, you can see already the other side of the aisle punching back. they're calling him maga. maga mike johnson. that's what matt gaetz is calling him as well. he still seems to be aligning himself with the democrats that helped him to oust kevin mccarthy. how would you describe him and his approach to politics? >> i think mike is a reasonable and strong conservative, martha. he believes in limited government, low taxes, reasonable regulation. personal responsibility. fiscal restraint. all the things that make -- i would put him in a mold of ronald reagan. that's saying a lot. he's shorter than the president. he's got a great relationship with soon-to-be president trump again. that's not an ininsult. the left has to find more because that went work with the american people. >> martha: we talked about this defense bill that will be on the table. $106 billion request from the president to cover the cost of support for israel. i think it's about 10 of that. ukraine about 60 of that request. will mike johnson be able to coordinate support for that? is there support for that in the house? >> well, what we would like to see -- israel is a separate issue from ukraine. ukraine is a separate issue from taiwan and asia. the southern border is a separate issue from all three. i'm a big believer in single subject bills. so is mike johnson. why don't we do that? why do they have to throw it in to a mini bus? i don't think it's the right approach. we should act in accordance with that. >> martha: all right. in terms of being able to build your majority, is that -- will kevin mccarthy keep that part of his job? is he fired up to to given what has happened the last three weeks? >> speaker mccarthy has shown that he put the country first. i fully expect he will do everything he can in his power to help mike johnson succeed. this is a team effort. he can't do this alone. he has 221 teammates to help him. kevin mccarthy certainly was someone that got us in the majority and he will do everything he can to help us keep it. >> martha: we're waiting to see if chad pergram can grab him in the hallway there and get a chad pergram introduction to the new speaker. pat, great to see you. thanks for being here. >> chad is great. god bless. >> martha: coming up, we'll talk to clay travis and general david petraeus still ahead and. biden also speaking today about american hostages, about his message for iran. about the injuries that have happened to american service men at the hands of iranian proxies. what does he plan to do about that? 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for a service member to be killed before iran is held to account? the president knew this happened at least a week ago and we saw him this weekend walking the beach in delaware before we were made aware that this had occurred and also with civilians still trapped in gaza, hostages still being -- efforts ongoing to dis-stormtrack him. the president was asked by pbs if the numbers put out by the gaza ministry of health, if those numbers of palestinians killed are an indication that prime minister netanyahu is bucking biden's warning not to injure civilians. biden said on its face, that those numbers say nothing to validate the number of palestinians that have been killed. so rejecting the notion that we should take stock in what we're hearing out of the hamas controlled gaza ministry of health. >> martha: thanks, jacqui. let's go to southern israel and our senior correspondent, mike tobin. hi, mike. >> hi, martha. one of the things that happened today that was quite remarkable, you had a three-way meeting with beirut with a nexus of iranian proxies. hamas, islamic jihad and hezbollah all in the same room. the images were provided by israel's television station. what you got is a rare picture of hassan nasralla. he rose to prominence from the 1983 bombing of the u.s. marines barracks and before there was a hezbollah. hezbollah is the party of god. he rose to prominence as hezbollah rose to prominence. also in the room, another with hamas. born and raised in the west bank. he's part of the fighting wing of hamas. also there is a shadowy figure, not really clear if he lives in lebanon or syria. he is with the jerusalem brigades for islamic jihad. you usually don't get a lot of substance out of these meetings. they say they want to provide a victory for the resistance in gaza. what you get from these meetings is a photo op and something for them to say something wise or poetic. >> martha: thanks, mike. with that, we bring in general david petraeus, former cia director, co-author of the new book, "conflict, the evolution of warfare from 1945 to ukraine". general, good to have you with us. thanks for being here today. if i may, i'd like to start by replaying -- the president was asked about his response to the 20 u.s. service members that were injured buy iranian proxies. here's what he said. watch. >> my warning to the ayatollah was that if they continue to move against those troops, we will respond. he should be prepared. has nothing to do with israel. what did you make of that answer, general? >> well, iran is trying to stoke problems not just for israel but for the u.s. throughout the region. they do it typically through proxy elements. that's what the shiia malitia supported by iran in iraq and also in syria. they have carried out over a dozen attacks using drones and also rockets of various types. we have quite good defenses against these. my understanding is that we're adding to those defenses, some additional quite sophisticated systems that are right off of the assembly line. but in the meantime, again, first of all, always good to be with the truth. the big idea for us dealing with the press during the surge, we want to get it right out there. so a little surprise that this information hasn't been shared more widely before. i think this is going to require some kind of response directly to iran that it gets their attention without needlessly escalating the entire affair. this is quite -- >> martha: it comes to mind whether or not this is the equivalent of the minor incursion that we saw by russia, that the presidented talked about. if it's a minor incursion, that's one thing. now we see attacks. does it make sense to you that he says it doesn't have anything to do with israel? that these attacks are happening right now? how could it not have anything to do with israel, general? >> yeah, i think it's a bit of parsing of definitions here. iran is behind this. whether they're directing all of it in particular, where they directed the attacks of 10-7, certainly are debatable. there's no question that they finance, they equip, they train. they arm. they provide various materials for these different proxy elements. they're very disruptive and destructive around the region. of course what they're trying to do is prevent these -- present these challenges around israel and to the greater u.s. presence in the gulf region as well. >> martha: we heard secretary blinken say this is a red line if you hit u.s. troops. the president did not sound like that today at all. what do you say? >> i'd say let's wait and watch and see what happens. i think that kind of action does demand some kind of response. i'm sure that by old command headquarters, u.s. central command has a list of options that they have presented to the president that would extend -- i don't want to get into the details of what it could be to give them some kind of hint. in the previous administration, when an american soldier was killed, we used a drone strike reportedly to kill the head of the revolutionary guard, qassim soleimani. >> martha: and we saw a quiet period of that. i want one more question for you. turkey's president, erdogan, has said that hamas is not a terror organization. turkey is a country that we have dealt with closely on a number of things. he cancelled his trip to israel. i also want to ask you, seemed as though the fact that king abdullah of jordan refused to meet with president biden in the region. sort of got lost in the larger news of the war. now the queen is speaking out forcefully, his wife. these are very close allies, close relationships between abdullah and the united states. she is speaking quite forcefully about how the west is responding to the situation in palestine and she's very unhappy about the response. watch this. >> when october 7th happened, the world immediately stood by israel and tried to defend itself and condemned the attack that happened. but when we -- what we're seeing, we're seeing silence in the world. >> martha: are we seeing a shift with some of the countries that we've worked well with in the past? are they pulling away from us now? >> i think there's just been a bit of a half life for the sympathy for israel by countries that have always traditionally been relatively supportive of the palestinians. keep in mind that jordan has more palestinian refugees than it has decendents. so you have to consider their domestic situation. i think that explains that very clearly. the challenge is that there are going to be innocent civilian casualties. there's going to be damage and destruction. with respect to the turkish president, i think hamas is showing itself very clearly to be an extremist terrorist organization and its irreconcilable. this is a very key distinction. when we fought against al-quaida, we tried to superintendent support from the sunni population by presenting a vision for the future without al-quaida. they were reconcilable. the fighters of al-quaida in iraq, the leaders were not reconcilable. there was one option for them. that was to kill or capture them. ideally capture them because we wanted to learn from them in detention. hamas has shown itself to be irreconcilable as its partner in these horrific attacks, islamic jihad. that is by fear going to force israel to have to go in and destroy these organizations as challenging and difficult as that will be in this -- i can not imagine a context more difficult than the mission that they're going to carry out. i fear that it is inescapable. all choices for israel are bad. some are worse than others. allowing hamas to reconstitute yet again i fear would be a mistake. >> martha: general petraeus, thanks very much. good to have you back. thanks for being here. >> thanks, martha. >> martha: good to see you. so college students here at home staging anti-israel walkouts on their campuses where we have seen pro palestinian messages up on the walls of the side of buildings projects at george washington university last night, this is one of the messages. glory to our martyrs is one of them. clay travis is an alum of g.w. he wants to respond here live next. you're probably not easily persuaded to switch mobile providers for your business. but what if we told you it's possible that comcast business mobile can save you up to 75% a year on your wireless bill versus the big three carriers? 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we can put them up. g.w., the blood of palestinians is on your hands. >> well, i mean, it's an insult to anyone with a functional brain. i'd like to think that most g.w. students still have functional brains. it's important as you watch those images that are shown there to understand where that is. that's the gelman library in the very center of george washington university's campus. this is a library that was the gelman name, these are holocaust survivors. so you're talking about a campus right now at g.w. a has nearly 30% jewish students. when i was there, had at least that many if not more. and to me, martha, this is a big deal. i know a lot of graduates of a variety of institutions are grappling with, this you probably remember a couple years ago, george washington university decided to end their connection to the colonials. you know why they did that? they said they were concerned about the connection of the colonial name to colonialism and they didn't tell these ignorant students wait a minute, knuckleheads. the entire purpose of getting an education is to understand sometimes differences, we were the colonies. we were fighting against the people leading us from -- the british. i understand you would think that people that would go to george washington university would understand the basic knowledge of the american revolution. >> martha: you'd think. >> i was a history major at g.w. you'd think some of those educators would say to the students, no, you guys are ignorant, you don't understand the argument that you're making. there is no connection between colonials and colonialism. at that time, martha, they started calling me asking for money. i said i'm not going to donate to you idiots. this is what needs to happen. every donor of george washington university that has a functional brain needs to say no. did you see what the administration said, martha? they basically tried to say oh, well, you know, they both sited it. they tried to treat this like a difficult decision. no, here's the answer. george washington university and any other university that has a soul stands on and against the idea of terrorism and understands that the 1400 jewish people slaughtered by hamas did nothing wrong. they are the victims. there is good and there is evil. the israeli people are on the side of good here. the hamas terrorists are on the side of evil. we have to have moral clarity here. the fact that these universities can't deliver it is an insult to our entire nation and i think to everyone who is paying to be educated by the schools or anyone that paid to be educated by the schools in the past. >> martha: that gets to the heart of it, clay. we're not educating people. we're not giving them an understanding. in any middle east history class, you should have each student take on a different country and understand the dynamics of that country, whether it's the palestinian authority or israel. understand the history. what happens is you end up with these kids who believe that they have an understanding of the situation, who clearly don't. we have some breaking news. we want to go to alex hogan who is joining us from tel aviv, which has been under rocket atact. thanks, clay. alex, what can you tell us? >> hi, martha. all of this developing right now. we're in a small town about five miles outside of tel aviv. police are not yet exactly telling us what specifically struck this building behind me. you can likely see the large gapping hole in this building. this is a residential building, three apartments there. there's still search and rescue teams inside trying to make sure that they have evacuated everyone. they have also been using k-9s to go through building by building in this area to make sure that nobody else is still fully caught under the rubble. we've seen some of those dogs come and go. the mayor is here as well to make sure the situation is controlled more. obviously terrifying moment. we heard the sirens in tel aviv and again in the iron dome went off now seeing this develop. we have seen some people come out of this home completely disgruntled and terrified. they have been at their homes late in the evening here. it's dark out. so to see this developing, a very terrifying sight for the people in these homes. >> martha: we've heard an increase in rockets in tel aviv. this has not happened in a very long time. so clearly there's an expansion of the targets that are being hit, alex. thanks. we'll have continuing coverage from alex throughout the day as we learn more about this rocket attack just hitting tel aviv in a residential building just a short time ago. so thank you for joining us today, everybody. continuing coverage of the war in israel goes throughout the day. we'll see you back here tomorrow at 3:00. >> neil: we don't have boots on the ground in israel just yet, but we do have american soldrs