Because of the programs that we offer. Those programs lead to careers that they want to aspire to. Brown those are just some of the stories were covering on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by moving our economy for 160 years. Bnsf, the engine that connects us. And the william and flora hewlett foundation, helping people build immeasurably better lives. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Woodruff rebels in ukraine tried to regroup today after major setbacks over the weekend. The prorussian fighters lost their former stronghold in slovayansk, and fell back to donetsk, vowing to keep fighting government forces. Along the way, Three Bridges leading into donetsk were blown up today. One was a railway bridge that was bombed as a cargo train passed over. Amid the fighting, russia pressed again today for a new ceasefire in ukraine. The political stalemate in iraq will go on, as the government battles islamist militants whove seized a large portion of the country. The new Parliament Today delayed its next session for five weeks, until midaugust. Leaders are at an impasse over choosing a Prime Minister, president and speaker of parliament. Shiite Prime MinisterNouri Al Maliki has refused to step aside. The white house isnt confirming that a german intelligence worker spied for the u. S. A spokesman said today he cant comment on the matter. A 31yearold german man was arrested last week, and there have been reports he admitted to passing documents to a u. S. Contact. German chancellor Angela Merkel addressed the matter today, during a visit to china. translated we have already opened an investigation. If the reports are correct it would be a serious case. If the allegations are true, it would be for me a clear contradiction to what i consider to be a trustful cooperation between agencies and partners. Woodruff u. S. German relations have been strained since last year, after revelations of largescale snooping by the National Security agency on germany. Pope francis met with victims of sexual abuse by priests, for the first time today, and apologized. The pontiff celebrated mass at his vatican hotel, with six victims who recounted their personal stories of abuse. translated before god and his people i express my sorrow for the sins and grave crimes of clerical sexual abuse committed against you. And i humbly ask forgiveness. I beg your forgiveness, too, for the sins of omission on the part of Church Leaders who did not respond adequately to reports of abuse made by family members, as well as by Abuse Victims themselves. Woodruff the pope also vowed to hold bishops accountable for the protection of minors, but he did not give details on how he would do that. In kenya, antigovernment protests in nairobi turned violent today. Police and demonstrators battled with tear gas and stones as a rally in a nearby park spilled over into the streets. The crowds had gathered to demand talks with the government over economic inequality and other grievances. And in nigeria, officials in the northeast report 63 girls who were kidnapped last month have escaped. They apparently got away as their captors in the Boko Haram Militant Group were battling nigerian soldiers. Meanwhile, a government spokesman reports progress in the investigation of aprils abduction of 200 other school girls. We are moving closer to finding them. At least we have identified a number of leads, we have identified in the course of this exercise and that was what even led to the arrest of the chief of intelligence of boko haram. Woodruff nigerias government and military have faced International Criticism for failing to rescue the kidnap victims. One of the last Foreign Ministers of the soviet union, eduard shevardnadze, died today. In the late 1980s, under soviet president mikhail gorbachev, he signed major arms control deals and helped Eastern Europe regain its freedom. After the soviet collapse, he became president of georgia, and survived two assassination attempts. He eventually resigned. Eduard shevardnadze was 86 years old. A federal judge in philadelphia given initial approval to landmark concussion settlement between the National Football league and former players, coming today after the league we moved a cap of 675 million on claims for medical damages. The judge questioned whether that amount would be enough to pay all claims. The assessment involves more than 3500 former players who have sued the nfl. Wall street came back from the Holiday Weekend in cautious mood. The Dow Jones Industrial average lost 44 points to close at 17,024. The nasdaq fell 34 points to close at 4,451. And the sandp 500 dropped 7, to finish at 1,977. Still to come on the newshour renewed violence stokes tensions in the mideast; disputed Election Results in afghanistans president ial election; accessing whos really benefiting from the g. I. Bill; and protests showcase the debate over undocumented immigrant children coming to the u. S. Woodruff now to the middle east, where there has been a major escalation of tensions in the last few hours. It follows days of up rest sparked by the deaths of three israeli teens and a Palestinian Teenager. Three israeli suspects in the killing of the Palestinian Teen confessed to the crime today. Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu found the teens father and vowed the killers would be brought to justice. Tonight hamas fired dozens of rockets into israel, claiming revenge for israeli air strikes overnight which they say killed six of its members. A short time ago, i spoke to Josef Federman who has been covering a story for the associated press. Josef, thank you for talking with us. Bring us up to date on what is going on. What is each side doing . Well, its been a pretty busy day here. Things are heating up in southern israel along the gaza border. Gaza militants have fired about 100 rockets today into israel or at israel. Israel has responded with limited air strikes earlier in the day. The rocket fire heated up, really intensified this evening. There was a barrage of nearly 50 rockets after nightfall, some of them set off alarms deep inside israel, about 50 miles away from the border, reaching almost the outskirts of tel aviv. So this is seen as a bit of an escalation. Israel hasnt responded to the latest barrage but were expecting a pretty long night. Woodruff how is this different from what normally has been taking place there . Well, most of the time the rocket fire is pretty limited to when there are attacks and there are periods when its quiet all together but usually its limited to one or two or a handful of rockets fired at short distances into open areas. Now we are seeing an intensity that we havent seen for several years where its dozens and dozens each day, the distance that theyre flying is a lot further and many are reaching populated areas. Woodruff tell us more about israels response. We know you mentioned the air strikes. Theyre calling up reservists as well, right . Yeah, what weve seen is israel is moving forces down toward the border. We have had ap people along the border today. We saw pictures of rows and rows of tanks and buses filled with soldiers, people kind of Milling Around the border area, even this evening the roads is are empty down there because most people are staying inside bomb shelters with all the rockets flying. The only traffic you see on the roads basically are military vehicles bringing tanks, Armored Vehicles and so forth, so israel seems to be bracing. The consensus, the speculation is that israel will begin by limiting activity to aerial bombardments. I dont think they will send in Ground Troops at least at this stage, but what were expecting is a much more intense, a heavier response to what you have been seeing earlier. For the most part, israel has been going after military hamas training bases and fields and launching sites. What you may see are sort of higher value targets, places where maybe there are forces, you may see more casualties and so forth, so thats the type of thing im expecting to see in the next few hours. Woodruff we also know Mahmoud Abbas has been speaking out, the palestinian president. What is he trying to do . Hes actually been pretty quiet on the situation in gaza. He always speaks out against violence. Anytime theres loss of palestinian life. And there were eight Palestinian Militants killed today. He always condemns that. His focus has been on the situation in jerusalem and the west bank. Things are heating up in israel following the death of a Palestinian Teenager last week. Israel has arrested some jewish israelis aspects, and the pallets as suspects and the palestinians are upset and thats where president abbas has been focusing his attention. Woodruff and what is the reaction in israel . We reported some of the israeli suspects who were arrested now confessed to the killing of the Palestinian Teenager. How is that being received . Yeah, the arrests and we dill still dont have the ident. A lot of the information is kept under wraps as the investigation continues. What we do know is the suspects are jewer. Authorities say three people confessed today and it set off soul searching in israel. Theres a lot of shock because to have the brutality and how grizzly this killing was where they burned somebody alive. So people are having a hard time coming to terms with this, and even the nations top leaders, the president , a Nobel Peace Prize winner, called the family, the boys parents today to express his condolences and told them how shocked and ashamed he was. You hear that a lot, shame, you hear it in newspapers, among politicians, even Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu reached out and called the families and you dont normally si israelis reaching across the aisles to palestinians. Woodruff to sum up, you said, israel, both sides are bracing for something worse . I think so. Hamas, this morning, after it suffered casualties, like i said, eight militants were killed overnight last night and that was the h heaviest death toll weve seen so far. They immediately vowed revenge. Then we see 100 rockets flying throughout the course of the day. So i think the militant groups in gaza are expecting something, and israel almost always responds, and especially after a barrage of this intensity, its impossible for israel to sit back and not do anything. There is just so much public pressure to do something. So it really almost seems inevitable that youre going to see more fighting in the coming hours. Woodruff Josef Federman, associated press, we thank you. Thank woodruff and joining me now to help us understand the latest developments are dennis ross, a longtime u. S. Diplomat and mid east envoy serving in the george h. W. Bush, clinton and obama administrations. Hes now a counselor at the Washington Institute for near east policy. And shibley telhami, the anwar sadat professor of peace and development at the university of maryland, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and author of the book, the world through arab eyes. We thank you both. Women come back to the newshour. What do you think has set off the latest round of violence . I think it was connected to the kidnappings of the three israeli teenagers. Israel has held hamas responsible for that and you began to see the beginnings of this process of tit for tat after that. Now you have the revenge killing, which if we heard from the report, has created a shock wave in israel, but takes place against the backdrop of increasing tension between hamas and gaza. They dont want to look like theyre backing down. Hamas vows revenge because, you know, eight of their operatives were killed last night, and they sense that theres an urgency on the part of israelis to come in on the ground and its almost as if theyre testing the israels to see how far they go but they dont want to go too far because if they really provoke the israelis to come in on the ground they knot dont know how far they will go and the price to hamas could be great. Woodruff shibley telhami, how do you read what is going on and how the palestinian leadership is reading it . I happened to be in jerusalem and ramallah when the israelis were kidnapped and my feel, particularly in ramallah rights after, was that it felt like 1987 again, 1987 was the start of the first. And there were some things that were so similar. Palestinian despair over the distraction embroiled by other problems. Whats happening in iraq, egypt, syria. In the 1985s, palestinian were frustrated that attention was going to iraq in the iraqiran war and people werent paying attention to their issues. There was frustration from the leadership detached and there was a sense the people had to do something on their own. There is that sense of alienation. In fact both Mahmoud Abbas and hamas risk being irrelevant, which is why they came together, to be more relevant. So you have the combination that is combustible. On top of that, the fellow of american diplomacy and a sense of resignation, it was a disaster waiting for a spark. Woodruff i gather from both of your answers its not cleared what the leadership on each side, how far theyre prepared to take it. I think thats right. We have two different realities taking place. We have the reality in jerusalem which may or may not be, and in gaza which confronts hamas and the yirlz leadership with hard choices. That point, where is the leadership . In the case of israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu, you can see that on the one hand he wants to make it clear that hamas, theres a terrible price to be paid as they continue to provoke israel. On the other hand, he himself is saying this is not a time for histie, emotional decisions but a time for judicious behavior. Also the fact he reaches out to the parents to have the Palestinian Teen who was killed is a signal that says, look, we are going to act against our excesses. What happened was shameful and were a country ruled by law and were going to act and thats also both a reflection of i think a deepseated feeling but also sends a signal that the last thing we want to see is an explosion with the palestinians. Woodruff pick up on that, and talk about the forces on each side. The Political Leadership in hamas and the Prime Minister of israel dont want an escalation at this time. Its too a costly, disrupts their priorities, are not ready for it but may be dragged in that direction. Why . Look at the divisions first of all within israel. Its not just public opinion. Public opinion is one set of problems. When the Prime Minister of israel starts sounding like hes the moderate in his own government, you can tell that youve got a problem on your hand. In hamas, they have two problems, one problem is they, just like israelis, they learn from hesbollah, that when they feel under attack or lose, they have to retaliate, like israelis feel that pressure. There is that dynamic. There are groups within gaza that we cant fully control. They have been firing some of the rockets across the israeli borders and we dont know how divided they are. The deal to have a National Government and proceed with a political process was somewhat controversial within hamas, so we dont know what forces are at play when you have a political environment in public that is mobilized and angry, people are going to may to the public. How much is the public on both sides, dens dennis, pushinp this to more crisis point than it already is. I dont think either side is pushing it to crisis point. I think theres a level of despair on the palestinian side and anger on the israeli side, but i think you have, in a sense, certain constituencies that may be pushing. Shibley made reference to the pressures under Prime Minister netanyahu. We see it in terms of former minister lieberman not leaving the government but splitting from the coalition with the party. We see it in terms atout what i call the military wing of hamas. Theyre the ones who launched the rockets today. Up till now, they have not been the ones launching the rockets. But you can see segments on each side who see an emotional moment and are reacting to that. The question is, is there sufficient control of leaders to be able to do that . I think on the israeli side, there is. On the palestinian side, its much more an openquestion. Woodruff how would you answer that . On both sides, its an open question. In part because the Israeli Government has a lot of people on the right who want to take who are running for the next Prime Minister position in the israeli election and theyre exploiting this just like they are people on the palestinian side who want to go to a militancy. I think neither side wants from frustration but they could go there. We saw seven horrible kills that dragged people into a situational confrontation. Woodruff a lot of questions coming out of this. We thank you both for talking to us tonight, shibley telhami, dennis ross. T thank you. Woodruff in afghanistan, Election Offici