Bombing the Prime Ministers compound and other official buildings. The assault also killed a hamas commander. In israel troops are gathering at the border where many roads into gaza are closed. The military is ready for a ground assault with just an hours notice, and the u. S. Positioned the war ship iwo jima nearby but the location is classified. The egyptian Prime Minister visited gaza yesterday and prepared to mediate a truce. U. N. Secretarygeneral ban kimoon is expected to visit next week. The widening scope of the assault sparking fears of a violent new chapter in the arab israeli conflict. Forces are launching rockets back and forth in the gaza strip and israel. Yesterday one missile was aimed right at jerusalem. Nbc news Foreign Correspondent is live for us in gaza. That jerusalem angle, that had not been seen for quite some time. Lets get to whats happening right now around you. Good morning, alex. Yeah, we can let me bring you up to date on the air strikes here. According to Palestinian Health officials the death toll from israels threeday attacks on gaza has risen to 40 palestinians killed, among them eight children, two women, and according to palestinian military factions, including the military wing, there were four palestinian fighters that were killed overnight. So theres no indication, really, that the violence is slowing down. You talk about the incident that took place with rockets landing near jerusalem and near tel aviv. That is certainly a game changer from the israeli perspective. That is what many palestinians here are particularly concerned about. There are thousands of Israeli Soldiers that have amassed onto the border and the fear here is that a Ground Invasion could be imminent. We understand that egyptian officials are trying to mediate a truce of some kind. Yesterdays visit by the Prime Minister did not bear any fruit. Today, the tunisian foreign minister has arrived in gaza. He, himself, is here to express solidarity more so than he is actually to try to negotiate any kind of truce. So, the dynamics of whats at play, and the political and military front is still very much one of tension, one of anxiety, and one that is escalating rapidly. In terms of the humanitarian situation in gaza, the 1. 5 Million People living here feel very much trapped. Everyone we speak to, theyve survived wars in the past, but theyre very much gripped by a sense of horror, and a sense of fear as to what may lie ahead in the coming days. Theres no indication that there is going to be a letup on either side in the near future. Alex . Okay. Ayman thank you for that. Lets get some perspective on the crisis. To do that im joined by colonel jack jacobs, msnbc military analyst. And colonel, with reports of israeli troops amassing along the border there, they can move within an hours notice, is there a danger this is going to turn into a ground assault . Oh, sure. We only have to remember when israel invaded lebanon, southern lebanon not long ago and that turned out to be a big mess, because it was a poorplanned, even more poorly executed. This is much more difficult. Peoples vision of gaza is that its this desert and so on. No. As ayman said its 1. 5 Million People, all packed into an urban area. Extremely difficult ter plain which to maneuver. Very, very hard to fight in. And if israel goes in there its liable to be quite a mess. So i think although its always possible this could turn into a wider conflict on the ground, israel is probably going to think about restraining. Okay. We have positioned the warship iwo jima somewhere nearby. What extent would the United States get involved . Well, we have frequently been involved by providing command and control, awacs, helping them control air strikes and air space and so on. But anything further i think were unlikely to be involved. The one way we might get involved, if theres if it widens so that iran, who has patrol boats in the gulf, decides that its going to take this opportunity to start shooting the place up, then we will get involved, because heavily in the gulf. It has been suggested that hamas is taking these actions, this whole back and forth, to sort of divert attention away from Irans Nuclear program right now. Does that make sense to you . No, it doesnt. Irans going to carry on, has carried on, with or without hamas. You asked if there is a relationship between the two. Intellectually and militarily, and all the rest of that stuff. But these two incidents are not related, in my view. Iran has been doing this sort of stuff for a long time, with or without hamas. I dont think theyre related at all. Okay. More from you in just a moment. So stay right there. One reaction today to the testimony of former general David Petraeus on the attack on the u. S. Mission in benghazi, libya. Petraeus was hidden from view as he went to capitol hill to testify. But republican and democratic lawmakers say petraeus made clear that the cia assessment of terrorism was secret and could not be used in public by u. N. Ambassador susan rice. General petraeus, whose briefing was comprehensive, was added to our ability to make judgments about what has clearly a failure of intelligence. Ambassador rice used the unclassified talking points. The unclassified. So she did completely the appropriate thing. Nbcs mike vigor ra is live at the white house for us. Good morning, alex. This back and forth we just listened to, does this end the dispute about what was said about the attacks in benghazi . I doubt that very seriously. Its tenored the political realm as well as the Foreign Policy and National Security realm, and while harry reid, the democratic leader of the senate, the majority leader in the senate, has shot down republican suggestions that there should be a watergatestyle joint committee, a select committee in the parlance of washington, to look into the benghazi attacks, of course, and september 11th that left four americans dead including the american ambassador, ambassador stevens, theres always the house of representatives, and certainly, their questions, they still have many questions about what they do as conflicting tell about that testimony or about that appearance that susan rice gave almost five days after those attacks on september 16th when she said this was a spontaneous event that began as a result or reaction to that antimuslim video that inflamed passions throughout the muslim world, and morphed into something much more sinister. You saw those two senators there today, senator conrad, many other senators that we spoke to yesterday, said that the problem was is that some of the information that talked about the nature of the attacks, the terrorist nature of the attacks was classified. Susan rice said what she could say, what she was told to say by the Intelligence Community when she made that appearance. So a little air taken out of the balloon yesterday, no question about it. But i dont think weve heard the last of this controversy, alex. Certainly were going to pick up with it with colonel jack jacobs right now. Okay the back and forth here. The gop suggesting, colonel, that the discrepancy in testimony is the result of political motivation. Youve got the white house saying, no, this is because of genuine National Security concern. Where do you lie on that . Most of the people i talked to say that there was incontrovertible evidence that this was a premedicated attack at benghazi and that the white house, towards the end of a very, very difficult campaign, political campaign, for the presidency, stripped away that notion and instead presented a more sanguine, a relaxed, a more easily consumed analysis, and that was that it was the result of a of a spontaneous attack. But but do you have would you have shared National Security concerns had you been in on these briefings . There was no national there was no classified National Security component to this. This is the white house going back to rewrite exactly what happened. The fact of the matter is that anybody with any military experience could see that when you have small arms, automatic weapons, rocketpropelled grenades and mortars in a combined arms attack it is deliberate. To say otherwise and to say that there was a National Security concern about releasing that information is actually quite okay, how about the bigger story. Might that be that the United States needs to provide more protection for their diplomats in in areas that would require that . Well, it would be nice to provide as much protection as we possibly can. But theres just so much that we can do. The fact of the matter is that benghazi was completely different. You had the ambassador going to an area that was unsecured, by anybody, in a place that was still undergoing a violent revolution and not a smart thing to do. There was some information yesterday about general petraeus, talking about agreeing that there were National Security concerns and thats what kept the information from being released. My view is that general petraeus was a Good Company Man and decided to go ahead and say what he was it was suggested that he did say. Like mike says, there will be a lot more on this later that you can bet. Okay. That means well have you back talking about it, as well. Jack, many thanks. Lets take a look now at your saturday forecast. A peek out at new york city where it is clear, its beautiful, with a bit of a chill in the air. Nbc meteorologist dialin dryer is here with more. Good morning, dylan. Thanks, alex, good morning. We are talking about a pretty nice day in the eastern third, and at least half of the country. Were actually looking at most of our wet weather out in the west coast. With a series of storms moving onshore. A little chilly through chicago and the northeast this morning. But most of the middle of the decree is actually going to see a nice warmup temperatures today getting into the 60s and 70s through the plains states. 70s and 80s in florida. But still chilly up in to boston 46 degrees. Its all about the rain, though. Its moving onshore. Heavy rain at that, through california. And actually a series of storms will bring days and days of rain with several inches of rain each day possible through the west coast. But look at the eastern half of the country, from the plains, all the way down into the southeast, up to the northeast, we are looking for a good deal of sunshine. But a closer look at some of the rain across san francisco, moving up into northern california. We will see pockets of heavy rain, and also some mountain snow. We could see several inches of mountain snow out that way through the course of the weekend, and into early next week. But across the east coast, we are going to see a lot of sunshine, temperatures topping out in the lower 50s, and then for your sunday forecast, basically a carbon copy of today, still pretty nice across the eastern half of the country, and still dealing with more heavy rains out west. Alex . Okay, dylan dreyer, many thanks for that. Beating the deadline. 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During that meeting the president sat between House Speaker john boehner and Senate Majority leader harry reid calling for cooperation and compromise. Weve got to make sure that taxes dont go up on middleclass families, that our economy remains strong, that were creating jobs, and thats an agenda that democrats and republicans and independents, people all across the country, share. So, our challenge is to make sure that, you know, we are able to cooperate together, work together. Joining me now for more, congressional reporter for the Washington Post ed okeefe and National Journal correspondent nancy cook. Good morning both of you. Last time we saw those three together, sort of a kumbayah moment when you have reid and boehner and mcconnell together. Did you get a sense, ed, putting revenue on the table meant republicans were open to tax hikes for those makes 250,000 or more . No, theyre not. They still say they dont want to see that increase. By talking about revenues the idea is you close loopholes, find a way to perhaps limit deductions and create revenue that way. But you know, before the campaign, since the campaign, you talk to republicans on capitol hill, and they acknowledge that, you know, if the president were to win, if Senate Democrats were to hold on, you look at the exit poll numbers, it would suggest that there was a mandate, perhaps, to raise taxes on wealthier americans. And while they are standing by it right now, i think there are still many that believe if somebodys going to cave it might have to be the house republicans, and that if things are done in a certain way, perhaps it begins in the senate, and goes over to the house, and everyone is sort of putting it all on boehner to get it done, that perhaps, at that moment, there would be a way to raise taxes on the wealthy. But well just have to wait and see. Nancy, i was reading an article you wrote on thursday, which is notable, you write that one of the president s top economic advisers, Gene Sperling, says the white house is not going to budge on that 250,000 number. Then you had the meetings yesterday. Is that still the case, that number . I feel like there is some flexibility from the administration on that 250,000 dollar threshold. Although, you know, theres not theyre not expressing that in huge overtures at this point. They still really want that to say that they want to tax the wealthy. But i do think that there is some wiggle room from them, the top economic adviser cited at least 1 trillion in revenue, which is slightly different than the 1. 6 trillion that the president had been talking about. And so i think that we may see that threshold of 250 creep up a little bit. And i also think that the Administration May be looking at other ways to tax the wealthy, like, capping deductions, tax deductions, or things like raising Investment Income taxes, which is slated to happen at the end of the year. What did Gene Sperling say on that when you talked with him, downplaying it seemed like he was downplaying the idea of limiting or capping the tax deductions. That that would help enough in reducing the deficit yes, several of the president s surrogates this week were talking about really downplaying that idea of capping deductions. That there wouldnt necessarily collect enough revenue, that theyre seeking. So i think that they definitely see it as a piece of the puzzle to get to that revenue number. But perhaps not the only solution. And thats one of the things that republicans talk about, they want that to be one of the main solutions, rather than taxing the actual, you know, wealthy people with the tax rates. So, ed, doesnt that suggest both parties still have a long way to go to cut a deal . The gop wants to cap tax deductions, the white house wants a tax hike on the wealthy, so where do they meet . Look, the kumbayah yesterday was encouraging, it was good to see, but they are still a considerable amount of work to be done. I think the fact that we at least saw them say yesterday that, you know, this could become a twostep process where you