opposition by doing certain cooperative things in terms of regional politics and regional stability. so it s all a very savvy set of moves by morsi. but we ll see if it succeeds on saturday. the national salvation front, which is an alliance of these prominent opposition figures, is warning that a referendum amid the current political crisis will actually plunge the country into even more chaos. what are your thoughts? what are the chances this referendum will happen on saturday? and, if so, what will be the outcome? i do think, chris, there is a good chance for instability. remember that morsi was only elected by 51% of the voters. and so this is a deeply divided country. and the constitution doesn t represent any real effort of consensus among egypt s factions. it represents a relatively narrow point of view and a concentration of power in the president s hands. i think what morsi is trying to do, for example, he announced tax hikes on sunday only to suspend those tax hikes today
with prime minister netanyahu. i ve had several conversations with president morsi of egypt. i ve spoken to the prime minister of turkey who was visiting egypt right in the midst of what was happening in gaza. and my message to all of them was that israel has every right to expect that it does not have missiles fired into its territory. if that can be accomplished without a ramping up of military activity in gaza, that s preferable. that s not just preferable for the people of gaza, it s also preferable for israelis. because if the israeli troops are in gaza they re at much more risk of incurring fatalities or being wounded. we re going to have to see what kind of progress we can make in the next 24, 36, 48
direct specific threats of violence. you ve been hearing about it. economic crisis just a few weeks away potentially if lawmakers don t do something about it. president obama meeting with congressional leaders from both political parties to try to get them back from the brink. if they can t reach a deal by new year s day, tax also go up, deep automatic spending cuts take effect. economists warning the combination of that could propel news another recession and higher unemployment. before today s meeting, the president said everyone agrees it s urgent to get a deal done. we ve got to make sure that taxes don t go up on middle class families, that our economy remains strong, that we re creating jobs, and that s an agenda that democrats and republicans and independents, people all across the country share. harris: after that meeting, congressional leaders said they re confident they can get a deal done. james rosen live at the white house. james, all this talk. how about some action
solidarity. although u.s. officials all seem reluctant to criticize egypt s actions right now. listen. we are encouraged that they are engaged fully in this and we appreciate the fact that prime minister went personally to try to ameal orrate the situation and will continue to work with them on the efforts that we can all take to try to deescalate. now, it may be that egyptian officials are saying one thing publicly for the arab street, and doing and saying different things privately. that might be why the u.s. is not criticizing president morsi of egypt right now. if indeed he means what he says, then he is effectively reshaping the entire egypt-israeli peace treaty and that will affect the stability of the entire region. it is absolutely critical what egypt says and does in the next
saved countless israeli lives. the leaders also reportedly talked about ways to end the latest eruption of violence. this killed at least 30 people so far. in the past, the west has looked to egypt to try to calm tensions between the israelis and palestinians. but this time with a new regime in egypt, things could be a little more complicated and more difficult. the fox report s chief correspondent, jonathan hunt live at the united nations tonight. egypt s words and actions are crucial here. yeah. absolutely because egypt is one of two countries. the other being turkey that has any influence whatsoever over hamas. but right now egypt s new must be must be president, morsi, is standing four square behind the militants and reserving all his criticism for the israelis. that is a radical departure from the policies of previous egyptian president, hosni mubarak. morsi sent his prime minister to gaza today in a show of