Speaker 1: From this moment, we must be crystal clear. We stand
Speaker 1: with Israel. We stand with Israel. We will make sure
Speaker 1: Azho has what it needs to take care of its citizens,
Speaker 1: defend itself and respond to this attack. There's no justification
Speaker 1: for terrorism, there's no excuse.
Speaker 2: And I don't remember if Joe Biden mentioned it or
Speaker 2: the National Security Advisor did in the press conference afterwards,
Speaker 2: but we are replenishing the Iron Dome because we brought
Speaker 2: that up on the show yesterday. Huh. Is Amas just
Speaker 2: going to wear out the Iron Dome to where they
Speaker 2: don't have, but we're going to replenish it. I guess.
Speaker 3: Well. Let's discuss all of those topics and more, including
Speaker 3: some breaking news with doctor Jeff mccauslan. Jeff is a
Speaker 3: CBS News military consultant for TV and radio. Jeff, good
Speaker 3: to have you back. How are you?
Speaker 4: Yeah? I would be okay, but busy day to say
Speaker 4: the last.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'll bet. There are reports that Hesbalah is officially
Speaker 3: opened to northern front against israel Is CBS A that
Speaker 3: as well.
Speaker 4: I have not seen that I have In the last
Speaker 4: few days, there has been exchange of artillery and mortar
Speaker 4: fire between Israeli forces in Hitswella in an area called
Speaker 4: Shiva Farms, which is right along the northern border of
Speaker 4: Israel and that contested area. I've actually fisically been up
Speaker 4: there a couple of times, and literally, if Hitsball becomes involved,
Speaker 4: this is kind of a game changer because in terms
Speaker 4: of their military capabilities, they are far more sophisticated than
Speaker 4: larger than Hamas number one, number two. They literally have
Speaker 4: ends of thousands of rockets and missiles already prepositioned instead
Speaker 4: of Lebanon to hit targets all across Israel. So this
Speaker 4: would be a massive change in the war. It caused
Speaker 4: Israel to a divert significant amount of its military forces.
Speaker 4: And as you guys are saying, before we began threaten
Speaker 4: I think perhaps just overwhelming Iron Dome in terms of
Speaker 4: the number of missiles and rockets to be getting towards Israel.
Speaker 2: Can we replenish the Iron Dome missiles in time to
Speaker 2: keep Israel sustained.
Speaker 4: It's unclear if we can. To me, we can resupply
Speaker 4: Iron Dome, that's an Israeli produced weapon system. We can
Speaker 4: provide them other weapon systems of an air defense character
Speaker 4: that might be very valuable. There are six pre positioned
Speaker 4: weapons storage sites belonging to the United States Canada across
Speaker 4: Israel with about two billion dollars with the munitions that
Speaker 4: are already positioned there. They're positioned there for two reasons.
Speaker 4: One frankly, for American continuencies that might occur across the
Speaker 4: Middle East where that would be useful to have them
Speaker 4: already there. And number two, to provide access to the
Speaker 4: Israelis during a national crisis by the Israelis, and I
Speaker 4: would imagine those particularly stock files, are already being access
Speaker 4: But again, the United States could provide additional military support
Speaker 4: for I think air defense systems, probably smart nitions. There
Speaker 4: have been some reports that Boeing already has delivered additional
Speaker 4: military supplies to ISRAELMA like a thousand smart bombs being
Speaker 4: overed to Israel. But frankly, any uptick in US military
Speaker 4: assistance to Israel is going to provide going to require
Speaker 4: congressional action. Oh, by the way, right now, we don't
Speaker 4: have a function in the United States Congress because we
Speaker 4: don't have a speaker.
Speaker 3: So speaking of the US role in this, the gerald Ford,
Speaker 3: the massive aircraft carrier, was moving across the Mediterranean to
Speaker 3: be closer to Israel to deter bad actors. If indeed
Speaker 3: Hesbela has said yeah, we're in h is that an
Speaker 3: empty threat or might US forces play a role?
Speaker 4: Well, clearly the Jerald Ford is there to deter, as
Speaker 4: you said, other people getting involved, most notably it's Balah
Speaker 4: or expanded efforts on the part of the law. It
Speaker 4: might be there as well to assist Israeli with providing
Speaker 4: intelligence of incoming attacks. It could assist their defense networks.
Speaker 4: Number three, it could be there as well to provide
Speaker 4: potential evacuation of Americans. Did the situation worse even far
Speaker 4: beyond where we are now? And last, of course, it
Speaker 4: underscores with President Biden that they talked about in the speech,
Speaker 4: and that is full square support by the United States
Speaker 4: to the state of Israel. Would the United States become
Speaker 4: directly involved and for example, start hitting hetsmelaw targets. That
Speaker 4: is possible, I guess, But I'm sure something that people
Speaker 4: in washing and prefer not to have happened, are preferred
Speaker 4: that hits Bela stays out of this.
Speaker 2: I want to get back to that. But while we
Speaker 2: were talking about resupplying Israel, this topic keeps coming up
Speaker 2: on Twitter and everywhere I read, So I just want
Speaker 2: to hear you address it. Does US resupplying Israel have
Speaker 2: anything to do whatsoever with our helping arm Ukraine? Like
Speaker 2: does one affect the other? Or how does that all work?
Speaker 4: Well? Could potis has got an endless supply? Is you
Speaker 4: know my weapon? Let's just let's face it. In US
Speaker 4: more times talks have been drawn down to a degree goodbye.
Speaker 4: The assistance human have been provided to Israel and how
Speaker 4: low those are obviously is very classified, and I don't
Speaker 4: know that. Being said, I would still think the United
Speaker 4: States at this point and continue to provide assistance to both.
Speaker 4: One of the challenges we have, however, is in terms
Speaker 4: of defense budgeting, the Congress is voted a continuing the
Speaker 4: Resolution as opposed to a new budget. Well, that kind
Speaker 4: of continues everything at the funding levels that we're at
Speaker 4: right now. But the Pentagon once is an actual budget
Speaker 4: because in the twenty four budget there's expanded funds to
Speaker 4: frankly dramatically expand the US industrial base, to expand our
Speaker 4: production of what we found to be enormously necessary items
Speaker 4: now in modern industrial warfare, artillery, ammunition, air defense weapons
Speaker 4: and alike, which are very key, not only to the
Speaker 4: war now in Israel, but also the war that's been
Speaker 4: going on in the Ukraine. So the inability of our Congress, frankly,
Speaker 4: to pass the budget is going to hamstrung us to
Speaker 4: a degree or at least slow our ability to expand.
Speaker 4: What becomes increasingly clear is a need to dramatically increase
Speaker 4: that industrial base.
Speaker 3: Jeff McCausland, CBS News, military consultant on the line. Jeff, Well,
Speaker 3: just keep you for another minute or two, but I'm
Speaker 3: sure you know Ian Bremer of the Eurasia Group, he
Speaker 3: is tweeting that has the militants have entered northern Israel
Speaker 3: from Lebanon, and the US government has announced the immediate
Speaker 3: evacuation of our embassy in Beirut and Tell and has
Speaker 3: told all Americans to leave Lebanon.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that suggests, as we were saying a moment ago,
Speaker 4: that there may be now verted Tampa hitz Mala to
Speaker 4: become involved in this particular war, which is terribly, terribly unfortunate.
Speaker 4: Number one, and second, as I mentioned a moment ago,
Speaker 4: one of the reason why the gerald for there is
Speaker 4: just an evacuation of Americans from the region, which might
Speaker 4: include now Americans coming out of Lebanon.
Speaker 2: Well, how long do we bend over backwards we in
Speaker 2: the Israeli government to pretend that we don't know Iran
Speaker 2: is behind us?
Speaker 4: Well, I mean it's yeah, that's a good question. But
Speaker 4: right now the israelis another handful for the the warfront
Speaker 4: and Gada, they may have their hands full, and a
Speaker 4: second warfront in Lebanon. They may have a third front,
Speaker 4: which is we've seen increasing frankly Palaestinian militant activity on
Speaker 4: the West Bank, a place where the Israeli defense forces
Speaker 4: have been conducting expanded operations for the last several months.
Speaker 4: So do you want in the middle of all that
Speaker 4: have a fourth front and that is direct involved in
Speaker 4: with Iran? And that's an open question that one has
Speaker 4: to think about diplomatically, politically, and strategically. Furthermore, though there's
Speaker 4: no doubt about it that Iran has provided military assistance
Speaker 4: to Hamas to the tune, we think of about one
Speaker 4: hundred million dollars a year, and a lot of the
Speaker 4: rockets that are striking Israel were produced in Iran, or
Speaker 4: the try out from Iran was used to have them
Speaker 4: produced locally. But again, the United States provides three billion
Speaker 4: dollars in military assystems are more to Israel on an
Speaker 4: annual basis. That is a far cry from direct iraniant
Speaker 4: involvement in the actual planning and execution of this attack.
Speaker 4: Though there have been reports Wall Street journalm Ticker suggesting
Speaker 4: that the Iranians were directly involved in the planning and
Speaker 4: execution of the attack, either the United States government or
Speaker 4: the Israeli government I've seen so far has made that
Speaker 4: claim and provided evidence that would point to Iran as
Speaker 4: an actual protagonist in this conflict.
Speaker 3: Doctor Jeff mccolson, CBS News Military consultant, Jeff, thanks so
Speaker 3: much for the time. We appreciate it.
Speaker 4: Always a pleasure, guys. A