11/02/2023 | 57m 46s | Video has closed captioning.
Thursday on the NewsHour, Israeli forces close in on Gaza City as fighting intensifies and calls for a humanitarian pause go unheeded. Tensions flare in Congress with lawmakers divided over aid to Ukraine and Israel and Sen. Tommy Tuberville's block on military promotions. Plus, a running club inside a California prison becomes the focus of a new documentary.
Aired: 11/02/23
Expires: 12/02/23
GEOFF BENNETT: Good evening.
I'm Geoff Bennett.
Amna Nawaz is away.
On the "NewsHour" tonight: Israeli forces close in on Gaza City, as fighting intensifies and calls for a humanitarian pause go unheeded.
Tensions flare in Congress, with lawmakers divided over aid to Ukraine and Israel, the fate of Congressman George Santos and Senator Tommy Tuberville's block on military promotions.
And a running club inside a California prison becomes the focus of a new documentary.
MARKELLE TAYLOR, Inmate: I'm an ambassador for lifers, life-incarcerated men and formerly incarcerated men, and what I experience and what I go through can help change policies in a way people are being treated, even from the outside or the inside.
(BREAK) GEOFF BENNETT: Welcome to the "NewsHour."
More Americans are leaving Gaza as evacuations pick up speed following complicated negotiations.
Aid deliveries to the more than two million civilians in Gaza are still trickling in, but the need is far greater.
And, as Leila Molana-Allen reports, Israel is continuing its airstrikes and ground campaign in Northern Gaza.
LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Israel intensified its ground operation today, releasing this video it says shows troops operating deep inside Northern Gaza.
Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi confirmed soldiers are now engaged in urban warfare.
LT. GEN. HERZI HALEVI, Chief of Staff, Israeli Defense Forces (through translator): IDF fighters have been operating in Gaza City for the past few days, encircling it from several directions, deepening the entrance of the IDF into Gaza and deepening our achievements.
LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: As Israel advances... WOMAN: Mr. President, if you care about the Jewish people, as a rabbi, I need you to call for a cease-fire right now.
LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: ... President Biden appeared last night to call for a -- quote -- "pause" in the fighting to facilitate aid deliveries after he was interrupted at an event.
National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby clarified today.
JOHN KIRBY, NSC Coordinator For Strategic Communications: What we're talking about are temporary, localized pauses in the fighting to meet a certain goal or goals, as I said, get aid in, get people out.
LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: And before leaving again for the Middle East, Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke to the enormous civilian death toll in Gaza.
ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. Secretary of State: When I see a Palestinian child, a boy, a girl, pulled from the rubble of a collapsed building, that hits me in the gut as much as seeing a child in Israel or anywhere else.
So this is something that we have an obligation to respond to, and we will.
LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Gazans desperate to escape that fighting crowded the Rafah Border Crossing again today.
More foreign nationals were allowed to leave.
Suzan finally got out.
This was her fifth attempt.
But she left with mixed feelings.
SUZAN BESEISO, American Citizen in Gaza: Right now, I'm between ice and fire.
I don't know if I'm ever going to be able to see the family that I left behind or the friends that I left behind.
People are dying.
LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: As people went out, aid trucks came in, also running low, fuel.
The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry says the main generator in Gaza's Indonesian Hospital failed today.
Israel claims Hamas is diverting fuel from the hospital.
Today, Israeli authorities released what they say is an intercepted phone call, where the hospital's manager talks about giving fuel to Hamas.
The "NewsHour" could not verify the authenticity of the recording.
Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi expressed willingness to supply fuel to Gaza under strict supervision.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said later that was not yet a commitment.
And as Gaza continues to be pounded by airstrikes, the army signaled today that it's ready to step up its attacks against Hamas, saying that Israel's air force is currently only using half of its aerial capability.
The IDF's bombardment already seems unrelenting on the ground.
Aerial footage showed massive destruction at the Al-Barij refugee camp after a strike on residential buildings today.
Meanwhile, residents in the Al-Maghazi refugee dug through this pile of debris that was once a home.
Abdal was with them.
ABDAL HADI MUSALLAM, Al-Maghazi Camp Resident (through translator): This house was bombed, including residents, civilians, children and the elderly, without any warning.
LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: The fate of those civilians unknown.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Leila Molana-Allen.
GEOFF BENNETT: Israel says many of its airstrikes target Hamas commanders and Hamas' extensive network of tunnels.
That network is making the fight for Gaza City deadly for Israeli troops; 20 Israeli soldiers have died in just the last three days.
Nick Schifrin reports on Hamas' tunnels and why they pose such a major challenge.
NICK SCHIFRIN: They emerge from the darkness into the light only long enough to strike.
Hamas propaganda videos show fighters exiting tunnels to fire at nearby Israeli tanks.
These are guerrilla tactics, small Hamas teams sneaking up on Israeli soldiers with far superior technology, or using drones to drop mortars, helping make Israel's Gaza ground invasion deadly and difficult.
Buried deep underground, Hamas has built what Israel assesses is a tunnel network 200 to 300 miles' long.
Dug by hand, it's called the Metro, where Hamas fighters can move weapons and themselves safely.
The tunnels have ventilation, electricity, and are Hamas' single most important asset.
MAJ. JOHN SPENCER (RET.
), Modern War Institute: Hamas has built for decades tunnels leading under, integrated in to all the Gaza cities.
NICK SCHIFRIN: John Spencer chairs the Modern War Institute's urban warfare studies at West Point and has visited tunnels in Israel.
MAJ. JOHN SPENCER: They use them for every thing you can imagine to smuggle all the rockets and weapons technologies they currently have, to infiltrate Israel, to include on October 7, to place rockets that don't need people in hidden little openings of the tunnels.
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, Israeli Prime Minister: Israel will stand against the forces of barbarism until victory.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Israeli leaders have indicated their goal is the destruction of Hamas militarily and politically.
That will require the destruction of Hamas' tunnels, says Spencer.
MAJ. JOHN SPENCER: They can't accomplish their political goal without fully destroying all Hamas' tunnels, so they can never be used again.
That's a military capability that can't be allowed to exist, because it's how Hamas did October 7.
It's how it was able to launch 2,000 rockets in a single day.
NICK SCHIFRIN: But that goal is incredibly challenging when tunnels are difficult to detect, let alone eliminate.
And Israel says they are located under heavily populated civilian areas, including Gaza's largest hospital, Shifa.
MAJ. JOHN SPENCER: They built many of their tunnel entrances and exits and passageway underneath protected sites like hospitals, schools, mosques, because it restricts the use of force that the IDF can take without going through the - - all the laws of war calculation.
NICK SCHIFRIN: The U.S. has faced the challenge of urban warfare in the past, fighting al-Qaida in Iraq and Fallujah in 2007 and leading a coalition that liberated Mosul from the Islamic State 10 years later.
Do you believe that those are good models?
Joe Buccino is a retired U.S. Army colonel.
COL. JOE BUCCINO (RET), U.S. Army: The better historic parallel is the Vietnam War.
NICK SCHIFRIN: In the Cu Chi district outside Saigon, the Vietcong created more than 100 miles of tunnels to survive U.S. airstrikes, resupply fighters and sneak up on American troops.
COL. JOE BUCCINO: The first implication of the Cu Chi tunnels was psychological.
The Vietcong fighters were popping up out of the ground almost like they were mystical creatures who didn't -- who could bypass the laws of physics.
NICK SCHIFRIN: And the last thing U.S. troops in Vietnam wanted to do was enter the tunnels.
COL. JOE BUCCINO: The defensive unit, the unit in the tunnels, has every advantage, awareness, speed, intelligence, ability to withdraw.
It's very hard fighting.
This is claustrophobic.
This is a war in a phone booth.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Buccino most recently served in Central Command, responsible for the Middle East.
COL. JOE BUCCINO: The IDF plan for the tunnels involves developing sufficient intelligence to target the generators and ventilation systems.
Furthermore, by cutting off fuel into Gaza, they feel they can choke out those tunnel systems, in so doing, shutting them down without having to send large forces into the tunnels.
NICK SCHIFRIN: But Palestinians point out blocking fuel and electricity blocks hospitals from saving lives.
And Israel continues to bombard civilian neighborhoods like the Jabalia refugee camp in the name of destroying tunnels and killing Hamas leaders.
Palestinians say hundreds of civilians died and will continue to die in a war that Israel warns will be long.
COL. JOE BUCCINO: The IDF would like the fighting in Gaza City to take 30 days and then turn to the south.
The fighting in the south is going to take months.
So this is going to be a very long process.
NICK SCHIFRIN: A process that will see heavy fighting above and below the Gaza Strip.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Nick Schifrin.
GEOFF BENNETT: In the day's other headlines: Former President Trump's adult sons denied knowing about financial documents at the heart of a civil fraud trial.
A judge has already ruled they inflated the values of Trump Organization properties.
Donald Trump Jr. testified for a second day at the trial in New York City.
He again blamed accountants for any problems.
Afterward, his brother Eric denied knowing that the documents in question even existed.
That's despite receiving e-mails asking him to weigh in.
An extreme storm hit Western Europe today, claiming at least seven lives and leaving millions without power.
Waves pounded the Isle of Jersey in the English channel and smashed the rocky cliffs of Southern England.
In Western France, some people braved winds gusting to nearly 130 miles per hour, the strongest in generations.
ABDEL, French Resident (through translator): This is unprecedented in France.
Normally, this is a tropical type of phenomenon, but it has reached the French coasts.
It should be happening so much farther down than here, but the planet is so upside down.
It's like mankind is paying for what they have done, quite simply.
GEOFF BENNETT: The storm disrupted air and train travel, and forecasters warned of severe flooding as it moves inland.
The U.S. is targeting Russia's war effort in Ukraine with a wave of new sanctions aimed at enablers.
The penalties imposed today affect more than 130 companies and individuals from Turkey, China and the United Arab Emirates.
U.S. officials say they have helped Moscow obtain tools and battlefield equipment.
The chaos deepened today along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, and thousands of Afghans crowded the main northwestern crossing.
They're being forced out of Pakistan as that country cracks down on illegal immigration.
Relief agencies say 24,000 reentered Afghanistan at a single crossing on Wednesday, but they say conditions on the Afghan side are dire.
BECKY ROBY, Advocacy Manager, Norwegian Refugee Council: When you have thousands of people who have nowhere to sleep and have nothing to eat, that is going to be the priority in the next coming weeks and probably months, so finding shelter and food, health care.
GEOFF BENNETT: Some 1.7 million Afghans could face deportation from Pakistan.
Many have lived there for decades.
Back in this country, a former Memphis police officer pleaded guilty to federal charges in the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols.
Nichols died last January three days after a traffic stop.
Desmond Mills Jr. admitted to using excessive force and obstructing justice.
He's agreed to plead guilty to state charges.
Mills is one of five former officers charged in Nichols' death.
All initially pleaded not guilty.
The rideshare apps Uber and Lyft will pay a combined $328 million to settle wage theft claims in New York state.
They also agreed today to set minimum hourly rates and pay for sick leave.
The state charged that the companies improperly made drivers pay sales taxes and other fees.
On Wall Street, stocks shot higher on hopes that interest rate hikes are over.
The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 564 points to close at 33839.
The Nasdaq surged 232 points.
The S&P 500 added 80.
And what's billed as the last Beatles song ever is now available.
Today's release, titled "Now and Then," is based on a 1970s demo tape by the late John Lennon.
It uses artificial intelligence to add George Harrison, who died in 2001, and surviving band members Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.
(MUSIC) GEOFF BENNETT: The Beatles broke up in 1970 and, in real life, the four of them never performed together again.
Still to come on the "NewsHour": the Biden administration promises a strategy to combat Islamophobia; a new documentary tells the personal stories of inmates who join a prison running club; and the controversial legacy of Hall of Fame college basketball coach Bob Knight.
Today has brought news on both sides of the U.S. Capitol.
New House Speaker Mike Johnson passed $14 billion in aid to Israel, but the bill faces problems ahead.
And Senate Republicans took on one of their own over top military promotions.
Congressional correspondent Lisa Desjardins is live on Capitol Hill to unpack the latest on the domestic policy.
So, Lisa, let's start with the debate over aid to Israel and Ukraine.
What's the latest on those two issues?
LISA DESJARDINS: This is a fiery debate, but, just in the past few minutes, Geoff, the House did in fact pass that $14 billion aid package to Israel.
It was largely a partisan vote.
The way Republicans in the House did it, they would fund that money by cutting money to the IRS.
Now, the CBO and others have said that that actually would increase the deficit because less money for the IRS means less revenue for the United States.
Republicans dispute that.
But the point is that Republican Speaker Mike Johnson has really passed his first at least initial test, passing through a bill that was not clearly -- its fate was not assured earlier today.
White House -- members of the White House staff, I'm told by Democratic sources, in fact, made phone calls to try and defeat this bill today on the House floor, to try and keep Democrats from voting for it.
In the end, 12 Democrats did support this bill.
Now, as you say, there's trouble ahead, because, over on the Senate side, they would like a bill that includes Ukraine money.
And they do not want it offset in this way.
President Biden has said he will veto this particular bill.
So those are going to be the much more difficult tests for Speaker Johnson coming up ahead.
But, for now, one aid package has moved through one chamber.
GEOFF BENNETT: Well, as you tick through the tests facing the new House speaker, you can also add avoiding a government shutdown.
Congress has two weeks to hash out a deal.
What's it look like?
LISA DESJARDINS: That's right.
Now, tonight, the House is going to stay in late because the idea is that these House lawmakers say they're going to stay to try and make up the time they lost for the past three weeks.
You can see, on the House floor, they're still there right now.
It is not clear, however, despite all this time that they may be spending here, if there is a plan going ahead to avoid a shutdown yet, Geoff.
Right now, the House speaker has yet to really formalize what he wants to have happen.
It looks like he wants a short-term funding bill probably through January, and we're not quite sure what the Senate is going to do.
I guess the tone is good, is what I would say, but until we see real plans move forward, there is still the possibility of a shutdown in two weeks.
GEOFF BENNETT: And, in the Senate, Lisa, there is a renewed bipartisan effort to break the blockade that Senator Tommy Tuberville has put on these top military promotions.
And there's pressure coming not just from Democrats, but I was watching the floor action last night.
It was Republicans, many of the military veterans, and it's clear that their patience with him has run out.
Tell us more about that.
LISA DESJARDINS: That's right.
Well, today, something new.
We saw three confirmations.
Let's look at the list of the military commanders confirmed today, one, the chief of Naval operations, the Air Force chief of staff, and the assistant Marine commandant.
That's important, because the Marine commandant himself, Eric Smith, is in the hospital.
So the Marines have been without a number one or number two until that vote today.
All of this riled up Republicans at their own member, Tommy Tuberville, whose holds really opened up this situation.
And listen to this extraordinary sound last night from Republican Lindsey Graham talking again about a fellow Republican, Tommy Tuberville.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): There's a reason this is -- this has not been done this way for a couple hundred years.
No matter whether you believe it or not, Senator Tuberville, this is doing great damage to our military.
I don't say that lightly.
I have been trying to work with you for nine months.
Folks, if this keeps going, people are going to leave.
LISA DESJARDINS: Geoff, you know what a rare situation that is in either chamber, but especially in the Senate, where both parties stick together.
But, here, Republicans really, most -- many of them have reached a boiling point at Senator Tuberville, but he's not moving.
He still says he will not allow military promotions, now hundreds of them, to move in large blocks.
GEOFF BENNETT: And, Lisa, while we have you, the House yesterday took a rare vote to expel the New York Congressman George Santos, but he managed to keep a hold of his job.
How?
How did that play out?
LISA DESJARDINS: This was a fascinating vote.
New York Republicans brought up this resolution to try and expel this member, George Santos, over lies, deceptions, and, of course, the 23 felony counts he is charged with.
I want to play some of the sound from this debate, first from Mike Lawler, one of those Republicans leading that move to try and expel Mr. Santos.
REP. MIKE LAWLER (R-NY): There is not enough time to go through the litany of lies that Mr. Santos has engaged in during his campaign and during his time in Congress, including just recently a claim that his 5-year-old niece was kidnapped by Chinese Communist Party spies.
LISA DESJARDINS: That was something that Santos had said to a Times reporter, and it was not verified by police.
Police said that was not true.
But Santos made an argument that he is innocent until proven guilty, that he needs due process, and that his case should move through the courts, not through the House floor.
And making that argument did win over members.
It takes a two-third vote to expel a member of Congress.
Again, it's only happened in five -- five times in congressional history.
But Santos did -- not even a majority voted to expel him, so he survives.
GEOFF BENNETT: Lisa Desjardins, thanks, as always.
This week, the FBI director warned of a heightened risk for potential violence against Arab, Muslim and Jewish Americans in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war.
Laura Barron-Lopez starts our conversation about the rising threats with a look at a new White House effort to counter Islamophobia.
LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Geoff, the White House is working on a first-of-its-kind strategy to protect Muslims and those perceived to be Muslim because of their race or ancestry.
And it says the plan will be drafted by White House officials in coordination with community leaders.
Rami Nashashibi, founder of the Inner-City Muslim Action Network, joins me now to discuss.
Rami, thanks so much for being here.
First off, what's your reaction to this announcement by the White House to craft a national plan to counter Islamophobia?
RAMI NASHASHIBI, Executive Director, Inner-City Muslim Action Network: The announcement is actually one that the community completely can understand and appreciate.
The timing, though, was one that I have been on record for challenging, only because, at this moment, so much of the time the anti-Muslim hate and Islamophobia is directly associated with the dehumanizing language that unfortunately has become part and parcel of this really just absolutely terrible bombing on Gaza in the last few weeks that has led to a child being killed every 10 minutes.
LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: And speaking of that, Rami, last week, when I asked President Biden about the death toll provided by the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry, which is a figure that State Department officials also go by, he cast doubt on it.
RAMI NASHASHIBI: Yes.
JOE BIDEN, President of the United States: I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed.
I'm sure innocents have been killed, and it's the price of waging a war.
LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: You were in a meeting with the president right after -- not long after he made those comments.
Did he say anything that reassured you during that conversation?
RAMI NASHASHIBI: Well, I directly, in fact, addressed that quote with the president.
I told him how unacceptable and atrocious it was, quite frankly, for so many that have associated him with a person who can really identify with human suffering, which I think he has done fairly well for communities across the globe and certainly with people who have suffered from individual tragedy.
He acknowledged that.
He received it.
He also gave us a form of apology.
What I was hoping to hear from the president and from the White House, quite frankly, which we have not heard since our meeting last week, was a much more explicit, forceful retraction of that type of language, because it is precisely that type of language, coupled with the silence on language that has been used by Israeli war ministers, like the defense minister, who called all Palestinians human animals, that has perpetuated this form of utter dehumanization of Palestinians that completely is associated with much of the spike in violence that many people in the community have unfortunately had to endure in this recent set of a few days and weeks.
LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Rami, since that meeting with the president, President Biden has called for a humanitarian pause.
He did that just yesterday.
Do you agree with that?
RAMI NASHASHIBI: I think we are -- we asked him to call for a cease-fire.
We are very grateful.
I live in a state where Senator Durbin has become the first high-ranking senator to call explicitly for a cease-fire.
Really, at this point, we need the president, we need anybody of good conscience to realize that, when we have escalated to the point where a young -- a child is dying every 10 minutes in Gaza, where water, electricity, fuel, generators are being shut off, people are dying in hospitals, that whatever you want to call it at this moment, it can't just be a temporary pause.
We need to get people who are brave enough and courageous enough to call for a cease-fire.
He also called for the release of the hostages, which, of course, makes sense if there's a real peaceful resolution to address some of the systemic structural injustices that continue to stand in the way of a meaningful, peaceful resolution for Palestinians and Israelis.
LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Rami, in the last 24 hours, we have heard more and more Islamophobic -- Islamophobic language from the Muslim, conservative, public figures like FOX News' Jesse Watters, as well as Congressman Brian Mast of Florida.
Take a listen.
REP. BRIAN MAST (R-FL): Arabs that live next to Jews that will only live next to them so long as they can plan a way to behead them, murder their babies, burn them alive.
Some of the folks that have said, well, it's not all Palestinians.
Well, the fact of the matter is, I think it's a lot more Palestinians than what they're giving credit for.
JESSE WATTERS, FOX News Anchor: I want to say something about Arab-Americans and about the Muslim world.
The West and Western technology have created the Middle East.
We respect their kings.
We kill their terrorists, OK?
But we have had it.
We have had it with them.
LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Are you worried that language like this could result in violence, in the 30 seconds or so we have left, Rami?
RAMI NASHASHIBI: Absolutely.
And that's why I think the undergirding call for a conference on Islamophobia and linking it to, of course, even the rise of antisemitism, these things are absolutely interlinked, and we have to be explicit in our condemnation of both.
I stand with the call for that and the creation of it, but we have to address also the current political realities that are animating so much of this.
And our communities have to see that our fate are absolutely interwoven together.
And that is happening right now.
There are courageous Jewish community members every single day that are calling for a peaceful cease-fire, alongside Muslims and people of all faith.
And that is a, I think, illustration of how our communities can come together.
LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Rami Nashashibi, thank you so much for your time.
RAMI NASHASHIBI: Thank you.
GEOFF BENNETT: In addition to the spike in Islamophobia, a wave of antisemitic incidents has swept the world since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt is the Biden administration's special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, and she joins us now.
Thanks so much for coming in.
DEBORAH LIPSTADT, U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism: Thank you.
Thank you for having me.
GEOFF BENNETT: So, as I mentioned, incidents of antisemitism have surged globally since the October 7 by Hamas on Southern Israel.
And putting some numbers to it, in this country, the ADL reports antisemitic incidents have risen by about 400 percent in the two weeks following the attack.
London's police force say they have seen a 14-fold increase, a 240 percent year-on-year increase in Germany.
And, of course, we all saw what happened in Russia as that angry crowd searched for Jews to harm after a plane had arrived from Tel Aviv.
How is the administration confronting the scourge of antisemitism and hate, given the severity and the scale of it?
DEBORAH LIPSTADT: The president, the vice president, the secretary of state, to whom I report directly, have been absolutely unequivocal in their condemnation of this.
This is something separate and apart from what's going on in the Middle East.
I mean, of course, it's tied to it.
But to attack Jews -- I mean, I just came back from Paris.
In France, they have seen more antisemitic events in the past three weeks since October 7 than they saw in all of 2022.
To attack Jews, Jewish institutions is not to take a side in the Middle East conflict.
It's to be antisemitic.
And the administration has been unrelenting in condemning this, and I have gotten very strong support from my colleagues.
GEOFF BENNETT: Are the condemnations, the denouncements of antisemitism -- in some cases, officials are stepping up security -- is that sufficient to meet the moment, or is more required?
DEBORAH LIPSTADT: It's not sufficient.
I mean, I don't know -- there's a limit to what official -- government can do.
You really need a whole-of-society approach.
That's one of the reasons why I and so many of my colleagues and colleagues in other countries who deal with this issue have asked leaders, government leaders, civil society leaders to speak out and condemn this.
This is unacceptable.
It is -- I used to talk about a surge in antisemitism when this first began.
And then I talked about a storm.
Now, this past week, I have been talking about a tsunami.
You see it.
You see it on university campuses.
And I have been to Rome.
I have been to Paris.
I'm off to Germany in a day, in two days.
We see it in this country, expressions, unrelenting expressions of Jew hatred.
We talk about antisemitism, but really a strong word is pure and simple Jew hatred.
And that has nothing to do with the Middle East.
It's like people just felt -- the cover is off, I can say whatever I want.
GEOFF BENNETT: Well, when it comes to the anger over the deaths of what are believed to be thousands of Palestinians as a result of Israel's bombardment of Gaza, what's the difference between legitimate criticism of Israel's government and anti-Israel rhetoric that translates into antisemitism?
DEBORAH LIPSTADT: I think they're very different.
Look, in democracies -- in Israel, take Israel, for example.
The national sport is not football.
The national sport is criticism of the government.
Every Israeli knows what its government should be doing better.
So it's not a matter of criticism of government or even criticism of policies.
It's when you justify hatred.
So many instances -- in many instances in that -- you mentioned the incident in Russia, in Dagestan, when the plane -- they were saying, where are the Jews?
They weren't saying, where are the Israelis?
Where are the Jews?
In Australia, we saw a demonstration, "Gas the Jews."
We have seen that in Berlin.
We have seen similar things in Paris, in London, and in this country.
That's not about the Middle East.
That's about antisemitism.
That's about hating Jews.
GEOFF BENNETT: Is there a difference between right-wing antisemitism and left-wing antisemitism?
Does the political ideology warrant different approaches to combating it?
DEBORAH LIPSTADT: I think -- you know, it's ironic.
Antisemitism is ubiquitous.
It comes from every place on the political spectrum, as we have seen in the past couple of weeks.
And, as I said in my confirmation hearings before the Senate, it can come from Christians.
It can come from Muslims.
It can come from atheists.
It can come from Jews.
It comes from everywhere.
And on some level, the far, far right and the far, far left often meet on the issue of antisemitism.
You need different tactics to address these groups, but I don't know if you can really change those people on the extremes.
The people I want to reach when I'm going overseas, when I'm speaking to different groups, to different governments, civil society, are the people who might say, well, there's something to this.
I want to expose them to what this hatred can do.
No genocide ever began with people picking up guns or machetes or creating gas -- it begins with words, and it escalates from there.
And words "Death to the Jews," "Jews should die," "We need a Jew-free society," which you hear in this country and you hear abroad, are just fodder for that hatred and doesn't go away.
It just builds and builds.
GEOFF BENNETT: Ambassador Lipstadt, thanks so much for coming in.
It's a real pleasure to speak with you.
DEBORAH LIPSTADT: Well, good, even on this topic.
GEOFF BENNETT: Yes.
DEBORAH LIPSTADT: Thank you very much for having me.
GEOFF BENNETT: Thousands of runners have been training for this Sunday's New York City marathon.
And one of them is representing a running club inside California's San Quentin Prison.
The group is featured in a new documentary playing on the state's prison TV network and for its parole board.
Special correspondent Mike Cerre has the story of the film "26.2 to Life" for our arts and culture series, Canvas.
MAN: Knowing you are going to be locked up for the rest of your life, you got to have ways to cope.
MIKE CERRE: The new documentary "26.2 to Life" chronicles San Quentin's 1,000 Mile running club training for its annual 26.2-mile marathon inside the prison's exercise yard.
MAN: It allows you to feel like you're doing something normal, that you're doing something that's not prison.
MIKE CERRE: First-time film director Christine Yoo wanted to break down the viewers and her own preconceptions of inmates serving indeterminate and in many cases life sentences.
CHRISTINE YOO, Director, "26.2 to Life": I really only knew about prison life from what we see in Hollywood movies and TV series and popular culture.
So when I first walked into San Quentin, my initial perception was really off.
Christine Yoo spent six years visiting, volunteering, and documenting this inspiring rehabilitation program started by veteran marathon runner and coach Frank Ruona.
FRANK RUONA, Founder, 1,000 Mile Club: We named the club the 1,000 Mile Club.
The idea was to have the inmates run 1,000 miles while they were at San Quentin.
Hey, we're going in 10, nine, eight.
MIKE CERRE: The culminating marathon held each November since 2008 is only one of the film's story arcs and more of a backdrop for the equally dramatic backstories of the runners.
Let's talk about the three characters that play the most prominent roles.
CHRISTINE YOO: Markelle was somebody that I met on the first day that I visited San Quentin, because he was the fastest man in the club.
He was the gazelle.
And I was immediately struck by his very gentle and soft-spoken manner.
MARKELLE TAYLOR, Inmate: They have a lot of programs here, and you got a lot of outside people here, but this is still prison.
It gets violent.
FRANK RUONA: Markelle looks awesome.
He's got a nice drive going.
CHRISTINE YOO: Even though this was a film about running, I wanted to look at the club and prison life from a more diverse perspective.
So, while Markelle was the fastest runner, Rahsaan was the slowest runner.
This guy has a 55-to-life sentence, but has an incredible sense of humor and a different way of looking at things.
RAHSAAN THOMAS, Inmate: I decided to put in something positive and, like, not let these people think they're right about me, not let my son grow up thinking that his dad is a loser.
MIKE CERRE: Tommy Wickerd is serving a 57-year sentence for murder and gang-related activities.
TOMMY WICKERD, Inmate: This doesn't happen in every prison.
You got to remember, all I did was hang around gang members and do drugs and sell drugs and hurt people.
Now I'm around coaches that are just like my mom and dad growing up with good people.
CHRISTINE YOO: I originally met his wife, Marion, and so I thought, wow, this is an - - would be an amazing opportunity to show what being a father or a husband from prison is really like.
MIKE CERRE: Despite the prison marathon's six 90-degree turns, Markelle "The Gazelle" Taylor wins the race in little over three hours.
Tommy Wickerd completed his 105 laps around and through the crowded prison yard under four hours.
MAN: No one said it was going to be easy.
You're doing great.
MIKE CERRE: And Rahsaan "New York" Thomas predictably finished last.
RAHSAAN THOMAS: I'm supposed to be miserable.
MAN: Making the final lap here.
RAHSAAN THOMAS: I'm supposed to be a failure.
I'm supposed to give up.
I'm supposed to die in here.
MIKE CERRE: The film doesn't overly play up the race for its primary drama or conclusion.
The rest of the story is even more inspiring.
MARKELLE TAYLOR: My goal is to run under three hours, maybe qualify for Boston here, be the first one to do that.
CHRISTINE YOO: I knew that he had been denied parole twice, but sort of shame on me for thinking that dreams don't and can't come true.
So, to have that goal and to maintain that dream from inside, I think, says a lot about his mental and spiritual fortitude.
MIKE CERRE: Markelle was paroled on his third attempt, after serving 17 years of his 15-to-life sentence for second-degree murder.
He has since run the Boston Marathon twice, once under three hours, and has been sharing his story and the film with juvenile offenders around the country.
MARKELLE TAYLOR: I'm an ambassador for lifers, life-incarcerated men and formerly incarcerated men, and what I experience and what I go through can help change policies in a way people are being treated, even from the outside or the inside.
MIKE CERRE: Markelle works full-time at a local supermarket while training for New York and other marathons, and spends evenings back inside San Quentin, now as one of the 1,000 Mile club's volunteer coaches.
California's Governor Newsom commuted Rahsaan "New York" Thomas' sentence after serving 23 years in prison.
TOMMY WICKERD: Here in San Quentin, we call this the bottleneck.
You have -- you go from dirt to asphalt, and if you step on a rock at 22 miles, it's going to get your attention.
Tommy Wickerd is the current president of San Quentin's 1,000 Mile Club.
His release date is 2045, unless he gets paroled sooner.
CHRISTINE YOO: I didn't want to make an issue film.
I would like for the audience to, after having seen it, for them to decide if they think that our approach to incarceration is -- can be improved or not.
MIKE CERRE: Perhaps its most captive and important audiences have been at the first San Quentin screenings.
The film is renewing the conversation about sentencing and rehabilitation, starting with the director of California's adult prisons, Ron Broomfield.
RON BROOMFIELD, Director, California Prisons: And I think your discipline and your honesty and your commitment is going to inspire people to really look at incarcerated in a different light.
CHRISTINE YOO: People who are at the highest levels of the Department of Corrections and in the state government can see the potential, that rehabilitation does work and hopefully that the film can be used as a tool to advocate for more of that.
MARKELLE TAYLOR: Not only is it helping you from a mental aspect and a physical.
It is also spiritual.
And it's all everything combined.
And it's more hands-on with people involved with helping you to reach your goals in life.
MIKE CERRE: For the "PBS NewsHour," Mike Cerre in San Quentin, California.
GEOFF BENNETT: Two major sports stories now, the death of a legendary basketball coach and the Texas Rangers' World Series win.
Our correspondent John Yang has more on both.
JOHN YANG: Geoff, as the Rangers won the franchise's first World Series last night, the sports world lost a complicated and polarizing figure, basketball coach Bobby Knight, known as much for his courtside tantrums as for his team's more than 900 wins and three NCAA national championships.
Kevin Blackistone is a journalism professor at the University of Maryland, an ESPN panelist and a sports commentator for The Washington Post.
Kevin, I think you covered -- as I know, I think you covered Knight when he coached at Texas Tech.
KEVIN BLACKISTONE, The Washington Post: Absolutely.
JOHN YANG: What are your thoughts?
What do you remember about him today?
KEVIN BLACKISTONE: Well, the first thing I remember is, he's the greatest coach I have ever been that close to in any sport, period.
I remember, when he got to Texas Tech, they were coming off a 9-19 season.
They hadn't been successful in a couple of seasons.
He came right in, put his imprint on the team.
They went 23-9 and went straight to the NCAA Tournament.
I remember he also altered the uniforms a little bit to look like the old Indiana Hoosiers, who -- where he made his fame.
But he could put his imprint, his mark on a team just amazingly.
And he ran this motion offense, which meant he didn't have to rely on any particular player to be a scorer.
Everybody became a scorer.
He ran a great defense.
He was just a genius of a basketball coach.
There's no question about it.
JOHN YANG: What made him so successful?
KEVIN BLACKISTONE: I think his ability to make people believe in his system.
And it had been so successful for so long, how could you say otherwise?
Remember, this is a guy who, in all of his years, racking up all those wins at Army and then for the longest at Indiana and then finally at Texas Tech, in all those years, he had one NBA All-Star player, and that was Isaiah Thomas.
That's how good of a coach he was.
That season that he went 32-0, the other season right next to that, they went 31-1.
So that's one loss in two straight seasons.
He was just a tremendous motivator.
Obviously, you could say he was a bully.
And we know about that, but enough players hung around long enough and put up with his often-boorish behavior to make him a winner and to make themselves winners.
JOHN YANG: I want to talk a little bit about that behavior.
When he was at Texas Tech, we have a tape of him after a 2006 game when, as the Texas Tech athletic director said, Knight quickly lifted a player's chin.
Let's take a listen to that.
BOBBY KNIGHT, Former Texas Tech Head Basketball Coach: I have said nothing publicly about it, nor do I intend to.
And that's the attention that it deserves.
Now, does anybody else have a question about basketball?
This is a press conference for a basketball game.
JOHN YANG: What does that tell you about him?
KEVIN BLACKISTONE: He ran the show.
He also intimidated those of us in the media.
He got his way with everyone and everybody.
Boorish behavior was something he saw in others.
He never recognized his own.
But I will tell you a story.
When he got to Texas Tech, I got a call from his secretary.
And she said: "Coach Knight wanted to talk to you."
And I said: "Sure, put him on."
I knew him a little bit.
He got on and he said: "I just want to let you know I'm out here in Lubbock.
And any time you want to come out and take in a practice, just let me know."
And I said: "Coach, I'd love to be able to do that, but your practices are closed to the media.
And things have happened in your practice before that I would have to report.
So I would have to violate your code of secrecy for your practices."
And he just said: "OK." And we finished the conversation, and we both went on.
He ran the roost.
There's no question about it.
And even when he was at Texas Tech, there's an infamous, kind of comical incident with him involving the chancellor of the university, who he chased down at a salad bar in a grocery store because he was angry about something that they -- that he had perceived that the chancellor said about him.
So that's just the way he was.
There's no apologizing for it.
But that made him as much the coach off the floor as on the floor.
JOHN YANG: Commanding presence.
Let me -- I want to turn to the World Series now.
KEVIN BLACKISTONE: Of course.
JOHN YANG: Texas Rangers, first World Series in their franchise history, which goes back to being the Washington Senators.
They -- two years ago, they lost 102 games.
How did they turn this around so quickly?
KEVIN BLACKISTONE: Wow, how did they do that?
And, by the way, that's hope to everyone else in Major League Baseball that you can microwave a championship in just a couple of seasons.
They did it mainly with offense.
This is one of the more prolific offenses that we have seen in Major League Baseball maybe in the last 10, 12 years.
Number two, they did it by getting healthy at the right time of the year.
They only won 90 games during the regular season, which is one of the lowest totals ever for a World Series championship.
But they had a lot of players banged up during the season, all of whom, it appeared, became healthy during the postseason and certainly during the World Series.
So they were able to do that.
They made the right moves at the trade deadline, getting Montgomery as a pitcher, who filled out their roster, their rotation fantastically.
And they believed in themselves.
And they also were able to take advantage of this new postseason, which is expanded, and really which gives everybody an opportunity to kind of pull off the miracle win.
So you think about what they did with the defending champions just down the highway from them, the Houston Astros, who they lost to during the regular season, but who they were able to sweep in the Astros' home park during the postseason in order to get as far as they got.
So they got everything right at the right time of the season.
JOHN YANG: What does it tell us about money, about the payroll?
They had the ninth highest payroll in baseball, which is high, but there were still eight teams above them that didn't win the World Series.
KEVIN BLACKISTONE: You can't necessarily buy a championship in baseball, if in any sport anymore, because of the way the seasons are, because of the way injuries crop up, and because the talent pool, I think, is a little bit deeper now.
So they didn't have to rely on high-paid talent from some other team.
And some of the guys that they had really came to the fore, like Carter, who was a rookie who played very well, and, of course, Garcia, who became a postseason hero with the home runs that he was able to hit.
He was a guy that they brought along, and he's a two-time All-Star, and he showed out during this World Series.
JOHN YANG: Kevin Blackistone covering the horizon on sports for us tonight, thank you very much.
KEVIN BLACKISTONE: Thank you, John.
GEOFF BENNETT: After it first debuted on TV more than half-a-century ago, the O.G.
nature show is back airing on NBC.
Stephanie Sy has a look at the return of "Wild Kingdom."
VANESSEE LINDO, Discovered Eagle: She was standing perfectly still.
STEPHANIE SY: It was Fourth of July weekend, when Vanessee Lindo made a surprising and most patriotic discovery, this.
VANESSEE LINDO: There's an eagle in the yard.
STEPHANIE SY: Lindo of Yakima Nisqually descent thought the eagle's presence was auspicious.
VANESSEE LINDO: We believe that the eagle flies highest to the creator, so the eagle takes our prayers to the creator and delivers blessings back to us.
STEPHANIE SY: But she soon discovered this eagle couldn't fly.
VANESSEE LINDO: When she raised her wing, I could see blood on her, and I knew she wasn't going to leave.
She needed help.
STEPHANIE SY: Lindo drove the bird in a crate to PAWS, an animal welfare organization north of Seattle.
VANESSEE LINDO: I talked to her the entire time.
I was saying, I'm going to help you.
It's going to be OK. STEPHANIE SY: Her bald eagle encounter is featured in an episode of "Wild Kingdom: Protecting the Wild."
It's a reboot of the original nature show first broadcast 60 years ago.
MARLIN PERKINS, Former "Wild Kingdom" Host: Welcome to Mutual of Omaha's "Wild Kingdom."
STEPHANIE SY: Naturalist Marlin Perkins and zoologist Jim Fowler got up close and personal with endangered wildlife, bringing far-flung habitats into Americans' living rooms.
PETER GROS, "Wild Kingdom" Host: It was a template that many other wildlife shows followed.
STEPHANIE SY: Peter Gros joined the show in 1985 and returns for the reboot.
PETER GROS: I thought it would be an opportunity for me to be able to affect as many attitudes about conservation as I could and had no idea that I would be standing here with you now hoping to influence attitudes of the next generation about conservation.
STEPHANIE SY: The next generation includes his new co-host, wildlife ecologist Rae Wynn-Grant, who was inspired by the original program.
RAE WYNN-GRANT, Host, "Wild Kingdom": I used to sit on my grandparents' living room floor and watch these shows, and I would tell my family I want to be a nature show host when I grow up.
STEPHANIE SY: Wynn-Grant says filming "Wild Kingdom" has come with some unexpected animal encounters.
RAE WYNN-GRANT: I can now say that I have been bit by a bat inside of a bat cave.
STEPHANIE SY: The show returns at a time when wildlife is more threatened than ever.
Today, an estimated 40 percent of animals are at risk of extinction.
RAE WYNN-GRANT: Human development has bisected so much of their habitat.
That's the main thing.
VANESSEE LINDO: She was right over here.
STEPHANIE SY: For now, the crew is focused on stories right in our backyard in the United States, with hopes to highlight wildlife abroad in a future season.
PETER GROS: Now that you have turned off the anesthesia... STEPHANIE SY: Gros wants to educate viewers about what they can do.
PETER GROS: This is such a good example of why people should put stickers on their glass windows to prevent birds from flying into them and getting these serious injuries.
This generation of ours has grown up hearing so much gloom and doom about the state of our natural world.
I think the message is, it is not too late, if we all become proactive and see what we can do to participate in conservation, and some of these species will be resilient with our help and can make a comeback.
STEPHANIE SY: Take the bald eagle.
Once threatened with extinction and protected by the Endangered Species Act, its populations have since recovered and are growing.
PETER GROS: I think the fact that we're now talking about a highly endangered species that almost disappeared that is off the endangered species list now is a great story for us to be telling.
STEPHANIE SY: But the story of the eagle Vanessee Lindo found in her yard shows that threats remain.
DR. NICKI ROSENHAGEN, PAWS: There was a wound on her left shoulder, and there were metallic fragments, so she had been shot.
STEPHANIE SY: Dr. Nicki Rosenhagen Is a wildlife veterinarian at PAWS.
DR. NICKI ROSENHAGEN: Where you can see that bright white, that's metal, and these are bone fragments.
STEPHANIE SY: Linda couldn't believe it.
VANESSEE LINDO: It really made me angry to think about our national bird being shot on Independence Weekend, nonetheless.
STEPHANIE SY: According to Dr. Rosenhagen, shootings are all too common.
What would have happened had she not been brought in?
DR. NICKI ROSENHAGEN: She wouldn't have been able to survive, right?
She can't feed herself.
She can't avoid predators or humans, dogs, anything like that.
So she probably would have succumbed to the injury.
STEPHANIE SY: Rosenhagen and her team were able to treat the wound.
They cleaned the gunshot site and removed bone fragments.
The eagle's wing was immobilized in a wrap.
She was also treated for lead poisoning.
DR. NICKI ROSENHAGEN: In almost all cases, they're ingesting it, and so the most common reasons that there's lead ammunition, an animal that comes along, especially like an eagle, they're a scavenger and they're going to ingest that.
We're also just seeing it in the soil.
STEPHANIE SY: In the months that followed, the eagle did physical therapy.
As she recovered, the team studied her flight and stamina.
DR. NICKI ROSENHAGEN: We were looking to see, can she fly from the ground to the highest perch?
And she finally did that last week.
STEPHANIE SY: So, early one recent morning at a park south of Seattle, with "Wild Kingdom" cameras rolling and Lindo on hand to watch.
RAE WYNN-GRANT: All right, well, I'm ready.
Are you all feeling ready?
PETER GROS: Let's do it.
STEPHANIE SY: Wynn-Grant and Gros opened a crate holding the fully rehabilitated bald eagle.
This national symbol of freedom soared back into nature.
VANESSEE LINDO: It's like my girl is free and she's back where she belongs.
So I'm just thrilled.
I'm happy.
STEPHANIE SY: Gros hopes stories like this spur the next generation of wildlife enthusiasts into action.
PETER GROS: Each person can make a change personally to preserve our natural world.
STEPHANIE SY: The threats to wildlife are very real, but the message of "Wild Kingdom" is, there is hope.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Stephanie Sy in Seattle.
GEOFF BENNETT: Such a great story.
And that's the "NewsHour" for tonight.
I'm Geoff Bennett.
Thanks for spending part of your evening with us.
