SUMMARY: Fear around the North’s missile and nuclear programs have spiked with false alarms in Hawaii over the weekend and Japan on Tuesday. At a Vancouver summit, U.S. officials hope to unite the West to target North Korea economically. Meanwhile, the two Koreas continue their first direct talks in two years. Nick Schifrin talks to retired Adm. Mike Mullen, former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman.
SUMMARY: A wave of Palestinian attacks on Israeli civilians and security forces has left the Middle Eastern state in turmoil, further exacerbated by the recent ballistic missile tests from Iran’s hardline Republican Guard faction. Gwen Ifill talks to Daniel Estrin of the Associated Press for more on the situation in Israel.
GWEN IFILL (NewsHour): Vice President Biden met with Israeli and Palestinian leaders today amid a deadly spike in attacks in Israel.
Yesterday, an American war veteran and student, Taylor Force, was killed in Jaffa during a series of stabbings. Today, after meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Biden condemned the attacks and the apparent celebration of the tactic by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ political party.
VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: The kind of violence we saw yesterday, the failure to condemn it, the rhetoric that incites that violence, the retribution that it generates, has to stop. There can’t be — there cannot be unilateral steps to undermine trust that only takes us further away — further and further away from an outcome.
GWEN IFILL: The vice president also responded to Iran’s test launch of ballistic missiles capable of reaching Israel. The Israeli government has strongly opposed the U.S.-brokered nuclear deal reached with Iran last summer.
Biden today said, if Iran were to break the deal — quote — “We will act.”
I’m joined now by Daniel Estrin in Jerusalem, who’s covering the story for the Associated Press.
Daniel, we have seen months and months of these stabbing attacks, especially horrific. What’s behind them?
DANIEL ESTRIN, Associated Press: That’s a good question.
Palestinians say that it’s the Israeli military occupation of the Palestinian territories, a desperation, that there seems to be no solution and no end if sight, and no hope for a future for them.
Israeli officials say that this is a Palestinian campaign of incitement and lies fueled by social media. And you see a lot, especially today on Twitter. The Fatah Party, the political party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, posted a photo of a cartoon basically extolling the stabber that stabbed the American student.
HARI SREENIVASAN (Newshour): With all the talk the past many months about a possible military conflict between Israel and Iran, a new source of conflict might be emerging. The Wall Street Journal reported this week that the Islamic militant group, Hezbollah, is getting more advanced weaponry that could be far more precise in their attacks. Charles Levinson was one of the authors of the piece and joins us now. So, there has been this arms race under the guise of the Syrian war that has been happening in the neighborhood. Who is getting what kind of weapons?
CHARLES LEVINSON, Wall Street Journal: Right. So, when Assad starts losing control in Syria in 2012, Iran and Syria want Hezbollah to lend its expertise to the fight. Hezbollah was reluctant because of its own domestic political considerations inside Lebanon. To sweeten the deal, Iran basically offered Hezbollah to upgrade its weapons arsenal from having tens of thousands – about a hundred thousand unguided, dumb bombs and rockets and missiles to having smart, guided missiles that can hit precise targets inside Israel. So, the weapons transfers that we are looking at so far are the SA-17. It is an anti-aircraft, sort of highly mobile, advanced anti-aircraft missile that would really threaten Israel’s dominance in the skies above Lebanon, especially its helicopters. You are talking about the Fato-110, which is very precise within a… I cannot remember the exact… but within a few dozen/few hundred meters let’s say. A surface-to-surface missile that can reach basically all of Israel, and the same thing called the surface-to-ship/anti-ship missile, which can basically take out any Israeli (or U.S.) ship patrolling the Mediterranean off the coast of Lebanon.
GWEN IFILL (Newshour): And now to North Korea, where a successful rocket launch echoed in world capitals today.
We begin with a report narrated by John Sparks of Independent Television News.
JOHN SPARKS: In a country where there is little to shout about, except on the evening news, today brought something special.
"It's the proud result of the Workers' Party's policy on science and technology," bellowed the newsreader.
The last time they tried this, back in April, North Korea's multistage rocket disintegrated a few minutes after takeoff.
But, this time, it seems they got it right. The only pictures we have got come from the control room's big-screen TV, but we can see the rocket leave the launch pad and climb into the upper atmosphere.
And we're told it put a satellite, the Shining Star-3, into orbit. This country may not be able to feed its own people, but its engineers can fire things into space.
"It's made with our own technology and our own strength," says the director of the command center. The country's boyish-looking supreme leader, Kim Jong-un, has disregarded the will of the international community and enhanced his own credentials with the military at home.
Some hoped he'd take a more reformist approach one year after the death of his father, Kim Jong Il, but those hopes have been dashed, it seems.
In South Korea, protesters took to the streets burning flags and portraits. And the international community added its voice, too, the worry, that the launch has more to do with the development of long-range missiles, missiles that could deliver nuclear weapons.
SUMMARY: Though Kim Jong-Il passed away in December 2011, his son Kim Jong Un continues his father's policies with the latest rocket launch. Margaret Warner talks to David Wright of Union of Concerned Scientists and Han Park of University of Georgia about the politics and consequences for the launch, including proliferation concerns.
JEFFREY BROWN (Newshour): President Obama joined world leaders today denouncing North Korea's rocket launch. In an interview with Telemundo, he said the international community would take further steps to isolate the country of the failed launch this morning. The president added that the North Koreans -- quote -- "don't seem to be real good at firing missiles."
We begin with this report from Angus Walker of Independent Television News.
ANGUS WALKER: The only rockets being launched that people in North Korea have been allowed to see today, as two giant statues of the first two presidents were unveiled, father, son. And the new young supreme leader, Kim Jong-un, was there to watch. The third in line in the Kim dynasty had hoped to be the first to successfully oversee a satellite launch. But that rocket broke up in midair just after liftoff.
This was meant to be a victory parade to celebrate the launch of the satellite. Instead, most people here have been told very little about the failure of the rocket, just a short line on the news that the satellite failed to reach orbit.
As the parade ended, I asked people what they thought about the rocket failure. At first, these women said they didn't know much about it. Behind the camera, our government minder prompts them.
"We're not disappointed," they then say.
MAN: We are never disappointed.
ANGUS WALKER: The brief announcement on state TV said scientists were looking into why the satellite hadn't made it into orbit, but blank screens in the press center where we had been promised we could watch the rocket taking off.
For five hours after the launch had been reported by South Korean media, officials in North Korea awkwardly refused to comment, a contrast to just days ago, when there had been open access to see final preparations.
James Oberg used to work for NASA.
JAMES OBERG, former NASA engineer: Looking at how they handle failure in the past has been to deny it. This time, at least they have admitted it. But it seems to me they have to find someone to blame, either foreign enemies, internal enemies, Mother Nature. There's always a case of finding someone else to blame.
ANGUS WALKER: As darkness fell in the North Korean capital, people queued for free bowls of water. Tonight, there's not much for the leadership to drink to.
MARGARET WARNER: The U.N. Security Council charged that the North Korean launch violated two sanctions resolutions from 2006 and 2009. Russia and China signaled they oppose any new sanctions, however.
The U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Susan Rice, had this to say.
SUSAN RICE, United States ambassador to the United Nations: The United States' view of this is quite clear. We have condemned the launch. We view it as a direct violation of Resolution 1718 and 1874. We think it's important that the council respond credibly, and we will be working in that direction.
