Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Israel Continues Offensive in Gaza; Rebel and Ukrainian Fighting Keep Investigators Out of Crash Site; Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Sounds Off on Putin; Second American Tests Positive for Ebola Virus

Aired July 27, 2014 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, thanks for spending time with me. I'm Ana Cabrera in for Fredricka Whitfield. These stories are topping the news this hours.

Israel going on the offensive in Gaza after enduring what it called incessant rocket fire from Hamas. Is a cease-fire within reach? CNN is on the ground across the region. Live coverage just moments away.

A major setback for the MH-17 crash investigation. Raging battles between pro-Russian rebels and Ukrainian forces are keeping investigators from the crash site. Hear how this situation could get even more dangerous in the days ahead.

Plus, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sounds off on Vladimir Putin. Hear her firsthand account of how the Russian president behaved during their official visit.

Let's begin in the Middle East and new doubts about whether another cease-fire can actually take hold. Hamas has said it has agreed to a 24-hour cease-fire, but they're still firing rockets into Israel, again, blaming lack of commitment from Israel.

Now, diplomats from the United Nations are working to build what they call a humanitarian pause. Yesterday, Israel said it was unilaterally extending the cease-fire that began there on Friday, but then Hamas has rejected that extension.

So Israel has resumed its military operations in Gaza after mortar fire from Gaza killed an Israeli soldier today. Israel says it was responding to what it called incessant shelling throughout the humanitarian window.

And earlier our Wolf Blitzer spoke with the U.N. special envoy and heard his appeal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT SERRY, U.N. SPECIAL COORDINATOR FOR MIDDLE EAST PEACE: An appeal on both sides to where we now show utmost restraint for this humanitarian pulse to become effective, I hope, as soon as possible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: White house officials tell CNN that Secretary of State John Kerry is also continuing make calls on how to reach a cease-fire. He is now back in the U.S. after his earlier attempting overseas to broker that seven-day cease-fire has failed.

So our hopes for a cease-fire completely dead at this point. Sara Sidner is now joining us from Jerusalem.

Sara, we know that the U.N. envoys are working on a deal but the White House told us a short time ago that secretary Kerry has not given up, is still making calls. Is anybody making any headway as far as you can tell there?

SARA SIDNER, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, if you were looking at the situation now at this point, no. But, of course, they are still pushing and you have heard this sort of back and forth between Israel saying, yes, we will have another cease-fire first with an extra four hours after a 12-hour cease-fire that did hold and no response from Hamas on that. They rejected that.

Then Israel came back. He said, OK, we'll do a 24-hour cease-fire. Hamas, initially no response. And then we heard from Hamas after they rejected that offer from Israel. Hamas saying, OK, now we'll do a 24- hour cease-fire.

In the meantime there were rockets coming. Ever since midnight, so far, we know there were 56 rockets or mortar shells that have come over into southern Israel. Three houses have been hit. At least one person, a civilian injured inside one of those homes. We also know the IDF after that rejection of the cease-fire by Hamas did start its campaign inside of Gaza saying that they targeted 40 different structures there. They're also going after what they say are terrorists, namely Hamas militants and perhaps Islamic jihad militants.

And so, the battle has begun again. And it was very intense, just after the rejection of the cease-fire. We have not heard of more in the last few hours of more strikes, either in Gaza or rocket fire into Israel. But certainly the situation is nowhere near calm and the conflict continues -- Ana.

CABRERA: What can you tell us about the talks happening there in the region? We know there have been calls from Egypt for perhaps keys to this deal brokering of sorts?

SIDNER: Well, the reason why you're hearing that is that in times past, Egypt has been the key. In 2012, they were the key. In 2008 they were the key. When the conflict flared up again and I was here in 2012 when Egypt came in and said, OK, yes, we will be that mediator even though the head of the mediations at that time, Mohamed Morsi, was the member of the Muslim brotherhood which is also the Hamas organization. They're also sort of a brother to that organization.

So, they did get involved and it did get solved back then, but flared up now. Egypt has not been as involved, not taking that lead role if you will. But we know that discussions are going on. And I think you're going to see pushing from the United States also obviously from the United Nations, trying to get some kind of deal done so that civilians no longer have to suffer on either side -- Ana.

CABRERA: Just in the last hour we heard about the U.N. school that was bombed. Fill us in.

SIDNER: I was on the phone call along with other journalists with Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner who is with the Israel defense forces. And he did talk to us through this inquiry that Israel has done. They promised they were going to do an investigation. They have done so.

Let me read exactly what he said to reporters on the phone. He said, a single errant Israeli mortar landed in the courtyard in that school. The footage they have shows the courtyard was empty at the time. It is extremely unlikely anybody was killed by that mortar fire. But he added that there could be injuries from the shrapnel. And he also said we did not target the international organization's operating in the Gaza Strip. We reject the claim that people were killed by the IDF mortar on the school premises.

A very hard line there from Israel saying that they did not kill anyone. We have seen the video. He said that IDF has video. We have seen that video from above. The mortar, obviously, coming from the ground into that courtyard and it's very hard for us to determine because it's so high up exactly what happened there. But Israel saying that they did not kill anyone with a mortar that did strike inside of that school.

CABRERA: We can only hope that is indeed the case.

Sara Sidner, thanks for your reporting.

And both sides of the conflict between Israel and Hama are also speaking out. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu telling us that Hamas is responsible for breaking the most recent cease-fire and all the other ones, he says. Here's what he told CNN earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: Well, Hamas doesn't even accept its own cease-fire. It has continue to fire at us as we speak. Israel has accepted five cease-fires since this conflict began, five. We accepted them and we implemented them including two humanitarian cease-fires in the last 24 hours which Hamas rejected as they rejected all the other cease-fires and they violated them.

So you say Israel resumed its offensive. No, we didn't resume our offensive. We had a cease-fire, they violated it. And now they're violating their own cease-fire. And obviously, we'll take whatever action is necessary to protect our people including against the terror tunnels that they are trying to against us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: So let's get the Palestinian perspective also appearing on the "STATE OF THE UNION" was Mohammed Shtayyeh. He is the advisor to the Palestinian authority president Mahoud Abbas.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MOHAMMAD SHTAYYEH, ADVISOR TO PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY PRESIDENT: If the Israeli army is going to be stationed where it is and continue shelling of just the Israel is very much endangering whether it is the humanitarian cease-fire, whether it is a timing cease-fire. Whether it is a long lasting cease-fire, the Israeli army should not stay where it is now because the Israeli army now is nearly occupying 50 persons of the total area of the Gaza Strip.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Both sides continue to point fingers and blame at each other. They really don't seem much closer to the resolution. We'll go back into the region in about ten minutes for the very latest on this ongoing conflict.

But first heavy fighting in eastern Ukraine is now keeping investigators from getting to the crash site of Malaysia airlines flight 17. And I'll talk with an aviation expert about what information investigators have been able to piece together about this crash.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: The headlines, the violence, that is Gaza today stem from a long angry history. Israelis and Palestinians have been at war since Israel became a nation in 1948. It's part religion, part politics, part geography, and all of it in dispute.

CNN's Michel Holmes explain how it got to this point.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Question one, what are they fighting over? A sliver of land between the Mediterranean sea and the Jordan river, about the size of Maryland, roughly 10,000 square miles. But that land is some of the most sacred in the world for three religions. Christianity, Judaism and Islamism.

Why is it so important to them? Sacred sites for all stream, the Christian's Bethlehem, the birth place of Jesus and Jerusalem where he was crucified and rose to heaven.

For Muslims, Jerusalem (INAUDIBLE) third holiest site in all of Islam. And the mosque sit on the temple mount, holiest site in all of Judaism.

So who lives there? More than 12.3 million people, merely the same as live in Pennsylvania but in a much, much smaller area. Just over half that number are Jews and that is one of the concerns for Israel.

Why is Israel's population a concern? Well, the birth rates stayed the same and the areas isn't. Split into two states, some day Palestinians will outnumber Jews. This represents a potential demographic shift which some believe would threaten the very foundation of the Jewish state.

How long have Arabs and Israel been openly fighting? Well, basically since Israel declared independence in 1948. After it declaring independence, it was immediately attacked by Arab neighbors including Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq. Israel fought them again in 1967 and 1973. Eventually, some of those countries like Egypt and Jordan made peace with Israel. But the fate of Palestinian refugees is still a source of great contention between Israel and the world.

So who is Hamas? A Palestinian organization that rules in Gaza, considered a terrorist group by many countries including U.S. and Israel, it political wing holds a majority in the Palestinian legislature with most of the Abbas (ph) state held by its political rival Fatah, which rules the other Palestinian territory, the West Bank.

Hamas is charter plaintiff to the group to the destruction of Israel. And it's never given up that fight. It uses its weapons including rockets to attack Israeli towns.

So how does this end? The international community encourages a so- called two-state solution, an independent Palestine and Israel living in peace side by side. But the two sides can't even agree on the borders to say nothing of the other issues such as whether Palestine should have a military or Israel's controversial blockade of Gaza or what happens to those Jewish settlements on the West Bank, an area which holds increasingly precious water resources. Right now they seem stark request uneasy neighbors with an uncertain future.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA: Michael Holmes, thanks for that report.

Still to come, at the top of the hour, we talk diplomacy in the Middle east.

Up next, we'll take you live to the Israel-Gaza border where the fighting is happening.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: We're going to catch you on the latest in the Middle East in just a moment.

But we have also learned of an attack in Africa that's raising concern.

The group responsible for kidnapping more than 200 school girls in Nigeria has struck again, this time, Cameroon. According to Reuters, the militant group called Boko Haram stormed the vice prime minister's home in the northern part of this country and killed at least three people, kidnapping the vice prime minister's wife. And in a separate incident, a local religious leader was also kidnapped at his home. There is no cease-fire in place right now between Israel and Hamas.

Hamas says it had agreed to a 24-hour cease-fire, but they are firing rockets into Israel again, blaming a lack of commitment from Israel. Diplomats from the United Nations are working on what they call a humanitarian pause. Israel though, has resumed its military operations in Gaza after mortar fire from Gaza killed an Israeli soldier today. Israel also said it was responding to what it called, quote, "incessant shelling throughout the humanitarian window."

Our Atika Shubert is on the ground near the Israeli-Gaza border. Clearly, there's no cease-fire in place. Just how much fire have you seen back and forth today?

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, earlier today when we were about a kilometer away from the border, we heard some pretty regular outgoing strikes from Israel into Gaza. And equally this morning, we were seeing rockets coming in fired from Gaza into Israel. In fact, we heard the sirens go off and interception just in the city of Ashkelon. And one of those rockets actually made a direct hit on a house in Eshkol (ph), I believe injuring a woman inside.

So that was what was happening this morning. But now, we're a few kilometers further from the border and it seems a little quieter. We do see -- hear occasionally that distant rumble of explosion, but not with the same irregularity we were hearing this morning.

Now, I don't want to suggest that maybe possibly leading up to something. But it does seems to have been a lull. Now, it could resume later on. But obviously, we have these appeals from diplomats in the U.N. for the 24-hour cease-fire. We'll have to see, maybe if it does gets a little bit quieter, there may be some possibility of that going forward.

CABRERA: Atika, I want to bring everybody up to speed on the number of deaths and the casualties that have had happened. More than a thousand have been killed, 200 of them children according to the United Nations office with the coordination of humanitarian affairs. And that organization says 73 percent of these deaths have been civilians and yet Israel says its primary focus has been the tunnels and trying to rid Hamas's access of Israel to secure its border there. What are you learning about their progress and doing that part of the mission?

SHUBERT: Yes. The idea of Israel's defense forces says that they're trying most of all to disarm Hamas. And in doing so, they're trying to destroy what they describe as an underground city of tunnels by which Hamas is able to not only store weapons and launch rockets but also even infiltrate into Israel.

And we have seen a few of those infiltration points on the Israeli side of the border and a number of soldiers have actually been killed in those engagements. So it is a real threat.

On the other hand, people are asking what does it take to get rid of this tunnel network and why does it for example involve shelling in very heavily populated areas, particularly where civilians are. And when we see these staggering numbers, more than a thousand civilians killed, many people are asking about the precision of the Israeli military in its operations going forward.

So this is one of the controversies, but the IDF insists it is going to continue to be in Gaza even if there is a cease-fire in order to dismantle this tunnel network. So this is one of the main sticking points of any possibility of a truce.

CABRERA: I wonder if you might be able to shed some light and give us some facts from what we heard earlier from George Birnbaum, the current advisor to the foreign minister there in Israel who says that many of the casualties have been the result of Hamas, actually dragging civilians out to where they know the missile aisles are going to strike. Is there any truth to that?

SHUBERT: Well, I'm not in Gaza so it is hard for me to see to verify any of those claims. But what I can say after I have been to Gaza before, is that this is an extremely densely populated area, one of the most densely populated areas on earth. And it's constantly being squeezed further.

When you consider that the Israeli military ordered an evacuation of certain areas and that means that anybody who leaves is going to get squished into an even smaller tighter space. So no matter what areas get hit, it seemed almost inevitable that civilian structures are also going to get hit.

Having said that, Hamas does have a history of launching rockets from civilian areas, of hiding itself and its command centers in civilian areas. And U.N. schools have even said earlier this week that they did find in two cases rockets secreted inside two of the two U.N. schools.

So both -- in both sides, have a point here. But on the other hand, the big question is even if that is the case, how do you avoid mass civilian casualties?

CABRERA: And that's the question we all want answered when to call for cease-fire have been so adamant.

Thank you so much, Atika Shubert and stay safe as you continue to report there.

You can't even see one of the biggest threats to Israel security tunnels. And we'll show you the IDF plan to shut them down.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: Bottom of the hour now. Welcome back. I'm Ana Cabrera in for Fredricka Whitfield.

Here are the five things crossing the CNN news desk right now.

The Costa Concordia cruise ship has reached the end of its final voyage. The ship was towed to an Italian port in the city (INAUDIBLE). And it will be dry-docked there and then scrapped. The ship ran aground in 2012, 32 people died, one passenger still missing. It is the largest salvage operation ever. The price tag so far, $1.5 billion. Billion.

Now, we've just learned a second American has tested positive for Ebola. The woman is an aide worker in Liberia who was helping a team that is treating an Ebola patient. An American doctor is also infected with it Ebola. 33-year-old Dr. Kent Brantly was working in Africa, also treating Ebola patients. He is now in treatment at an African hospital in isolation. The current outbreak of this disease is the deadliest ever in Africa.

This wildfire in California is forcing about a thousand people from their homes today. The sand fire is burning just north east of Sacramento, high temperatures, low humidity, strong winds making it real tough for firefighters. More than 700 of them are on scene right now battling the flames.

A new class is in the baseball hall of fame in beautiful Cooperstown, New York. It is the big day for the Atlanta brave there. Three former Braves were inducted. Bobby Cox, Greg Maddic and Tom Glavine. Also inducted today, White Sox slugger Frank Thomas and managers, Joe Torre and Tony La Russa.

Now, let's touch the eastern Ukraine where there is deadly violence raging today preventing investigators from getting to the crash site where Malaysian plane was shot down. The fighting between pro-Russian rebel and Ukrainian government forces have killed at least 13 people including two children just today.

Now, the bloodshed comes more than a week after flight 17 crashed killing all 298 people on board. Malaysia's prime minister says he is deeply concerned that the investigators cannot get to the scene because of this volatile security situation. A proper investigation still hasn't really started and some bodies are still lying near the debris there.

A spokesman for Ukraine's national security also said the crash site is still under control of terrorists.

I want to bring in our CNN safety analyst David Soucie.

David, at some point do you think it is going to be too late to start their investigation?

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: Well, it sure should could be, Ana. What's difficult right now is the separation between intelligence and the actual gathering of evidence. It's difficult in the court of law to prove something just from intelligence. And all we have really right now is intelligence. So it's imperative that we get out there. It's imperative that we gathered some information from the sight that can be used to prove what's happening.

CABRERA: Don't we have pictures, though, from the site that maybe can provide that proof?

SOUCIE: Yes. Again, pictures I've been in court many times with what I thought was a very firm case in an accident site and those pictures were thrown out because of the chain of custody. And the chain of custody in this case is not there because the people who took those pictures are reporters or something like that where those photos are handed down from people to people without a firm and documented case -- chain of command or chain of custody.

CABRERA: So if I'm understanding you right, basically, we need to get our hands or investigators need to get their hands on the physical pieces of evidence. Is that something you could have, like a proxy or somebody else do? They could do the gathering since it's such a volatile situation there?

SOUCIE: Well, I think that that's possible, however, it really needs to be someone who's designated by the Dutch. At this point, the investigation is being handled by the Dutch. I have been in contact with the investigators at the site. And they're still having trouble, of course, getting there. But once they get there, that's all they need to do is get in there. They don't need to spend a lot of time documenting because the photographic evidence can lead them to exactly what they need.

But what makes it more difficult, Ana, is that the command of control has to be proven here, if proven that they didn't take reasonable care when they were using that weapon. And in order to do that, the aircraft has information on it, which is the IFF, the friend-or-foe system, and if that friend-or-foe system was translating as a friendly fire, then they can prove there was no command or control over the discharge of that weapon, and at that point, that is a war crime.

CABRERA: I know that you are an aviation expert and FAA former investigator, but I wonder if you might comment on this. Russia had announced it's now form add team to join this investigation. Considering that they're being partly blamed for what happened with MH-17, do you think they can be trusted to come in and take part in this investigation, or do you welcome more eyes, more hands, kind of the philosophy, more brains are better than one?

SOUCIE: Well, absolutely they need to be involved in it. In every investigation, both sides are involved. When I run an investigation, you have engine manufacturer, air frame manufacturers, all of who could have play in it, the airlines itself, the operators. Everyone involved needs to be there and it needs to be coordinated. What happens then is there is time when during my investigations I will cross-mingle the investigations itself.

So for example, the engine manufacturer would be investigating (INAUDIBLE) issues. Although, there are still experts on engine, the actual handling of it goes to that. So you end up with this cross- intelligence, and that's really the only way all the information gets unveiled. And that is -- there's less chance for dispute down the road as well to say, hey, I didn't have anything to say with that or I hadn't seen that evidence. It's difficult to say that when you're part of the investigation.

CABRERA: All right. Thank you, David Soucie. Great conversation. And I appreciate your conversation and your expertise. SOUCIE: Thanks, Ana.

CABRERA: Is President Obama being tough enough on Russian president Vladimir Putin?

Still to come, we're going to put that question to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Her answer, plus she also explains why she is skeptical of Putin.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: There are growing concerns that this Ukrainian crisis is escalating after the U.S. released what it calls evidence that Russia is moving more powerful weapons into Ukraine and repeatedly firing artillery from the Russian border.

CNN's Barbara Starr has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Russia appears to now be shipping heavier caliber, more sophisticated ground rocket systems like these across its border into Ukraine according to the Pentagon. Weapons that can strike ground targets 20 miles away.

The latest shipment is imminent, the Pentagon warned Friday. The rocket launchers are seen by the U.S. as a further Russian military escalation.

JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE DEPUTY PRESS SECRETARY: We are very concerned about the transfer of weapons and materiel.

STARR: U.S. by satellites monitoring the border have seen a steady stream of Russian weapons going into Ukraine.

GEN. MARTIN DEMPSEY, CHAIRMAN, JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: At a time when, you know, I think there may be some folks who could convince themselves that pew pin could be looking to de-escalate, he's taken a decision to escalate.

STARR: General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, says the U.S. and NATO are updating military plans to be ready if Russia threatens European stability.

DEMPSEY: My fear is actually, you know, if I have a fear about this, it's that Putin may actually light a fire that he loses control of.

STARR: CNN has learned that U.S. intelligence satellites and radars have monitored repeated artillery fire from the Russian side of the border for the last several days. The U.S. now monitoring that board around the clock for any signs of Russian troop movements. The U.S. ambassador to NATO says there are limits to U.S. military help for Ukraine.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't have the responsibility to defend Ukraine, although Ukraine has been a close partner. It's not an ally. STARR: Russia's potential motivation, step up the hostilities to

protect the Moscow-backed sip rah activities.

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: They're being pushed back into a couple of key cities within the provinces of eastern Ukraine. And I think Russia is getting very concerned about this.

STARR: The question now, what will Vladimir Putin order his forces to do next.

The U.S. estimates Russia has up to 15,000 forces on its border with Ukraine and that number could still grow.

Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA: Thanks, Barbara.

And now let's hear from a woman who has had many a meeting with the Russian leader. She is no longer the top diplomat of the United States, but former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has tough talk for Russia and what Europeans should about this crisis in Ukraine. She's also sounding off on Russian president Vladimir Putin speaking earlier to CNN's Fareed Zakaria.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN HOST, FAREED ZAKARIA GPS: There are a lot of people who feel President Obama is nothing being tough enough on Vladimir Putin, on Russia. Do you think he's handling the Ukrainian crisis appropriately?

HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: Well, Fareed, I think that he is facing some of the same challenges that American presidents face when dealing with threats within Europe. The United State, obviously, has a great interest in helping to maintain peace and security in Europe and we have a formal alliance, NATO, to do so.

But much of what we can do and what the president is calling for requires the full participation of our European friends and allies and I would make three great points.

First, I think if there were any doubt, it should be gone by now, that Vladimir Putin certainly indirectly through his support of the insurgence in eastern Ukraine and the supply of advanced weapons and frankly the presence of Russian special forces and intelligence agents bears responsibility for what happened to the shoot-down of the airline.

Therefore we have to up the sanctions that are required. The United States has continued to move forward on that. Europe has been reluctant. They need to understand. They must stand up to Vladimir Putin. That brings me to my second point is that the reluctance has to do

with European dependence on energy from Russia. But I would remind my European friends as I did when I was Secretary of State and right about in my book, that they have to become more energy independent and diversify their energy supplies. Russia doesn't have yet that many markets. They're also dependent upon the European market. So I think they should go much further in sanctions and should do so as soon as quickly as possible.

And finally, it's in the interest of Europe and the United States to help Ukrainians secure their borders, up the training and supplying of the Ukrainian military forces and, of course, continue to stress the need for reform political and economic inside Ukraine. All right, of that should be done simultaneously.

ZAKARIA: You say inside the book that you felt and you said in the interview subsequently, that the reset with Russia worked because you got a new strategic arms treaty out of it. You got the Russian to agree to sanctions on Iran. Why do you think then that it stopped working? What changed?

CLINTON: Well, I thought a lot about that because I was the among the most skeptical of Putin during the time that I was there in part because I thought he had never given up on his vision of bringing mother Russia back to the forefront, not by looking at what Russia could do to be a modern nation but by looking to the past and especially trying to control their borders from central Asia to the Baltic's.

So when he announced in the fall of 2011 that he would be changing positions with Medvedev, I knew that he would be more difficult to deal with. He had always been the power behind Medvedev, but he had given Medvedev a lot of independence to do exactly what you said and make the reset a success.

I saw that firsthand with respect to the parliamentary reelections in Russia because they were filled with irregularities and Russian people poured out into the streets to protest. And I, as Secretary of State, said the Russians (INAUDIBLE) are better, they deserved elections that reflected their will. Putin attacked me personally because he is very worried about any kind of internal dissent. So he wanted to clamp down on any opposition within Russia and he wanted to provide more influence and even intimidation on his borders.

And I, you know, certainly made my views known in, you know, in meetings as well as in memos to the president. I think that what may have happened is that both the United States and Europe were really hoping for the best from Putin as a returned president. And I think we've been quickly unfortunately disabused of those hopes.

Putin is playing the long game. He has a strategic plan in mind. The Eurasian Union, which would be in competition so Europe is continuing efforts to intimidate Europeans, not just through energy, but through interfering in elections, putting money behind buying press outlets in European countries and the like, trying to discourage countries like Ukraine, you know, being able to join the European union. And if the United States and Europe don't present a united front, I

think Putin is the kind of man who will go as far as he can get away with. I think he's still smart enough and cautious enough to be pushed back, but there has to be a push in order to make that happen.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA: And we've just learn that a second American has tested positive for the Ebola virus.

So coming up, we'll have details from CNN's chief medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen. Stay with us.

CABRERA: Just this hour, we learned that a second American has now tested positive for the Ebola virus in Africa. This woman is an aide worker in Liberia who was helping a team that is treating Ebola patience. And this comes just after word that an American doctor is also now infected with Ebola. 33-year-old Dr. Kent Brantly was working in Africa treating Ebola patients. Brantly is now in treatment himself at an American hospital in isolation.

The current outbreak of the disease is now the deadliest ever in Africa. And our senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is joining us by phone to talk more about this latest development.

Thank you so much, Elizabeth. Now, with all the precautions that we know are being taken, how significant is it that a doctor and an aide worker have now come down with Ebola?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (via phone): You know, unfortunately, precautions are just that. They are precautions. They are not perfect. What might possibly had happened in this situation is that the precautions weren't being followed to the letter or it's possible that something went wrong.

The precautions are things like wearing a long gown, wearing gloves, wearing a face mask. Sometimes, you know, gloves can get holes in them. Face masks are not perfect. Of course, we don't know what happened in this situation. That's how incredibly heroic these people are, as they come in to help even though they know that there's no 100 percent guarantee they won't contract the virus.

CABRERA: How concerned should we be about Ebola spreading outside with Africa. We reported just yesterday that there was a man in Nigeria who had died from this. Especially in the United States, could a traveler transmit this disease elsewhere?

COHEN: You know, the experts I've talked to are not terribly, terribly concerned about that and I'll tell you why. As we can see with the health care workers, it's unfortunately, quite possible, that when you have close, direct contact with patients, you can get the virus because it's transmitted by bodily fluids. However, just walking by someone with Ebola is not going to give you Ebola because it's not airborne.

So you know, while we've seen it spread within this area, we have not seen a global spread. So I think there's a lot of concern about health care workers. I don't think there is a huge concern that this is somehow going to spread to the United States.

And you mentioned coming to the United States and we think about it this way. When someone has Ebola, they get so sick, really quite quickly, it would be difficult for them to get on a plane and to do that kind of travel.

CABRERA: If it is caught early, how treatable is Ebola?

COHEN: It's not treatable. I mean, Ebola has up to a 90 percent fatality rate. So yes, some people do survive them but most people do not. There's not much we can do about Ebola.

CABRERA: All right, Elizabeth Cohen, thank you so much.

And for more on this story and other news of the day, head to CNN.com.

It's not just Israelis and Palestinians fighting on the front lines in the Middle East, Americans are too.

Still to come, we hear from an American serving in the Israeli army.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: The violence between Israel and Gaza may be half a world away from the United States but there are Americans caught right in the middle. U.S. citizens who actually want to be part of the fighting, who risk their lives to join the Israel defense forces.

Dan Simon has one soldier's story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Each year, hundreds of American citizens join the Israeli military force. They are called lone soldiers. What makes them do it? Why not join the U.S. military?

We spoke to a former member of the IDF. David Meyers is a 47-year-old today who today is working in sales in the Silicon Valley.

DAVID MEYERS, FORMER ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES MEMBER: As much as I'm an American and a proud America, there's incredibly deep and long connection that I personally have both to Israel, to its history, to its people, from relatives that survived the holocaust, relatives that helped establish the state of Israel, both from within and outside of Israel and that connection runs extremely deep.

I was in the IDF from 1987 through 1993. So it was the period right after Israel's first Lebanon war. People are definitely surprised. Americans are surprised that I joined the IDF because it is hard to digest that concept of how it is that you can love the United States and be a proud American and yet go fight in another army.

You feel that if you don't do that, then who will? And that state needs to be preserved and needs to be defended. And that the U.S., with its strength and size, perhaps isn't quite as needing of your abilities and your efforts.

Hearing the news of all of the soldiers who have been killed is heart wrenching. The fact that they did volunteer, that they did leave a safe and secure life make it just a little bit harder to digest. At the funerals of those guys, there have been literally tens and thousands of people who would come to, to show their appreciation and love for those families.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA: Well, you don't usually see many ultimate fighting stories here on CNN but you will next hour.

This is UFC's Noad Lahat. He won his fight last night in San Jose, California. But today, he is getting on a plane to join the fight against Hamas as part of the IDF. We will talk with him live next hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)