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Wolf

Obama to Use Executive Order on Immigration; Wall of Snow Barrels Though Buffalo, N.Y.; Israel's Next Move Following Synagogue Attack; Is a College Degree Worth It?

Aired November 19, 2014 - 13:30   ET

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

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WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer, reporting from Washington.

A powerful polar blast is putting the entire United States in a deep freeze right now. But no place is getting hammered like my hometown of Buffalo, New York. In the last 24 hours alone -- get this -- up to six feet of snow, that's nearly two meters, has buried homes and shut down roads. At least six people have died in the storm. That number could climb as rescue crews try to reach people who may be stranded along the roadside in frigid temperatures. The New York state governor, Andrew Cuomo, has declared a state of emergency in the area and is holding a briefing later on this hour.

A well-beloved Buffalo resident is joining us on the phone. Jim Kelly, the legendary Hall of Fame quarterback for the Buffalo Bills, one of my personal heroes, as a lot of our viewers know.

Jim, first of all, tell us about what you're seeing, how's your family doing? Are you guys snowed? What's going on?

JIM KELLY, FORMER BUFFALO BILLS QUARTERBACK (voice-over): Yeah, we're pretty much snowed in. I'm probably five minutes away from the stadium. And we got between four and five feet of snow. We have not left our home. It's me, my wife, my brother, Ray, and, of course, my daughter, Cameron. Interesting thing, my daughter from college, who goes to Liberty University, is trying to get a flight here. Hopefully, she'll make it in tomorrow safely. But we're pretty much buried here. I have a guy who's going to get his front-end loader and try to get me out of here. Our street is plowed but I live in the woods. So my driveway has about four to five feet. And the plow guy can't plow me out. We're waiting for a friend to get his equipment so I can at least maybe get in my equipment and hopefully get out of here sometime soon.

BLITZER: Do you have enough power, electricity, food, water, is all that OK?

KELLY: Oh, yeah, we've got that all pretty much -- we have a generator. Thank god the power's not gone out yet. We've been pretty good. I know a lot of other people across this year that have lost power. They're not able to -- but there's a lot of good neighbors. Wolf, you know this. The Buffalo people rally around each other. You love your neighbor and that's how it is here. Somebody needs help, there's always somebody there to join in. Hopefully that total of deaths won't go up too much higher because of the love of people around here that support each other.

BLITZER: More snow is on the way, especially in south Buffalo and the areas south of Buffalo where you live. So this may not be over with by any means. Even those of us who grew up in Buffalo and you live in Buffalo, we're used to snow. But this one right now is historic. They say this is the worst snowstorm in the Buffalo area in 40 years, is that right?

KELLY: Yeah, I think so. Probably more than that. They talked about the blizzard of '77.

BLITZER: Yeah.

KELLY: And I'm sure you remember that. Right here in this area right here, Lancaster area, it's pretty good. That's why I'm trying to get my buddy -- Mario Williams, who's my next-door neighbor, had to go to practice. And he had a bobcat that he did his. And he's going to do mine after practice. I can't wait for him. We're supposed to get two more feet of snow. So I'm glad I have a good buddy who's going to get his, bring it over, get rid of the snow I have in my driveway right now, which is probably 500, 600 yards long, and get rid of it before these next two feet move in.

BLITZER: Your wife, Jill, was sending us some amazing pictures of what's going on. Will the Bills play the Jets in Buffalo this weekend? Is that a definite or is that on hold?

KELLY: It's still on hold. I saw some pictures of the stadium. One thing is getting the parking lot and trying to find places to put the snow. If you looked inside the stadium, that holds like 73,000 people. To get four feet of snow out of each seat, I don't know how they're going to do it. I really don't. I can't see the game going on. But you never know. The way the Bills are, they'll try to get it so we can play the New York Jets. We'll see. But it doesn't look very good from what I see from my home looking at what they've taken pictures of inside the Ralph.

BLITZER: Yeah. Ralph Wilson, the longtime owner of the Buffalo Bills, who recently passed away. A great man, indeed.

One final question, Jim, before I let you go. How are you feeling?

KELLY: I'm getting better. I finally got my I.V. taken out of my arm, my pick line. I had a bone infection called MRSA. That's now passed, thank god. I continue to press on. I've still got my feeding tube in. But I've eaten a lot of solid foods. Trying to keep my energy level up.

My wife, my daughter, Cameron, I cannot ask for anything better. I'm so blessed to have such great support. A couple of my brothers, my brother, Ray, and brother, Danny, I could go on and on to all the brothers that have helped support me. They've rallied around me. I'm just blessed to have some great people.

BLITZER: We wish you only the best you and your entire family, all of our friends, our fellow Buffaloians, good luck to all of you during this tough period.

Jim Kelly, we'll never forget, you led our Buffalo Bills to four, not three, not two, but four Super Bowls in a row. That was an amazing time for all of us.

Jim Kelly, former quarterback of the Buffalo Bills, joining us.

Good luck in Buffalo with all that snow.

Just ahead, the day after the massacre, worshippers returning to a sanctuary where attackers killed five people. What will Israel's next move be? A senior adviser to the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu standing by to join us from Jerusalem.

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BLITZER: We're just getting this in from our Dana Bash and Athena Jones. The president invited Democratic congressional leaders to have dinner with him tonight over at the White House. According to a Democratic Congressional source, a source familiar with the invitation said, on the agenda, of course, the president's announcement tomorrow night that he will go ahead and allow millions of people who are living here in the United States, undocumented immigrants, to stay, maybe three million, 3.5 million, maybe four million. He's going to make that announcement in a primetime address to the American people tomorrow night, 8:00 p.m. eastern. We'll have much more on this coming up. He's going to have dinner tonight with the Democratic congressional leaders over at the White House.

Other news we're following, security right now very tight, tensions high in Jerusalem following the attack on a synagogue that left five people dead. Worshippers returned to that synagogue in west Jerusalem today just 24 hours earlier, the scene was one of carnage. Two Palestinian cousins, the terrorist, wielding knives and a gun, killed four rabbis, three of whom, American citizens, one a British citizen. A police officer, shot during the rampage, died hours later. Israel has clearly ramped up security. The prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, calling for national unity and what he calls a forceful response. He ordered that the attackers' homes be demolished. The two Palestinian cousins were shot and killed during the attack by Israeli police officers. One Israeli police officer, who was himself wounded -- two Israeli police officers were wounded -- has died as well. The official Palestinian news agency says that 13 people were arrested when Israeli authorities moved in to the attackers' neighborhood. We're watching all this.

Let's get some reaction from Jerusalem. Dore Gold is a senior adviser to the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and a former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations.

Ambassador Gold, thank you for joining us. Ambassador, when the prime minister vows Israel will respond with what

he calls a heavy hand, what does that mean to you? What is Israel specifically going to do?

DORE GOLD, SENIOR ADVISOR TO ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER & FORMER ISRAELI AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: First of all, diplomatically, we have to begin to deal with the causes of this terrorist escalation, this attack. Remember, the way that these Palestinians from Jerusalem attacked the synagogue and killed the rabbis was very reminiscent of what the ISIS people are doing in Syria and in Iraq. They walked into that synagogue with axes. They walked in with butcher knives. And they attacked -- also with a revolver. But something is going on that's bigger. We know that this kind of attack, that the kind of incitement to motivate these people to attack, has -- that stage was set by the rhetoric of Mahmoud Abbas in the last couple of months. We know it's been set by Hamas. But we're facing a regional pandemic, a pandemic that's coming from what ISIS is doing across this area. The last two days, part of the Libyan regime swore loyalty to ISIS in Iraq. So we have a bigger problem in this region. We have to get regional stability and we have to provide security here in Jerusalem so that we can get back to some kind of co existence.

BLITZER: You know Mahmoud Abbas condemned what happened in that synagogue. There were some celebrations by Hamas supporters out in Gaza. But Mahmoud Abbas clearly condemned what happened at the synagogue.

GOLD: Wolf, did you see Mahmoud Abbas' condemnation? That was pretty weak. It was sort of a general condemnation of violence against civilians, not specific to this crime. What made it worse is, on the one hand, he's talking about a general condemnation of violence and, on the other hand, the Fatah movement, on its social media pages, was praising the attack. You can't talk through both sides of your mouth. In order to prevent these kinds of things in the future, the Palestinian Authority, instead of being cuddled by the international community and told how great they are, have to be told in no uncertain terms that the incitement has to stop because there's a direct line from that kind of incitement to the acts that occurred yesterday.

BLITZER: How worried are you, Ambassador, that some Israelis could seek revenge as a result of what happened at this synagogue yesterday and this whole escalation of violence could explode once again. And all of us remember what happened in July during the war that Israel had with Hamas in Gaza.

GOLD: Well, first of all, Israel is very aware of it. And in the prime minister's statement, you saw a kind of message to the Israeli people. Our security establishment will take care of this, no one is to take the law into their own hands. And the police follow these kinds of acts very closely. But right now, the problem isn't the Israeli reaction. The problem is an attack that looks just like an ISIS attack in Syria or in Iraq. What we have to do is, together, find a way to stabilize this region. This kind of violence and this kind of incitement just doesn't undermine Israel. It undermines our neighbors as well. It could undermine Jordan and Saudi Arabia and any of our states. That's why getting a handle on this is so important at this time for all of us.

BLITZER: Dore Gold is the former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, a foreign policy advisor to Prime Minister Netanyahu.

Thanks very much, Ambassador, for joining us.

GOLD: My pleasure.

BLITZER: A college degree has always been a ticket to success here in the United States. Is getting a degree worth it today? We'll bring you a fresh debate raging across college campuses on the changing face of higher education. Stay with us.

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BLITZER: The cost of college here in the United States has shot up -- get this -- 1200 percent since 1978. There's an increasing debate going on right now on whether going for a college diploma is worth it. One big reason, to get away from crushing student debt.

Listen to this educator's view.

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UNIDENTIFIED EDUCATOR: Many intellectuals say it would be better if some people don't go to college at all. I think that's an assault on democracy. It's an attempt to keep people in their place and reinforce social inequality.

Education should foster social mobility and the possibility of equality. You have to be crazy to intentionally not get a college degree if you have a choice today.

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BLITZER: So that's one perspective, get a college degree at all costs.

Let's bring in our global economic analyst, Rana Foroohar. She's joining us from New York. She's also assistant managing editor for "Time" magazine overseeing economic coverage.

Rana, is it worth it getting a college degree for anyone who can do it right now, given the cost, given all of the factors?

RANA FOROOHAR, CNN GLOBAL ECONOMIC ANALYST & ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR, TIME MAGAZINE: You know, I would say that most of the time you're better off with a four-year college degree than with just a high school degree. I'll put a caveat with that and say it depends on what you study. So increasingly statistics are showing if you study something in the sciences, technology, engineering, the pay gap and the payoff between that and studying liberal arts degree, English, political science, history, particularly at a lower level college and not a top-grade college is becoming really large. I'm also hearing from employers that they want to hire people with specific skills, so what you're seeing is a big push for two-year community college education that's particularly skill based. And for some people, particularly those that either can't get into a top tier school or simply don't want to graduate with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of debt, this is an option to be considered.

BLITZER: Do you believe that the student debt issue and it's a huge exploding issue, could actually lead to the next financial crisis?

FOROOHAR: I do. As a matter of fact, I heard a savvy investor say that to me the other day. Student debt is the single biggest debt in the U.S. It's more than credit card debt. It is a balloon that just keeps inflating and, at some point, like all bubbles it's going to pop. The question is when and how. You see a lot of pain. Kids that got out of school in the last five or six years after the financial crisis and Great Recession had a hugely hard time getting jobs. Their unemployment rate is in double digits for many of them and they also have a pay gap because when you enter the labor force in a bad market, you never make up that gain in income. So they are always working behind the curve. So going out and spending a lot of money getting into debt right now is not a great idea for everyone. That said, if you can study, if you can make it work for you financially, it is better than just having a four-year high school degree.

BLITZER: What affordable alternatives are there to a traditional college education?

FOROOHAR: So one thing that's really interesting and positive that I'm seeing a lot of in the business world is companies getting into the education business, so either teaming up with colleges, with community colleges, doing on the job training themselves. IBM has a hugely successful program where they have launched six-year high schools where kids graduate with a community college degree as well and they're guaranteed a job at high-tech companies, Fortune 500 companies. This is a great option for a lot of kids. You graduate with a job and with skills that are really employable.

BLITZER: Rana, good information for all of our viewers out there, not only here in the United States but around the world, who are debating what to do about a college education for a lot of young people out there.

Rana, thank you very much for joining us.

FOROOHAR: Thank you.

BLITZER: And this important note to our viewers. Our all new CNN film will be looking at this debate over college. Be sure to catch the debut of "Ivory Tower" tomorrow night, Thursday night, 9:00 p.m. eastern, only here on CNN. You'll want to watch it. It's an excellent documentary.

That's it for me. Thanks very much for watching. I'll be back 5:00 p.m. eastern later today in "The Situation Room."

For our international viewers, "Amanpour" is next.

For our viewers in North America, "Newsroom" with Don Lemon starts right after a quick break.

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