this week a small bipartisan group of us lawmakers met with Israel prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli government leaders it was to express unity and support in the wake of the surprise attack by Hamas among them South Jersey Congressman Donald Norcross who sits on the house armed services committee but it comes as the house remains divided over electing a new speaker and the disorder in the chamber has the potential to affect how and when Aid gets delivered to Israel representative Donald Norcross joins me now to explain Congressman Norcross thanks for joining us uh from Capitol Hill tonight what can you tell me about your visit with Israeli leaders um and and just your ability to get in and out of there with that small contingent you traveled with well this was part of a scheduled trip to the Middle East ironically focused on peace uh we were were able to meet with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Friday night where we had a very direct uh conversation on what a peace plan with Israel and Saudi Arabia might look like and as I suggest we went to bed with a dream of Hope of longlasting Peace in the Middle East and literally vot to a nightmare of a an attack on Israel by Hamas an ungodly attack by this group that is nothing more than pure evil as part of their Manifesto and uh certainly uh shocking sad uh and concerning based on the talks that you had then and what has transpired since um is there any hope of those negotiations and uh Beyond this Aid package that we know is being crafted what else is the US and and what are yourself congr members doing in this situation well first and foremost to those who have lost loved ones that were killed captured those who are unknown the humanity of what is going on here the literally execution of civilians by Hamas let me ask you about about one piece of that we know that there are Americans who are in Israel what is Congress doing what is being done uh to help those Americans out um is an airlift possible at this point well that certainly if things deteriorate to the point that if there was a second front to open up and we got the calls in our office and we are helping to exploit it exp like that but what we saw firsthand driving literally from Jerusalem to Tel past the airport is airport is open over 400 flights in and out of that airport it's open but I'm sure you even more so than than me Congressmen have seen the photos of the absolute chaos at the airport in Tel Aviv um and the folks who are in in distress trying to find any way out I mean we spoke with one woman it's taken her several days to get to Dubai um and so it's open but it's not necessarily running smoothly it is not running smoothly and quite frankly the American carriers are not running in and out of there we've encouraged them to do so so there are plans being developed as we speak that if needed there would be the availability of an airlift out but let's be clear the vast majority of Americans who are living in Israel are staying in Israel right now what we are looking for is in the developments of the future if were to get worse America does Logistics better than any country in the world and we would be able ble to get those American citizens who want out we can get them out uh okay important message there then for anyone who's listening um let me just shift gears uh there's a roughly $2 billion military aid package that's being crafted but you all in the your chamber still have no speaker what is happening uh now that the GOP members have put forward Steve scalise well let's make this absolutely and perfectly clear politics has no role in this we heard within the last few hours Israel has put together a Unity government we need to make sure that our government is up and functioning with a single purpose as we did after 911 but military equipment is moving as we speak literally within hours long term well I'm speaking long term within the next few weeks we have to get this Aid package together which means the Republicans have to get their leadership together so we can come to go together as a Unified Government and help those those democrac in this case Israel Congressman Donald Norcross joining us from Washington DC Congressman thanks so much for your time thank you