Secretary of State John Kerry was caught on an open mic responding, seemingly with sarcasm, to Israel's tactics in Gaza.
"It’s a hell of a pinpoint operation," Kerry said, parroting a term used by Israeli officials, such as President Benjamin Netanyahu, who referred to Israel’s operation as one that attempts to "pinpoint the rocketeers" on CBS’s "Face the Nation" last Sunday.
The clip, which was captured by Fox News Sunday, showed Kerry speaking to an aide named John, over speakerphone, as he sat in front of Fox's cameras.
"We’ve got to get over there," Kerry said, as he began to hand the phone to someone not visible on camera. "I think, John, we ought to go tonight. I think it’s crazy to be sitting around."
When confronted with the clip, Fox’s Chris Wallace asked if Kerry was "upset that the Israelis are going too far?"
"I think it’s very, very difficult in these situations," he said. "You have people who come out of tunnels. You have a right to go in and take out those tunnels. We completely support that, and we support Israel’s right to defend itself against rockets that are, you know, continuing to come in. … So yeah, it’s tough, it’s tough to have this kind of operation, and I reacted, obviously, in a way that anybody does in respect to young children and civilians."
Kerry is reportedly returning to the Middle East Tuesday, but the trip is unconfirmed by the State Department, and Kerry did not say if he now intends to leave tonight.
The appearance was one of five made by the Secretary of State this morning. Kerry discussed the escalating situation in Gaza and the latest on the investigation of the downed Malaysian airliner.
Kerry criticized Ukrainian separatists for moving and tampering with evidence.
"Today we have reports of drunken separatists piling the remains of people into trucks in an unceremonious fashion, actually removing them from the location. They are interfering with the evidence in the location. They have removed, we understand, some airplane parts," Kerry said on CNN’s "State of the Union."
"This is a very, very critical moment for Russia to step up publically and join in the effort in order to make sure there is a full-fledged investigation."
"We want the facts," Kerry continued, "and the fact that the separatists are controlling this in a way that is preventing people from getting there even as the site is tampered with makes its own statement about culpability and responsibility."
Russia has denied any connection, but evidence increasingly points toward their involvement in Thursday's attack. It appears as though the Russians supplied the missile that shot down and killed 298 civilians on Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.
Some European leaders have begun to discuss further penalizing Russian President Vladimir Putin if he fails to secure investigators "free and total access" to the crash site.
Republican lawmakers called for additional sanctions on Sunday, but Kerry expressed caution, noting that Obama would not "shoot from the hip."
"I had a conversation yesterday with my [Russian] counterpart, Foreign Minister Lavrov. I made it very, very clear that we need this cooperation. We're going to try to find a way immediately to determine whether or not that's going to be forthcoming."
David Gregory, host of NBC’s "Meet the Press," told Kerry he sensed "some reluctance to make this a one-on-one battle," pointing out that it seemed Kerry wanted to give Russia "some room."
Kerry explained that "we live in an extremely complicated world right now where everybody is working on 10 different things simultaneously," and Russia has been cooperative and helped to remove Syria’s chemical weapons and "deal with Iran’s nuclear program."
Kerry said the next step is to encourage European nations to ramp up their sanctions.
"The president imposed a greater cost on Vladimir Putin the day before this shoot down took place, and what we are doing now is trying to bring our European counterparts along because … 4 percent of Russia’s trade is with the United States. Fifty percent of their engagement is with Europe," Kerry said on Fox News Sunday.
"The president has not taken off the table the notion that there may be additional sanctions, in fact he also said that there would be additional sanctions if we can’t move this process forward."
Twenty-four hours before the airliner was shot down, President Barack Obama announced new sanctions targeting banks and energy companies. However, Rep. Mike Rogers (R., Mich.) told ABC’s "This Week" they are not strong enough.
"Here’s the problem, for months now, they, the Ukrainians, have been saying, hey we need some help. We need logistics, food; we need the ability to move fuel and other things, ammunition, of which has not been coming. The only thing the United States really did is they said, well we're going give you these MREs, meals ready to eat, and that’s just not enough. If we wanted to be aggressive to try to push back and take control, so you don't have rebels playing around with sophisticated, very lethal missile systems, you need to be aggressive in our help for the Ukrainian military."
Roger, who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, emphasized the need for increased sanctions and assistance for the Ukrainian military, apart from boots on the ground.