Why Israel is worried about the missing Malaysia plane
Defense officials suspect Iran is behind jet's disappearance, fear plane could be used as weapon of mass destruction
This is a rush transcript from "On the Record," March 18, 2014. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: Still another unusual twist. Israel taking immediate action to protect its airspace following the disappearance of Flight 370. Israel quickly putting in place new security measures as some fear the missing plane might become a weapon of mass destruction. A former advisor to Prime Minister Netanyahu says Israeli officials see Iranian fingerprints on this whole thing.
Joel Rosenberg joins us. Nice to see you, Joel.
JOEL ROSENBERG, FORMER ADVISOR TO ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: Nice to see you, Greta.
VAN SUSTEREN: The Israelis think that plane is still out there. It's not in the bottom of the Indian Ocean.
ROSENBERG: We are watching a spell-binding international geo- political thriller. This is playing out -- I'm a novelist. Post, "My Netanyahu Life," moment by moment, in a mystery that everyone wants to know what the answer is. The Israelis have a specific concern. They are watching a security environment deteriorate all around them. Syria is imploding. You have chemical weapons that supposedly were supposed to be removed. Now what --
(CROSSTALK)
ROSENBERG: So they are watching very closely. And they're probably a target, you know, among others.
VAN SUSTEREN: But is that being cautious or is that having a specific piece of intelligence that gives rise to a legitimate, you know, reason to take, you know, increased caution. Not that Israel shouldn't always be cautious. But is there something they know?
ROSENBERG: I can't answer that question. I mean, like many of the questions you are asking, you are watching the situation where we can't even get an answer from the Malaysia Airlines. When did you know that you had lost your plane? So the Israelis are operating in an environment where things are deteriorating all around them. And by not knowing, what -- here is what they do know. They know al Qaeda, Iran, Hezbollah, Islamic jihad, everybody wants them dead. And you even had, a few months ago, an Iranian video where a plane crashes, suicide kamikaze-style in Tel Aviv. So you have to take every --
(CROSSTALK)
VAN SUSTEREN: No, I understand. I understand.
(CROSSTALK)
ROSENBERG: I can't tell if they know something and we're not going to know for a while.
VAN SUSTEREN: You know what I'm surprised about? We don't hear much talk by our government here. We have had the "USS Kidd" over there, and FBI and NTSB. You don't hear our leaders and politicians out talking about it all the time. And which struck me as odd that we're not hearing a lot from them on it.
ROSENBERG: And you are not hearing any country except Israel actually talking about taking increased security measures. That's how sensitive the Israelis are with this. It's their experience. They haven't lost their own planes, any of their planes since 1968. Nobody has hijacked an Israeli plane. But, once you have a situation in a place where al Qaeda once held a conference in a region where it's so clearly No Man's Land in the sense of security, that every interview you have had has described -- the Malaysian military doesn't seem to know even a protocol coal of how to keep track of a plane like this --
(CROSSTALK)
VAN SUSTEREN: Well it, has --
(CROSSTALK)
ROSENBERG: -- the threat.
VAN SUSTEREN: It has a little bit of "who's on first"-aspect to it. It just like Malaysia doesn't even know they lost the plane for five hours. Then they have got it flying through military radar and they do nothing.
ROSENBERG: It would be comical if it wasn't so dangerous. And obviously --
VAN SUSTEREN: 239 people missing.
ROSENBERG: It's a thrill that we need to hope it gets solved safely and quickly.
VAN SUSTEREN: Joel, thank you.
ROSENBERG: Thank you, Greta.
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