The President's Daily Brief - June 18th, 2024: Hamas Leadership’s Strategy, Xi’s Invasion Concerns, & ICE Case Overload

Episode Date: June 18, 2024

In this episode of The President's Daily Brief: As some of Hamas’s closest allies plead with it to be flexible on a potential ceasefire deal, we'll examine a report suggesting the terror group’s leadership believes it’s winning. They see the civilian casualties in Gaza as an integral part of their plan to defeat Israel. We’ll turn to China where a new report is giving us some insight into the mind of Chinese President Xi Jinping, who apparently believes the US wants him to invade Taiwan. NATO is in talks to deploy more nuclear weapons, taking them out of storage and placing them on standby, in the face of a growing threat from Russia. In today’s Back of the Brief: the latest from the crisis at America's southern border. An exclusive report from Fox News shows the number of immigration cases that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is handling without detaining individuals has dramatically surged to over 7 million this year. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President’s Daily Brief by visiting PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. Email: [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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I'm Mike Baker. Your eyes and ears on the world stage. Let's get briefed. As some of Hamas's closest allies argue with the terror organization to be flexible on a potential ceasefire deal, we'll examine a report suggesting that the Hamas leadership believes it's winning. They see the civilian casualties in Gaza as an integral part of their plan to defeat Israel. Later, we'll turn to China, where a new report is giving us some insight into the mind of Chinese President Xi Jinping, who apparently...

believes that the U.S. wants him to invade Taiwan. Plus, NATO is in talks to deploy more nuclear weapons, oh good, taking them out of storage and placing them on standby in the face of a growing threat from Russia. And in today's back of the brief, the latest from the crisis at America's southern border. An exclusive report from Fox News shows that the number of immigration cases that U.S. immigration and customs enforcement, or ICE, is handling without detaining individuals, has dramatically surged to over 7 million this year. And a reminder, it's only June of this year. But first, today's PDB spotlight. I want to begin in the Middle East, where some of Hamas's

closest allies are reportedly pleading with the terror outfit to remain flexible on a potential truce with Israel, despite reports that the group's top brass has little interest in ending the conflict. Leaders of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terror group have allegedly told their counterparts in Hamas to keep the door open with mediators in Qatar and Egypt regarding a ceasefire, encouraging more negotiations. While this might come as a surprise, given Hezbollah's intense fighting with Israel along the border with Lebanon, an unnamed Israeli source told the times of Israel that Hezbollah thinks Hamas would strengthen their international reputation by reacting positively to the plan. The news comes after Habas proposed several amendments to a U.S.-backed

ceasefire proposal early last week, many of which U.S. officials said were extreme and unworkable, and that Israel said amounted to a rejection. Still, Israeli leaders, particularly Netanyahu, had set mixed signals about the initial U.S. proposal, publicly noting that the plan outlined by the U.S. had some gaps compared to the offer Israel had proposed. A key sticking point is the desire by some in the U.S. to make the ceasefire permanent, which Hamas also wants, and which would prevent Israel from completing their mission of eliminating Hamas militarily and as the governing authority in Gaza. With that in mind, the unnamed Israeli source told the times of Israel on Monday that senior Hamas officials had reached out to Hezbollah last week

to gauge the reaction to the ceasefire proposal. Hezbollah's leadership, apparently, said that given the unenthusiastic response to the proposal by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, they felt that Hamas had an opportunity to leverage international outrage regarding Israel's operations in Gaza to their advantage, the gambit being to position Hamas as the party opened a peace while painting Israel as the sole roadblock. Of course, now you'd have to be living in an alternate reality to believe that Hamas is the party of peace. As we touched on last week, leaked messages from Yaya Sinwar, Hamas' chief in Gaza, show that he's told mediators in Qatar and Egypt that he believes the terrorist group has the

upper hand in negotiations with Israel, particularly in the court of public opinion. It was likely this confidence that led the group to rebuke the U.S.-backed ceasefire plan by attacking on unworkable demands at the last minute. As a reminder, Sinwar was one of the key masterminds of the barbaric 7 October attacks on Israel and has since evaded justice by hiding in Hamas' expansive tunnel networks underneath Gaza. Demonstrating a lack of regard or concern for the suffering of Palestinians, Sinwar brushed off their deaths as, quote, necessary sacrifices. Put another way, Sinwar sees the deaths of his fellow Palestinians in Gaza as an integral part of Hamas's strategy to outlast Israel in the enclave.

As we also reported last week, this attitude appears to be slowly eroding support for Hamas, albeit slowly, among at least some of the civilian population within Gaza, though the sentiments coming out of the enclave are contradictory at best. According to a recent poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, support among Gazans for Hamas to remain as the governing body of Gaza has fallen over the past three months from 52% to 46%. At the same time, however, roughly 50% still approve of Sinwar's leadership, while 64% are generally satisfied with Hamas's performance during the war. Furthermore, 57% of Palestinians in Gaza support Hamas' decision to launch the savage 7 October attacks on Israel,

that started the whole war in the first place. Now, it's worth mentioning if you're living in Gaza and a survey taker knocks on your door asking if you support Hamas, well, your sense of self-preservation just might prompt you to say yes. In the West Bank, which has been largely spared from the repercussions of the war, support for Hamas is actually through the roof, with more than 71% backing Hamas's rule of Gaza. We should also note that overall, roughly 54% of all Palestinians still favor armed resistance against Israel, with just 16% saying peace should be pursued through negotiations and nonviolent resistance. All right, coming up after the break, a new report claims that Chinese President Xi Jinping believes the United States is trying to goad him into attacking Taiwan.

And later, NATO is readying its nuclear arsenal in the face of Russian aggression. I'll have those stories when we come back. Hey, sweetie, your mother showed me this Carvana thing for selling the car. I'm going to give it a try. Wish me luck. Me again, I put in the license plate. It gave me an offer. Unbelievable. Okay, I accepted the offer. They're picking it up Tuesday from the driveway. I haven't even left my chair. It's done. The car is gone. I'm holding a check.

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during a private meeting back in April of 2003 that the U.S. leaders were attempting to goad Beijing into invading Taiwan, and that's according to an exclusive report from the Financial Times. Several anonymous officials who were privy to the meeting said that Xi expressed grave concerns about the behavior of the U.S. military in the waters around Taiwan and the longstanding U.S. policy of providing military equipment and weapons to the island democracy. He reportedly said that the U.S. is clearly trying to provoke an escalation by tricking China into invading Taiwan, though he added that Beijing would not fall for the bait. Now, it marks the first known case, where Xi has expressed.

his concern to a foreign leader. The report indicates that he's privately expressed this same fear to top officials within the CCP as well. Observers say she's paranoia offers a rare glimpse into the inner workings of the Communist Party and suggests that the dictator may be becoming increasingly isolated. Jude Blanchette, a leading expert on China from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told the Financial Times, quote, if she genuinely believes that the U.S. act seeks conflict with China over Taiwan, then concerns that Xi has created an information vacuum or as otherwise getting poor counsel from subordinates are worryingly true. It's clear that the decision-making environment is being warped either by Xi's lieutenants or by his own autocratic behavior,

end quote. The revelation comes at a time of unprecedentedly high tensions in the South China Sea as Xi steps up his military harassment campaign against Taiwan. late May, immediately following the inauguration of Taiwan President Lai Ching-Tai, China launched their largest military exercise of the year, encircling Taiwan with naval vessels and military aircraft for two days' worth of drills. Observers said the drills were clearly aimed at sending a message to the incoming president who China has consistently tried to brand as a dangerous separatist who would lead the country into war against the mainland. For his part, President Lai has pledged to neither, quote, yield nor provoke mainland China.

And regarding the U.S., while the Biden administration has warned China against an invasion, they have also regularly reaffirmed America's longstanding commitment to the One China policy, which asserts that there's only one sovereign state under the name China, which includes both mainland China and Taiwan. All right, let's turn our attention to Brussels, where NATO leadership is hinting that the organization may be preparing to bring more nuclear weapons out of storage and put them on standby. In an interview with the U.K.'s Telegraph, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told the newspaper that the alliance was currently in discussions to enhance its nuclear readiness across Europe,

referring to nuclear weapons as NATO's, quote, ultimate security guarantee, and saying that they play a crucial role in maintaining peace. Stoltenberg told the newspaper, it's important that NATO, quote, communicate the direct messages that we, of course, are a nuclear alliance. Stolenberg was a little cagey on just what this means, but he said that the alliance wants to use transparency around their nuclear arsenal as something of a deterrent. He added, quote, I won't go into operational details about how many nuclear warheads should be operational and which should be stored, but we need to consult on these issues. That's exactly what we're doing,

end quote. Now, the move is an obvious response to growing threats from Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly warned that Moscow might use nuclear weapons if pushed to extreme measures, rhetoric that he's been throwing at the West since 2022. Just last week, Moscow kicked off joint nuclear drills with Belarus. You may recall that in 2023, Russia began storing some of its nuclear warheads in that neighboring country, a move wide. seen as a warning to the West to stay out of its ongoing invasion of Ukraine. However, Stoltenberg also sounded the alarm about China's rapidly expanding nuclear program, warning that soon, quote, NATO may encounter an unprecedented challenge,

two nuclear-armed potential adversaries, China and Russia, end quote. Now, his concerns, well, they're not unfounded. As we discussed just yesterday on the BDB, the Stockholm International Peace Reefiour. Research Institute, a Swedish think tank, reports that China has approximately 500 warheads and is believed to be deploying some of these warheads during peacetime, and that's a first for the country. Stolenberg went on to tell the telegraph, quote, NATO's aim is, of course, a world without nuclear weapons, but as long as nuclear weapons exist, we will remain a nuclear alliance, end quote. The organization rarely discusses its weapons publicly, but it's well-futable.

known that the U.S. says nuclear weapons stationed at several locations in Europe, such as Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Turkey, to be deployed if necessary. Russia has responded to Stoltenberg's comments with Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov saying, quote, this is nothing but another escalation of tension, end quote. All right, coming up in today's back of the brief, federal data obtained by Fox News shows a dramatic surge in migrant cases with non-detainment cases on track to hit over 8 million by the end of the year. I'll be right back.

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Euphoria Elixir Collection by Calvin Klein. In today's back of the brief, I want to analyze a Fox News exclusive report on the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE agency's non-detained docket surging to over seven million cases just in fiscal year 2024, more than doubling under the Biden administration, and, of course, putting immense strain on the agency's resources and personnel. Now, if you're not familiar with the terminology here, I, The ICE manages two primary dockets when it comes to immigration, detained and, as you might guess, non-detained. The ICE detained docket refers to immigrants who are held in physical custody by the agencies and detention centers while their immigration cases proceed.

This is typically reserved for immigrants considered a flight risk or a danger to the public. Our focus today will be the individuals on the non-detained docket who remain free within the U.S. while their immigration proceedings at some point unfold in court. It's a part of ICE's Alternatives to Detention Program, which involves released migrants who are provided with case management support to try and ensure compliance with release conditions and court appearances. Now, getting into the data, in fiscal year 2024, the ICE non-detained documents, docket surged to 7.4 million cases, with expectations that it will reach 8 million by the end of the

fiscal year. That's according to internal federal data obtained by Fox News. This increase poses significant challenges for the agency, which only employs about 6,000 deportation officers nationwide. It means that each officer managing the non-detained docket is responsible for, and if my math is correct, that would be approximately 7,000 cases each, making it nearly impossible to efficiently handle the workload. The surge in the non-detained docket cases coincides with an increase in border crossings, of course, and has added over 1 million cases since the beginning of October. The docket is more than doubled since President Biden assumed office in 2021, rising from just under 3.7 million cases. And additionally, the number, of course, doesn't include the nearly

1.9 million recorded Godaways, the migrants who have entered the country without any contact with the Department of Homeland Security since Biden's tenure began. These individuals also fall under the responsibility of ICE officers, which further increases their workload. Now, the White House responded to the report by, of course, blaming Republicans. An administration spokesman noted that the failed bipartisan border security bill would have provided additional funding and resources to ice. Apparently, the buck stops somewhere other than 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. And that, my friends, is the president's daily brief for Tuesday, 18 June.

If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at PDB at thefirsttv.com. And to listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of the president's daily brief by visiting pdb premium.com. I'm Mike Baker. I'll be back later today with the PDBB. be afternoon bulletin. Until then, stay informed. Stay safe. Stay cool.

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