The President's Daily Brief - November 14th, 2023: Biden Backlash, Austin's Alert, & Disappearing Embassies

Episode Date: November 14, 2023

In this episode of The President's Daily Brief: Tensions are rising within the White House, President Biden receives flak from his own administration over statements made concerning alleged war crimes in Gaza.   US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin expresses concerns to Israel regarding its recent actions against Hezbollah and the rising tensions with Lebanon.   The latest developments in the investigation into the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipeline — a story that's taken an unexpected turn.   And in the Back of the Brief, explore the mystery of North Korea's global retreat as the country closes its embassies worldwide.   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

It's Tuesday, November 14th. Welcome to the President's Daily Brief. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. Let's get briefed. In today's PDB, President Biden is facing new criticism for, quote, spreading misinformation about Israel's war crimes in Gaza. Now, the big surprise? This time, the criticism is not from his political opponents. It's coming from his own administration. A little later, in the episode. The U.S. warns Israel about escalating hostilities with Lebanon, and an investigation sheds new light on who was behind last year's sabotage of the Nord Stream pipeline. Finally, in the back of the brief, a growing mystery around North Korea's disappearing

embassies. But first up, the PDB spotlight. The conflict within the Gaza Strip continues to grind on, and the Israeli defense forces are reporting that Hamas has been a lot of the war. all but lost its grip in the northern part of the enclave. Israeli defense officials claim that terrorists are retreating southward, with civilians having even begun looting former Hamas strongholds. In a striking and likely history-making image that's been released, IDF soldiers can be seen proudly hoisting the Israeli flag inside the Hamas parliamentary complex, once a symbol of the terror group's grip over Gaza. Now, one question that has been asked quite often is just how many Hamas fighters are active in Gaza

resisting the push into the heart of the enclave, and for the first time, we're getting some solid answers. The IDF has now provided their first official count of Hamas's manpower. Initially, the group itself boasted 30,000 fighters, organized in two 24 battalions, each consisting of more than a thousand militants. That strength has now been whittled away. Since the offensive began, the IDF says it has significantly reduced the combat capabilities of nearly half of these battalions. All right.

Now I want to turn to Washington, D.C., where there's a storm brewing inside the White House over President Biden's handling of the conflict. A dissent memo from within the U.S. State Department, bearing the signatures of 100 department employees, accuses the president. of misrepresenting facts about the Israel-Hamas conflict. The memo also accuses Israel of committing war crimes. Now, the memo, it reads like it was drafted by college radicals, and it reveals a deep rift in the Biden administration over its approach to the war.

The five-page document, initiated by a junior diplomat who has publicly criticized Biden's stance on Israel, calls for an urgent reassessment of U.S. policy towards Israel, and demands an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Yeah, a junior staffer is demanding an immediate ceasefire. The memo says that Israel's actions include cutting off electricity and limiting aid and states that, quote, all constitute war crimes and or crimes against humanity under international law. The memo goes on to criticize President Biden for allegedly disseminating misinformation in a seminal speech on October 10th. The signatories strongly urged the U.S. government to advocate for the release of hostages

held by both Hamas and Israel, drawing an equivalence between suspected terrorists detained by Israel with those who were kidnapped on October 7th during the murderous rampage in southern Israel by Hamas terrorists. It's worth noting that yesterday, the White House revealed that a three-year-old American, whose parents were killed by Hamas, is a month. the hostages in Gaza. Yeah, there's all sorts of moral equivalence here. Now, having spent almost 20 years overseas with the CIA, I've had the opportunity to observe the State Department in action and get to know many of their folks, and there are many excellent people working at the department doing the very difficult job of diplomacy overseas. At the same time, the department has always

had its share of progressive, liberal, idealistic junior staffers and diplomats who never let their lack of real-world experience get in the way of their self-righteous opinions. Now, the junior Sprague who initiated the letter, no doubt has the courage of his convictions, which is not the same thing as saying that his convictions are based on objective facts and the comprehensive understanding of the current conflict. I'd like to say that I'm surprised that junior staffers and junior diplomats of the State Department are naive enough to be susceptible to the Hamas-driven narrative on the conflict. But the department tends to recruit from the same college campuses that are currently hosting mobs of useful idiots incapable of understanding or maybe just not interested in

understanding what Hamas has done to the people of Gaza over the past 20 years. All right. When we come back, the U.S. is pushing back against Israel over its attacks on Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. And the mystery of the Nord Stream Pipeline sabotage might be solved. I'll be right back. Welcome back. We turn our attention to Israel's northern border, where hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah militants are escalating,

sparking fears of a wider war in the region. Tensions flared Sunday after a flurry of attacks on Israel by militants operating from within Lebanon. A cross-border missile attack by Hezbollah injured, two Israeli electrical workers and seven Israeli soldiers were injured by a mortar attack. The Lebanese wing of Hamas also took credit for launching a rocket that set off sirens near the Israeli port city of Haifa. Israel responded with a series of air force and artillery strikes on Hezbollah strongholds and several other targets in Lebanon. Israeli officials issued a stern

statement, holding both the Hezbollah militants and government leaders in Beirut responsible for the escalating hostilities. Officials said that while their focus is on the Hamas militants in Gaza, quote, Lebanon's citizens will bear the cost of this recklessness. While fighting on the Israel-Lebanan border has so far been limited, U.S. officials are worried the situation could deteriorate into a wider regional conflict. U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin discussed these concerns Saturday during a call with Israeli Minister of Defense Yov-Gauland, according to a report by Axios. While the public readout of the call did not specifically mention the fighting on the northern border, sources told Axios that Austin directly questioned Gallant about the situation, inquiring

about recent military strikes and asking what Israel could do to avoid a full-scale war with Hezbollah. Now, this reflects alleged concerns within the Biden administration that Israel, Israel is intentionally provoking a confrontation with Lebanon as a pretext for a wider war, and that's something Israeli officials definitely deny. Officials are also wary about Gallant's recent public statements on the situation, which they think only serve to inflame tensions on the border. During the call this weekend, Galand allegedly told Austin that while Israel has no plans to open a second front in Lebanon,

increased attacks by Hezbollah are forcing them to respond. in kind. Now, as always, it's important to note that, as with Hamas in Gaza, Iran is the primary sponsor of Hezbollah in Lebanon, providing cash, training, military equipment, and other resources. When it comes to instability, violence and death in the Middle East, it does seem that all roads lead to Iran. So instead of asking the Israeli government what they can do to avoid an all-out war with Hezbollah, perhaps the U.S. administration could focus on minimizing the aggressive actions and influence of Iran. After all, Iran proxies in the region have launched some 50 drone and missile attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria just since 17 October.

The limited, mild responses or counter strikes, authorized by the White House to date, including the latest on Sunday, have done nothing to deter the attacks. Now, while the eyes of the world are on the Middle East, new revelations have emerged regarding Ukraine's role in the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea last September. The incident, which cut off a major route for Russian gas exports to Europe, has remained something of an international mystery. Various theories have blamed everyone from the Putin regime in Russia to the United States and NATO leadership. A joint investigation now by the Washington, Post and German newspaper de Spiegel now points the finger at Ukraine.

Roman Chervinsky, a member of Ukraine's Special Operations Forces, was accused in the report of coordinating the attack at the behest of senior Ukrainian officials reporting to Commander-in-Chief, General Valerie Zillusioni. The Washington Post report cited unnamed officials in Europe and Ukraine with direct knowledge of the incident. Schrovinsky, who denies the report and calls a Russian propaganda, allegedly oversaw a team of six in a plan that employed sailboats and false identities. The team then used diving equipment to plant explosives on the pipeline. The operation was allegedly carried out in a way that kept Ukrainian President Zelensky in the dark, possibly in order to give Zelensky plausible denial.

Of course, the Kremlin wasted no time slamming Zelensky over the allegations, spokesman Dmitz Peskov called his ignorance on the matter, quote, alarming, and implied that he may have lost control of the political situation in his country. Remember that's Russia talking. Again, the confusion around who was behind this bombing, it can't be overstated. Officials in the U.S. and Europe initially blamed Putin, while Putin blamed the U.S. and Britain, reporting from the New York Times in June, and now the Washington Post, has blamed Ukraine. While a report in February from award-winning investigative reporters Seymour Hirsch pointed the finger at the U.S.,

Yeah, it's getting confusing. All sides have strongly denied their involvement in the attack, although the Ukrainian government has not yet addressed the latest allegations from the Washington Post concerning Schervinsky, and Chivinski is currently on trial in Kiev for allegations of abuse of power. He claims that the trial is political retribution for criticizing Zelensky. Coming up in the back of the brief, it's the case of the disappearing embassies. Why is North Korea shuddering so many of its diplomatic missions around the world?

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Tap the banner or visit usa.com slash auto discounts. Restrictions apply. In today's back of the brief, a growing mystery surrounds North Korea, as disappearing embassies. It appears that the Hermit Kingdom is reducing its global diplomatic footprint even as it draws closer to Russia and China. In a series of unexpected moves over the past several months, North Korea has been systematically closing its embassies across the world. Now the latest to shut its doors is the North Korean embassy in Nepal, marking at least the fifth such closure. Other embassies that are now padlocked include ones in Spain, Angola, Uganda, and Hong Kong.

There are reports that up to a dozen North Korean diplomatic missions could be facing closure in the coming months. So what's prompting leader Kim Jong-un to call back his international envoys? While North Korea's official stance cites a diplomatic restructuring strategy, that sounds very grand. Now, there could be some truth to that. The closures could signal a strategic pivot in North Korea's foreign policy, indicating a potential shift to deepen ties primarily with Moscow and Beijing. However, analysts are pointing to the heavy toll of persistent international sanctions coupled with the economic ravages of the pandemic lockdown as the more likely causes. In other words, the dear leader doesn't have enough fat stacks to pay

his diplomats. South Korea's unification ministry has also weighed in, suggesting North Korea's economy is in such dire straits that he can't sustain the basic diplomatic time. with even its traditional allies. And that, my friends, is the President's Daily Brief for Tuesday, 14 November. If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at PDB at thefirsttv.com. I'm Mike Baker. I'll be back later today with the PDB afternoon bulletin. Until then, stay informed, stay safe, stay cool. Some follow the noise.

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