The President's Daily Brief - PDB Afternoon Bulletin | December 1st, 2023: Israel's Shocking Intelligence Failure & China's Influence Operations

Episode Date: December 1, 2023

In this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin:     The New York Times has released a jarring report revealing that Israeli officials knew about Hamas’s intentions to orchestrate a massive attack inside Israel's borders more than a year ago, but repeatedly dismissed the plans as something far outside Hamas’s capabilities. Meta recently revealed they have broken up a number of Chinese influence operations targeting Americans on their social media sites, and warned that these campaigns are stepping up efforts to sow discord within the U.S. ahead of the 2024 elections. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin.     Email: [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Starting a business can seem like a daunting task, unless you have a partner like Shopify. They have the tools you need to start and grow your business. From designing a website to marketing to selling and beyond, Shopify can help with everything you need. There's a reason millions of companies like Mattel, Heinz, and all birds continue to trust and use them. With Shopify on your side,

turn your big business idea into... Sign up for your $1 per month trial at Shopify.com slash special offer. It's Friday, December 1st. Welcome back to the PDB afternoon bulletin. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. Now, if it sounds like there's a lot of horns honking on this particular world stage, that's because I'm recording today's bulletin from an office overlooking the busy streets of Midtown Manhattan. And there apparently is nothing that New Yorkers enjoy more than making full use of their car and truck horns.

All right, let's get briefed. The New York Times has released a job. reporting, revealing that Israeli officials knew about Hamas' intentions to orchestrate a massive attack on Israel more than a year ago, but repeatedly dismissed the plans as either theoretical, just aspirational, or an outright impossibility. We'll also discuss a Chinese influence operation, recently broken up by Mehta, who warned that these campaigns are stepping up efforts to so discord within the U.S. ahead of the 2024 elections. But first, our afternoon spotlight.

Israel has resumed combat operations against Hamas after the fragile truce that began on November 24th expired today. There were widespread hopes for another extension, but those hopes were dashed shortly before the 7 a.m. extension deadline when Israel reported shooting down a rocket fired from Gaza. Israel has since restarted military operations in Gaza using ground, air, and naval forces to hit some 200 Hamas targets. Now, this comes as a bombshell report from the New York Times has found that Israel knew about

Hamas' plans to launch a full-scale attack inside their borders at least a year before the tragic events on 7 October. A 40-page document obtained by Israeli officials sometime last year, Code Nicarious. named Jericho Wall, outlined Hamas' planets point by point with incredible detail, but was repeatedly dismissed by Israeli leaders as something far outside Hamas' capabilities. Now, officials at every level simply did not believe that Hamas could mount an attack of that scale, according to the New York Times report. There was also a misperception among Israeli officials that Hamas was not seeking a full-scale war with Israel. Hamas appears to

to have executed their terrorist attack almost exactly the way that it was described in the Jericho Wall document. While it did not contain a date for the assault, the document called for beginning with a massive barrage of rocket strikes, followed by targeted drone strikes to destroy automated machine guns and security cameras along Israel's border fence. It then called for hundreds of Hamas fighters to storm the border on foot and by using paragliders and by using paragliders and motorcycles detailing 60 points in the fence that they plan to breach. The document also outlined plans to capture Israeli communities and even called for the fighters to take the Israeli military base in Reim, which Hamas fighters overran during their actual

attack. The New York Times review of these documents reveals that Hamas was successfully able to execute this plan on nearly every level with shocking precision. Disturbingly, the Jericho Wall document also reportedly contained sensitive intelligence regarding Israel's military, raising serious concerns regarding potential leaks within Israel's intelligence apparatus. The Jericho wall document was reportedly widely discussed within the Israeli military, though it's not clear at this time if Prime Minister Netanyahu or other political leaders had seen it.

It appears that the sheer scale of Hamas' plans let officials to brush off the blueprint as not presenting a realistic threat. Still, it appears that some within the Israeli military did try to raise the alarm that Hamas might actually be serious. In July, an analyst with Israel's signals intelligence agency warned that senior Hamas commanders had recently conducted a large-scale training exercise that appeared strikingly similar to the plan in the Jericho Wall document. Now, the drill included having Hamas fighters take over a mock cabots and military base with fatal force. A colonel in the Gaza division dismissed the analyst's concerns calling Hamas' plans totally imaginative. Now, the analyst

countered, saying in emails that were reviewed by the times, quote, I utterly refute that the scenario is imaginary. She called it a plan designed to start a war. Now, rather chillingly, the analyst also added, we already underwent a similar experience. 50 years ago on the Southern Front in connection with a scenario that seemed imaginary, and history may repeat itself if we're not careful. It's anticipated that the IDF and Israeli government officials will need to respond quickly to this report that they had advanced intel on the planned attack. If true, this will very likely lead to significant upheaval and structural changes within

both the government and the intel and military commands. All right, coming up after the break, we discuss a Chinese influence operation, recently broken up by META, and how China plans to leverage these digital campaigns to spread propaganda within the U.S. ahead of the 2024 elections. I'll be right back. How many discounts does USAA auto insurance offer? Too many to say here. Multi-vehicle discount, safe driver discount, new vehicle discount, storage discount, legacy.

How many discounts will you stack up? Tap the banner or visit usaa.com slash auto discounts. Restrictions apply. Looking for a protein shake that tastes as good as it performs? Meet Rockin Protein Max. Packed with 50 grams of fuel, it'll help you keep up when your day won't slow down.

And because it's always creamy and never chalky, every sip tastes great. Even better, it's lactose-free and has zero added sugar. It's not every day you find a protein shake you actually want to finish. Catch Rock and Protein in the Dairy Cooler at a store near you. Rock and Protein and Shamrock Farms are registered trademarks of Shamrock Foods company. Welcome back to the PDB afternoon bulletin. We return to a topic we've discussed previously here on the PDB, Chinese influence operations running wild on social media platforms in the U.S.,

which seek to sell political discord and shape the public narrative regarding the regime of Xi Jinping and the CCP. Representatives for the social media giant meta released a quarterly report on Thursday revealing that so far this year, they've been able to be. broken up five significant Chinese networks of fake accounts that targeted American audiences with propaganda and misinformation. One network included nearly 5,000 fake accounts, which were used to post about U.S. politics and U.S. China relations. The report noted this was a significant increase to previous years, and quote, represents the most notable change in the threat landscape when compared with the 2020 election cycle. Now, for comparison, between 2017 and November 2020,

Mehta only took down two digital networks linked with China. While Mehta did not go so far as to name specific groups in China or to implicate the CCP, the report warned that, quote, foreign threat actors are attempting to reach audiences in the U.S. with a particular focus on the 2024 elections. Well, Thank you, Mehta, for the statement of the obvious. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence's Threat Assessment Report for 2023 indicated China was stepping up their online influence operations given increasingly hostile rhetoric aimed at the CCP by both Republicans and Democrats ahead of the 2024 elections.

As we've previously discussed on the PDB, these operations will often go after any issue that could, in their eyes, threaten the reputation or interests of the CCP. We should also note that while these networks are vast, they often struggle to gain any traction on social media sites. Still, the groups are relentless in their efforts, and some networks, recently uncovered, have demonstrated a considerable reach.

Earlier this month on the PDB, we discussed a years-long Chinese government intimidation campaign aimed at silencing critics of the CCP within the U.S. The shadowy online network, known as spammiflage or Dragon Bridge, largely targets dissidents of CCP rule in the U.S. and abroad, such as Chinese-born journalists and human rights activists. Now, an investigation by CNN found that the CCP-backed online harassment campaign, which operates thousands of accounts at any given time, was designed to foster a perpetual state of fear and paranoia among the American public. China continues to deny that any such networks exist, responding to the Meta Report Thursday, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., without any sense of irony, called it a, quote, rumor campaign designed to spread disinformation about China.

And that, my friends, is the PDB afternoon bulletin for Friday, 1 December. If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at PDB at the First TV I'm Mike Baker. I'll be back on Monday. Until then, stay informed, stay safe, stay cool.