The President's Daily Brief - PDB Afternoon Bulletin | February 13th, 2024: France's Fix For Israel-Hezbollah Conflict & Senate Approves Fresh Ukraine Aid

Episode Date: February 13, 2024

In this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin:     As tensions on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon continue to flare, French officials have stepped in to offer a de-escalation plan in hopes of avoiding a full-blown war between Israeli forces and Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants. After much uncertainty, the Senate passed a $95 billion foreign aid package that includes fresh funding for Ukraine, but the bill faces an uncertain future as it moves to the House. 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

Kayak gets my flight, hotel, and rental car right, so I can tune out travel advice that's just plain wrong. Bro, Skycoin, way better than points. Never fly during a Scorpio full moon. Just tell the manager you'll sue. Instant room upgrade. Stop taking bad travel advice. Start comparing hundreds of sites with kayak and get your trip right. Bad advice?

You talking to me? Kayak, got that right. This podcast is sponsored by Blackout Coffee. Get your day off to a great start with a delicious cup of American-made Blackout Coffee. Now, repeat after me. It's family-owned, premium coffee, fresh-roasted, and shipped out within 48 hours of roasting. Seriously, in the blink of an eye, it goes from the roaster to packaging to your doorstep and into your mug. Go to blackout coffee.com.

promo code PDB for 20% off your first purchase. It's Tuesday, 13 February. Welcome to the PDB afternoon bulletin. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. Let's get briefed. First, as tensions on Israel's northern border with Lebanon continue to flare, French officials have stepped in to offer a de-escalation plan in hopes of avoiding a full-blown war between Israeli forces and Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants. Also, after significant uncertainty, the Senate in the U.S. passed a $95 billion foreign aid package that includes fresh funding for Ukraine, but the bill faces an uncertain future as it moves over to the House.

But first our afternoon spotlight. We begin with the Israel-Hamas conflict and the escalating conflict on Israel's northern border with Iranian-backed-Hasbullah militants in Lebanon. As we've been reporting, tensions along the northern border have been intensively. ever since the deadly 7 October attacks by the Iran-sponsored Hamas, which kicked off this latest conflict. The back and forth between Hezbollah militants and IDIA forces has been a deliberate one, with both sides containing their strikes to an area close to the border in order to avoid the conflict spilling into an all-out war, something both Israel and Hezbollah have said they

wish to avoid. Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon have so far killed 200 people, 170, of of which have been identified as Hezbollah fighters. Attacks from Hezbollah into northern Israel have killed 10 soldiers to date, and five civilians. Amid the chaos, tens of thousands on both sides of the border have fled their homes. Now with that in mind, France, which has a long history with Lebanon, has delivered a written proposal to leaders in Beirut, aimed at de-escalating the situation at the Lebanon-Israeli border, and ultimately establishing a truce between Hezbollah and Israel, and that's according to an exclusive Reuters report. French officials said the conflict risks spiraling out of control, and they're hopeful that their proposal can be a starting point for,

quote, a potential ceasefire when the conditions are right. The plan calls for a 10-day process of de-escalation, followed by border negotiations. Both Hezbollah and Israel would cease military operations against one another. It then calls for Hezbollah and other armed Lebanese. these factions to dismantle their facilities along the border and withdraw their fighting forces to at least 10 kilometers, or roughly 6 miles, if my math is correct, from Israel's northern border. This would include the removal of anti-tank and missile defense systems, and the idea behind forcing Esbalah fighters further from the border is to ensure that villages in northern Israel remain a safe distance from Hezbollah's anti-tank missiles. The small withdrawal is also seen as

more likely to be accepted by Hezbollah rather than one that forces them to retreat to Lebanon's Latani River. This location is roughly 19 miles from the border, and it was a stipulated withdrawal point for Hezbollah fighters back in 2006 as part of a UN resolution that ended the previous war between the two countries. Negotiations would then, at that point, resume between Israel and Lebanon regarding disputed areas at the border. Finally, the plan calls for up to 15,000 Lebanese army troops to be deployed into southern Lebanon to maintain order in the region. French officials said the proposal was delivered to officials in the governments of Israel, Lebanon, and Hezbollah by the French foreign minister last week. They noted that the proposal is not set in stone, but rather a starting point for a wider

conversation. It's worth noting roughly 20,000 French citizens call Lebanon home, and the French military maintains roughly 800 troops stationed in the country for a UN peacekeeping mission. The French foreign minister said at a press conference Monday, quote, we made proposals, were in contact with the Americans, and it's important that we bring together all initiatives and build peace, end quote. Hassan Fadlala, a senior Hezbollah politician, appeared to Porte, cold water on the proposal, saying Hezbollah will not cease military operations against Israel or discuss, quote, any matter related to the situation in the South before the halt of the aggression on Gaza, end quote. He added that the enemy is not in the position to impose conditions,

end quote. Now, there's no word on whether Hezbollah's overlords in the Iranian regime wrote Fadlala's statement or if he penned it himself. Officials in Israel acknowledged that they had received the French proposal and were reviewing the details. All right. Coming up after the break, the Senate passed a $95 billion foreign aid package that includes funding to Ukraine, but the bill faces an uncertain future as it moves to the House. I'll be right back. Welcome back to the afternoon bulletin.

After months of inaction, the U.S. Senate united behind a foreign aid package that includes fresh funding for Ukraine and Israel. actually thinking about it, saying months of inaction isn't really accurate. I mean, there was a lot of dithering and quite a bit of posturing, and I suppose that that still counts as action. Regardless, the bill faces hurdles as it moves to the Republican-dominated House. The Democrat-controlled chamber approved the $95.3 billion package in a 70-29 vote Tuesday morning, easily clearing the 60 votes needed to send the bill to the U.S. House of Representatives. In the final tally, 22 Republicans joined with Democrats to approve the foreign aid package, according to a Wall Street

Journal report. The bill allocates roughly $60 billion for Ukraine at a time when the war-torn country is in desperate need of further military and financial assistance. The package also provides roughly $14 billion in assistance to Israel and includes aid for Taiwan and other U.S. West Indo-Pacific allies. It was unclear if the bill would make it through the chamber after Republicans delayed the vote with a blitz of floor speeches Monday night. Now, using the word blitz to describe the flurry of nighttime floor speeches probably makes it sound more exciting and engaging than it was. Typically, the only folks watching these late-night speeches are the board camera operators and insomniac C-SPAN walks, but I'm sure they were riveting. Said a majority leader,

Schumer, never too tired to locate a camera, said Tuesday morning, quote, it's been a long night, a long weekend, and a long few months, but a new day is here. With this bill, he said, the Senate declares that American leadership will not waver, will not falter, will not fail, end quote, and impressively, he said all that with a straight face. Ukrainian President Zelensky expressed his gratitude to the U.S. Senate in a video Tuesday morning, saying the bill, quote, helps to save human lives from Russian terror. Now, somewhat optimistically, Zelensky said he expects a positive decision on the funding measures from the U.S. House. Despite the celebrations in the Senate, the package does face an uncertain future in the Republican-led House, where funding for Ukraine remains a very

contentious issue, particularly as the U.S. border crisis continues with little to no improvement. House Speaker Mike Johnson has indicated the legislation will need to undergo substantial changes in his chamber, and this includes a potential push from Republicans to secure border policy reforms. Johnson said Tuesday, quote, any so-called national security supplemental legislation must recognize that national security begins at our own border. Johnson added that the House will, quote, have to continue to work its own will on these important matters, end quote.

Other House Republicans said on Tuesday, though, that the package in its current form was dead on arrival. Apparently, it's too difficult for them to understand that both issues, border security, and support for Ukraine, are important for national security reasons, and both can be dealt with in a serious-minded manner. And that, my friends, is the PDB afternoon bulletin for Tuesday, 13 February. If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at pdb at thefirsttv.com. And by the way, as a public service announcement and in the interest of happy relations, relationships everywhere. Don't forget that tomorrow is Valentine's Day. If you haven't already,

go out and get your partner, your spouse, your significant other, your crush your person of interest, something nice. And don't forget your mum. Flowers, chocolates, maybe a nice bottle of gin, a card, something handmade. As they say, it's the thought that counts. I'm Mike Baker. I'll be back tomorrow. Until then, stay informed, stay safe, stay cool. 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. Anyway, Carvana. Give it a whirl. Love you. So good, you'll want to leave a voicemail about it. Sell your car today on... Carvana. Pick up fees may apply.