The President's Daily Brief - PDB Afternoon Bulletin | March 28th, 2024: Israel-US Relations Crumble & The One-Year Anniversary Of WSJ Reporter's Russian Imprisonment

Episode Date: March 28, 2024

In this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin:     The fallout from the U.N.’s ceasefire resolution is intensifying as officials inside Israel claim the U.S. has turned their back on them, undermining their ability to ever fully destroy Hamas. This week marks the one-year anniversary of Wall Street Journal Reporter Evan Gershkovich's detention in Russia. We’ll have the latest on his imprisonment and the ongoing efforts to bring him home. 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 PDB Afternoon Bulletin.  Email: [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's Thursday, 28 March. Welcome to the PDB afternoon bulletin. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. Let's get briefed. First, the fallout from the UN's ceasefire resolution is intensifying, as officials inside Israel claim the U.S. has turned their back on them, undermining their ability to ever fully destroy Hamas. Also, this week marks the one-year anniversary of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gerskovich's

detention in Russia. We'll have the latest on his imprisonment and the ongoing efforts to bring him home. But first, our afternoon spotlight. The tension between Israel and the U.S. is growing in the wake of Monday's UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, the first that the U.S. allowed to pass through the international body. Now, officials inside Israel are expressing doubts for the first time that they will be able to fully destroy Hamas through their military campaign in Gaza, senior Israeli officials, who spoke anonymously to the telegraph, said their objective of total victory over the Iranian-backed terror group hangs in the balance as international support for their ongoing operation crumbles. They said that four out of the original 24

Hamas battalions remained completely untouched as they hide inside the southern Gaza city of Rafah, which Israel is still planning to invade. These officials accused the U.S. of turning its back on Israel and said without reliable U.S. support, their mission will likely remain unobtainable. One Israeli source said, quote, if you'd asked me this a month ago, I would definitely say yes, we can eliminate Hamas, because at that time the Americans were backing Israel, end quote. Now, that assessment has reportedly changed at the highest levels of Israel's government in the wake of the U.N. action. As a reminder, the U.S. allowed a UN Security Council resolution to pass on Monday,

demanding a ceasefire in Gaza during the month of Ramadan. Unlike previous votes, the U.S. abstained rather than using its veto, making it the first resolution demanding a ceasefire to pass at the council after four previous failures. That vote brought Israeli-U.S. relations to essentially a new low, prompting Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to lash out at the Biden administration for retreating from their position of full-throated support for Israel. He also canceled a planned delegation to Washington that President Biden had requested only last week and blamed the U.N. vote for the breakdown in temporary ceasefire negotiations this week.

On the U.S. side, officials have been growing increasingly frustrated with Netanyahu's leadership over the spiraling humanitarian situation in Gaza. The Biden administration is desperate to prevent Israel from launching a full-scale invasion of Rafa and is attempting to push alternative strategies. The Biden administration is also desperate not to lose support from its base as they head into the November presidential elections with low approval ratings. An anonymous Israeli source told the telegraph, quote, the pressure is mounting on Israel to reach some sort of a deal, which means Hamas could survive. Both Hamas and the Iranians are planning on that, end quote. Israel maintains that their only option is to attempt to eradicate the remaining Hamas battalions inside Rafa or risk allow.

the group to restrainthen. They added that Israel has come too far in degrading the terrorist group to not follow through. Officials note that Hamas is now largely scattered and has lost any semblance of a formal centralized command. Hamas battalions now reportedly operate independently using guerrilla tactics to target the Israeli military. One Israeli official said that with most of the Hamas commanders eliminated, some groups of beleaguered militants have lost their will to fight, and in some cases are even surrendering to Israeli forces. Still, Israel says their ability to deliver the final death blow to Hamas hinges on going after the Hamas structure now hiding in Rafah,

which is becoming harder to justify as the international community turns against them. A senior Israeli official said, quote, The U.S. doesn't support going into Rafah, which they did before, so the cards right now are not good, meaning Israel has to do something dramatic and drastic to change the momentum and climate, end quote. The reality is that Israel has little ability to change the momentum in climate. In the U.S., fear of shedding voters among their base, particularly Arab-American voters and the youth vote, means that the Biden administration will choose domestic politics over the Israeli relationship.

And on the international front, the sad reality of civilian casualties, combined with anti-Israel or anti-Semitic attitudes, means that the narrative will continue to minimize the horror of the 7 October slaughter, not to mention the continued threat to Israel's existence by Hamas and their puppet masters Iran, in favor of villainizing Israel for a war that they did not start, but are now expected to walk away from. Coming up after the break, it's been one year since Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gerskovich was imprisoned in Russia.

We'll have the latest regarding his detention and the ongoing efforts to bring him home. I'll be right back. Welcome back to the afternoon bulletin. This week, March the one-year anniversary of the arrest of Evan Gershkovich. He's the American Wall Street Journal reporter who's currently being held in Russia on espionage charges. To bring you up to speed, Gershkovich was detained in Russia by the country's Federal Security Service, the FSB, back in March of 2023. It was and remains a major story and interesting. international incident because it marked the first arrest of a U.S. journalist in Russia on spying

accusations since the end of the Cold War. Since his arrest, the story, unfortunately, has largely fallen out of the mainstream press. Russian authorities alleged that Gershkovich was collecting, quote, secret information about a Russian defense company. If he's convicted of the crimes of which he's accused, he could face up to 20 years in a Russian penal colony. However, both he and his employer, the Street Journal as well as the U.S. government have strongly and consistently denied these accusations, labeling them as baseless and demanding his immediate release. The arrest has been perceived as part of Russia's broader crackdown on independent journalism and has led to fears of heightened risks for foreign correspondence in the country. And of course, Putin's regime has a habit of detaining individuals

to be used as bargaining chips when opportune. The case quickly gained international attention, drawing criticism from various organizations and governments worldwide, including the White House and the European Union. The U.S. State Department went as far as officially designated Gerskovich as wrongfully detained. This week, a court in Moscow actually extended his pretrial detention by another three months, and that's the fifth time that his detention has been extended since his arrest. Now, there's growing speculation about a potential prisoner exchange involving Gershkovich, and President Putin has publicly shown openness to a trade involving the detained journalist. Today, the Kremlin confirmed that discussions about a potential exchange of Gerskovich

are being conducted discreetly. And that, my friends, is the PDB afternoon bulletin for Thursday, 28 March. If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at PDB at thefirsttv.com. And be sure to check out our new premium membership at pdbpremium.com. We've been fortunate to have terrific sponsors, but if you prefer your PDB ad-free, well, check out the premium membership. I'm Mike Baker, and I'll be back tomorrow. Until then, stay informed, stay safe, stay cool.