NewsNation Chief Washington Anchor and On Balance host Leland Vittert was a foreign correspondent for four years in Jerusalem. He gives you an early look at tonight’s 7 p.m. ET show. Subscribe to War Notes here.  

“Peace” with Hamas Is Impossible 

An Israeli airstrike killed three sons and other family members of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. A video shows him responding to the news from luxury in Qatar, saying, “I thank Allah for the honor that my children and grandchildren have been martyred.”

Hamas’ charter calls for a second holocaust of the Jewish people and to continue the fight from there. There is nothing in the Hamas charter about living in “peace.” 

This is very different than grieving Gold Star mothers or Americans who regret they have but one life to give for their country. America seeks peace, while Hamas seeks destruction, death, rape and power — that is the political side of militant Islam.

“Peace” with such people is impossible.

During my four years in the Middle East and decade since I have returned, the common question centers around “peace,” how to get it, why we don’t have it and if it’s possible. 

When I first arrived and even for years covering the conflicts there — not just between Palestinians and Israelis but between Sunni and Shia Muslims too — I would have some thoughtful answers, especially about the Palestinians and Israelis, including the trades of land in the West Bank and more.

I now know that what Golda Meir said, the former Israeli prime minister Biden loves to quote, is the only explanation: “Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us.”

It’s really that simple.

Zoom out: Israel understands who it is fighting against and the rules of militant Islam warfare. 

• This article from retired IDF Brigadier General Yossi Kuperwasser and former head of the IDF Intelligence Corps’ Research Division makes the case for Israeli escalation with a direct strike against Iran. 
• In Washington: President Biden’s team should take note that Israel lashes out when it feels unsupported by Washington, D.C. 

2024: Abortion Versus the Economy

Over 20% of Americans skip meals to pay for housing, yet your tax dollars now underwrite the European vacations of college grads thanks to student loan forgiveness … welcome to 2024. 

That sentence alone should make any fair-minded American’s blood boil. Not to mention, today’s stubbornly high inflation numbers show there are no free lunches for a president who fancies himself “Scranton Joe.”

• High inflation numbers mean grocery prices and other items will keep getting more expensive faster. This makes a June interest rate cut that would lower house, car and credit card payments less likely. 
• Bloomberg reports even lower rates won’t lower the energy costs that have risen since the start of the pandemic.

YET, Democrats might win in major swing states thanks to Republicans’ continued political malpractice on the abortion issue. 

Welcome to 2024. 

We’ll get to Republicans in a minute. 

• Watch tonight: Erick Erickson on Republicans’ own problems and whether Biden’s new executive order on the border will fix things for him.  

BUT FIRST: Geraldo Rivera will discuss tonight what Democrats will do about the craziest among them.  

Politico’s Playbook newsletter quotes longtime Biden aide and former chief of staff Ron Klain caught on a recording saying, “‘He does two or three events a week where he’s cutting a ribbon on a bridge. … You go to the grocery store and, you know, eggs and milk are expensive, the fact that there’s a f***ing bridge is not [inaudible].’” 

Fact check: Biden’s policies do spend a lot of money, but they do nothing to bring down grocery prices — in fact, they increase a lot of prices. 

Be careful what you wish for: Grocery prices aren’t what Biden wants to be talking about. 

Ready-made attack ads: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., went on Stephen Colbert’s “Late Show” to extol the virtues of Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan that mostly helps progressive entitled (and by definition) college-educated folks.

• Things Ocasio-Cortez says higher earners will do with the tax dollars of lower-paid Americans who didn’t go to college:
  • Buy a house
  • Have a kid
  • Travel
  • Go back to school to “pursue a career they otherwise wouldn’t have” 
• Or this clip from Ocasio-Cortez’s alter ego, Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, where she advocates for no taxes for Black people.

Watch tonight: “Dirty Jobs” host Mike Rowe joins Cuomo for an hour-long special “Trading Up” at 8 p.m. E.T. only on NewsNation. The special event features a live studio audience … along with the blue-collar millionaires who found success without a college degree. 

Wake-up call: While seemingly disconnected, the economy and crime are issues that come down to how people feel.

• Want to know why middle-class Black voters are leaving the Democratic party? Ask Alexi McCammond, who opines in the Washington Post that “passionate proposals from a small minority of leftists, namely to defund the police, exacerbated the perception that Democrats are out of touch with reality, handing Republicans a winning attack in competitive races. Now, more moderate Democrats are working to change the age-old perception that their party is ‘soft’ on crime.”

Where we are: California’s 99 Cents Only stores are all closing. They cite inflation and crime as the reasons why. 

By His Side?

Former President Donald Trump goes on trial Monday, but will his wife be there? 

• Wait, what? Somehow, the idea of a former president on criminal trial MONDAY doesn’t get our attention. 
• Honest question: Will Melania be there?
  • Hillary Clinton stood by former President Bill Clinton, even through the Monica Lewinsky scandal
  • Countless other political wives have walked the courthouse steps 
  • What does it say if she is or isn’t?
• Arwa Mahdawi describes her as the Trump campaign’s secret weapon in an opinion piece in The Guardian after Melania attended Trump’s $50 million fundraiser in Palm Beach. 

Ground truth: John Paulson’s $110 million estate is a little different than a New York courtroom. 

Barefoot Canoodling

As if flying these days isn’t bad enough, check out this picture of a barefoot couple canoodling across a row of seats. I don’t recognize the airline.

Thought bubble: When was the last time you were on a plane with an empty middle seat for this even to be possible? 

We are a long way from how flying was in our parents’ day. 

Closing the Gates

Going into summer, President Biden will reportedly bring back some of the Trump-era policies designed to slow the flow at the border.

OK. Now what? 

• The executive order would make it harder to claim asylum and give border agents more discretion. Yes, these are all things Biden claimed he couldn’t do or were un-American when Trump did them but would have the net effect of fewer illegal immigrants making it to the American city of their choice and calling friends from the home country to come on in too. 

Border crossing numbers are like economic numbers — they can “get better,” but people will still feel the same way. 

Ground truth: The border crisis isn’t just at the border. It’s in every American city, town and hamlet.

• It’s the lack of infrastructure: hospitals, schools, police, housing 
• The economic cost: free gift cards
• The public safety issues: crime, shoplifting gangs, panhandlers, street sellers 

Tune into “On Balance with Leland Vittert” weeknights at 7/6C on NewsNation. Find your channel here. 

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily of NewsNation.