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Leland Vittert’s War Notes: It’s a PR War

A picture taken from Rafah shows smoke billowing over Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip following Israeli bombardment on December 15, 2023, amid continuing battles between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. (Photo by MOHAMMED ABED / AFP) (Photo by MOHAMMED ABED/AFP via Getty Images)

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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.

First Male Recipient of Women’s D1 Scholarship

Tate Drageset will reportedly become the first biological man to receive a woman’s scholarship to play volleyball at the University of Washington.

Drageset’s ability and strength on the court far outpaces her female teammates. 

  • The statistics: Male volleyball players hit the ball roughly 30% faster than women. 

Drageset’s situation is far different than that of swimmer Lia Thomas who walked onto the swim team and did not put other swimmers at greater risk for injury because of his strength.  

Thought bubble: Full room and board scholarships provide a $250,000 incentive for men to become women and compete in women’s sports. 

  • How long until biological men who couldn’t cut it on men’s teams replace all women in “women’s” college sports? 

Into Harm’s Way Without Backup — There Have Been Near 100 Attacks

The Pentagon will soon announce an international task force (putting Americans in harm’s way) to protect commercial shipping against attacks by Iranian-backed rebels in the Gulf of Aden. 

  • Approximately 10% of the world’s commerce goes through the Red Sea between risks of piracy attacks and missile launches, including one today at a cargo ship.
  • Shipping companies including the cargo giant Maersk announced it wouldn’t go through the strait anymore.
    • As a result, Iran has all but shut down commerce in international waters. 

Not to mention, since Oct. 7, Iranian militias have attacked U.S. forces 98 times. 

  • NewsNation’s own Kellie Meyer (@KellieMeyerNews) reports that this includes:
    • 46 attacks in Iraq 
    • 52 attacks in Syria

Ground truth

  • Iran’s continued attacks force America to commit more resources and Navy ships. 
  • Iran still hasn’t paid a price for its continued attempts to kill Americans.
  • The White House refuses to punish Iran. 
  • At some point, American service members will die at the hands of Iran’s militias in a completely preventable attack. 

War in Gaza Isn’t a Force vs Force War — It’s a PR War

Israel says the war to wipe out Hamas in Gaza could take months

  • Israel’s victory over Hamas from a purely military standpoint will happen. It’s guaranteed. What’s not guaranteed is victory in the PR war. 
  • Generally speaking, the harsher Israel’s tactics are, the shorter the war and the less casualties there are for Israel. The more Israel protects civilian lives, the longer the war is and the more casualties there are.
  • President Biden continued to put pressure on Israel, including his comments yesterday that Israel needs to be “more careful” in protecting civilians, speaking to an administration worried about a PR war, not the actual war. 

Biden’s National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan spoke to Israeli TV. 

As the international media continues to push pictures and videos from Gaza that highlight, often correctly, the suffering of Palestinian civilians — like Clarissa Ward’s excellent report on CNN — the harder Israel will have to fight for the moral high ground in the PR war. 

Watch tonight: Rick Berman will discuss how his website HamasTerror.com reminds Americans who Israel is really fighting. 

Worth Watching Chris Cuomo gave a stunning monologue after seeing the 46-minute film Israel made of the Oct. 7 attacks that they still won’t release to the public. 

  • Berman is one of America’s premier PR minds. He was once featured on “60 Minutes.” We’ll ask him if Israel will/should start putting out more videos from Oct. 7 against growing pressure from Washington to back off. 

America’s Civil War: A Movie Too Close to Reality

The trailer for a movie depicting Texas and California seceding from the union sparking a civil war hits a little too close to home.    

Forget the irony of Hollywood putting Texas and California on the same team, the film’s images remind me of Jan. 6 and the 2020 Black Lives Matter riots. It forces anyone to stop and realize where the leaders of both parties are pushing our country. 

  • Civil wars come from cultural and economic divides.
    • There’s new polling of swing state class divide in America.
      • In Michigan, Trump is ahead with working class, non-college educated voters, and Michigan is a largely working class state.
      • The same can be said of Georgia. 
      • The Pew Research Center puts Biden’s approval rating at 33%.
        • Thought bubble 💭: It’s hard to approve of a president when you can’t afford to buy Christmas presents.

Watch tonight: Victor Davis Hanson, professor of Classics Emeritus at California State University, Fresno, and author of “Dying Citizen.” 

DEI Is Not Going Quietly

In response to attacks on DEI for supporting pro-Hamas harassment of Jews, DEI enthusiasts hosted non-white Christmas parties and demanded kids face “concrete impacts” for microaggressions.

As we discussed last night with Colby Hall about the fall of the New York Times, inmates running the asylum leads to bad results. 

  • Former Senator Ben Sasse, now president of the University of Florida, explains it as “The Moral Decline of Elite Universities.”
  • It’s worth your time to read more: “Too much of academia cares little for universal human dignity, leaves no space for forgiveness, and exhibits no interest in shared progress.”

The gloves are off. The exposure by pro-Hamas folks of DEI racism and hypocrisy removes the protection for those who trade in cultural marxism like Boston’s mayor who once said, “I’m getting used to dealing with problems that are expensive, disruptive and white.”

She then held a Christmas party for only non-white elected officials. Howie Carr noted many of the attendees covered their faces going in. 

  • There are too many great lines to quote including: “After all, Michelle Wu was just trying to put the ‘party’ back into apartheid.” It’s worth reading his article.
  • Thought bubble: Boston seems far away from the folks who used to live there that once threw a tea party.

The war against DEI continues as Jay Edelson, founder of America’s premier plaintiffs law firm with billions in judgments, says he’s boycotting Harvard law recruiting events

Set your DVRs : Edelson is with us for an extended exclusive interview on Monday.

Seattle Crime

As if Seattle didn’t have enough of a crime problem with homicides surpassing a three-decade high, the state wants to make using a gas-powered leaf blower punishable by jail time

  • Thought bubble: Is this a law Seattle police will actually enforce?

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

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

Leland Vittert's War Notes

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed

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