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.

Biden’s Warnings to Israel

The Biden administration continues to shorten Israel’s leash in fighting Hamas. This plays into Hamas’ hands. 

• Hamas’ battle plan: Hide in tunnels, play for time.
  • As described by the Wall Street Journal, Hamas’ play for time can thwart Israel’s plan to section off Gaza: “Hamas can prevent that outcome, military analysts say, by holding out underneath Gaza until Israel is forced into a cease-fire, either by international pressure or in negotiations to release the hostages still held by Hamas or other groups.”

The news: At a closed-door fundraiser (in remarks the White House knew would become public), President Biden accused Israel of “indiscriminate bombing,” warned Israel of losing international support and directly challenged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on what Gaza and the West Bank would look like after the war. 

• Fact check: If Israel engaged in “indiscriminate bombing” of Gaza, the war would have ended around Oct. 15 with Gaza ceasing to exist. The whole reason this is taking so long is because of Israel’s restraint. 
• The numbers: Since Oct. 7, Israel dropped 22,000 bombs and according to Hamas’ numbers killed about 18,000 people. Who knows if Hamas is telling the truth as they often inflate and lie. They also don’t break out civilian versus Hamas-member deaths but let’s estimate for sake of discussion Hamas is telling the truth and about half are civilians. In other words, Israel is so accurate it kills less than .5 civilians with each bomb dropped — that’s pretty damn precise. 
• Next step : Biden will speak publicly about the lack of international support for the war and how Israel’s tactics are hurting its standing in the world.  
• Today: Biden meets with families of American hostages held in Gaza. Watch how his rhetoric changes. 

Israel Battle Plan: Flooding the Tunnels

The Wall Street Journal reports Israel will soon start flooding Hamas’ tunnel network with seawater. How long until the U.N. and others will start complaining about drowning terrorists?

• Ground truth: The tighter a timeline Biden puts on Israel, the more aggressive Israel will become. To his credit, Biden appears to know this but cannot help himself because of his domestic political considerations.
• Arab countries, especially oil-rich Gulf states, care less and less about the Palestinians every day. They have made all their proclamations and now would love nothing more than for Israel to destroy Hamas. The media is moving on too.
  • Qatar told Hamas officials to leave, citing threats by Israel. The “Gulfies” want nothing to do with Hamas. And Hamas officials keep disappearing in Lebanon.

What the Palestinians think:

• Eitan Fischberger breaks down a new survey of Palestinians, finding:
  • “72% support the 10/7 massacre. Support for Hamas triples in West Bank (82% supported the massacre). Support for ‘armed struggle’ rises ten pts to +60%. Only 10% of Palestinians think Hamas committed war crimes. Relatedly, 85% did not see any of the footage released from 10/7.”

The pro-Hamas wing of Democratic Party is emboldened

• As we predicted, domestic political pressure on President Biden now threatens him directly.
  • According to Victor Nava of the New York Post, a Delaware lawmaker invited to Kamala Harris’ holiday party “heckled” the vice president: “‘Madam Vice President, I am a rep from Delaware. Did you know in Bethlehem they are not celebrating Christmas? Did you know in Bethlehem, baby Jesus is under rubble? Why won’t you call for a cease-fire?’ (Madinah) Wilson-Anton shouted at Harris.”
• Speaking of the pro-Hamas wing … Ilhan Omar finds harassment she doesn’t like, namely someone yelling at a keffiyeh-wearing woman walking in a Jewish neighborhood.
  • Never mind that wearing a keffiyeh in a Jewish neighborhood is like wearing a white bedsheet over your head in a Black neighborhood.
  • But Omar remains silent about pro-Hamas folks screaming, “We will kill you all, occupiers” at those leaving the Israeli Embassy party in D.C. 

Worth noting: Israelis mostly talk about wanting peace. The Palestinians mostly talk about wanting to destroy Israel. 

It Happened Again: Congress Beat the Market. Now You Can Too

Congressman and former Navy pilot Mike Garcia sold Boeing shares in the days before the release of a damning government report.

The Daily Beast reports the story gets worse for the congressman, who failed to disclose the trade within the allotted time, and the report came from his committee. It looks bad — really bad. 

📺 Tonight, we have the CEO of Quiver Quantitative, a trading company that lets you beat the stock market just like Congress does using their “disclosed” trades. 

• Lewis Pennock of the Daily Mail reports its fund that tracks all congressional trade is up 20%, and its Pelosi-specific tracker is up 50%. Such returns make Warren Buffett look like a rank amateur. 

Are Hunter and His Dad Winning the Impeachment Battle?

Hunter showed up and then left the Capitol for his scheduled deposition. It’s hard to argue with a guy who is willing to testify in public … it just seems fair — especially considering Republican impeachment leader James Comer says he won’t do Fox News anymore because of its “tough questions.” 

• Colby Hall (@colbyhall) of Mediaite breaks down what that means.

Biden’s Christmas Gift

• While Democrats love to cry about impeachment, they love that …
  • It will unite Democrats around a historically unpopular president. 
  • It allows the media to focus on Republicans playing politics rather than real issues and even Hunter Biden’s real issues. 
  • It ruins Republicans’ ability to play the victim. 
  • It raises the expectations of what Republicans must find versus what they already have on Biden, which is already bad enough. 

Never underestimate Republicans’ ability to screw things up. 

Overplaying their hand — House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries claims there is “zero evidence” of Biden’s “wrongdoing.”

• PLEASE! Allowing your son to sell your name in China and Ukraine is wrong and lying that you never talked to your son about his business dealings is wrong.  

20% of Americans Admit to Cheating in the 2020 Election

A new Rasmussen poll finds, “More than 20% of voters who used mail-in ballots in 2020 admit they participated in at least one form of election fraud.”

• Thoughts from a smart friend of mine: “It goes a long way to explain why no one believes it when their preferred candidate loses a close election … 20% of voters personally cheat, and assume others do as well. So close election is ‘within the margin (of cheating) error’ and not credible.”
• Thought bubble 💭: If 20% admit to cheating … isn’t the real number a lot higher? 

Forget the Conspiracy Theory: The Secret Service is Just Incompetent 

New documents from Judicial Watch show the Secret Service agents assigned to former President Barack Obama’s Martha’s Vineyard estate couldn’t operate their two boats to save Obama’s chef from drowning not far offshore. 

Some of the Secret Service’s fails in the last two decades:

• The prostitutes in Columbia,
• The couple that crashed the state dinner,
• The armed man who walked through the White House’s front door
• and the latest: the cocaine miss

What if Obama or first lady Michelle had been on the paddle boards? How is operating their own boats not part of standard training? Are these really the people protecting the president? A group of agents who can’t operate an outboard motor? 

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.