Biden speaks with Netanyahu, Abbas

President Joe Biden reiterated U.S. efforts to prevent the Israel-Hamas conflict from escalating into a regional war and to safeguard civilians’ access to vital resources, according to readouts of separate calls with Israeli and Palestinian leaders Saturday.

Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that all countries must “condemn Hamas as a terrorist organization that does not represent the aspirations of the Palestinian people,” while reiterating U.S. support for Israel.

Biden’s call with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was the first between the two since Hamas’ attack last week, while his conversation with Netanyahu was their fifth such call.

“President Biden condemned Hamas’ brutal attack on Israel and reiterated that Hamas does not stand for the Palestinian people’s right to dignity and self-determination,” said the White House readout of the call with Abbas, adding that Biden offered Abbas and the Palestinian Authority his full support for humanitarian efforts in Gaza.

The president spoke to both leaders about coordination with the United Nations, Egypt, Jordan and other countries in the region to ensure access to water, food and medical care for all civilians.

In both calls, Biden emphasized the need to prevent the conflict from expanding, reflecting widespread concern that other parties such as Iran, which has backed Hamas, or Hezbollah, a Lebanese militant group also backed by Iran, might jump into the war.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, who visited Israel on Friday, also spoke with Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant on Saturday to discuss humanitarian concerns and the possibility of the conflict widening, according to a readout of their call.

Austin raised the “importance of adhering to the law of war” and abiding by civilian protection obligations, and noted the need to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

The defense secretary also told Gallant that “posture increases in the region are intended to make clear his commitment to deter any state or non-state actor seeking to escalate this war.”

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FBI director warns of increase in domestic threats related to Middle East conflict

FBI director Christopher Wray on Saturday said reported domestic threats have surged as conflict in Israel escalates.

Wray acknowledged the increase in threats due to the “heightened environment,” calling for increased vigilance and requesting that police continue to share intelligence and observations.

“History has been witness to antisemitic and other forms of violent extremism for far too long. Whether that be from foreign terrorist organizations, or those inspired by them, or domestic violent extremists motivated by their own racial animus, the targeting of a community because of their faith is completely unacceptable,” Wray said in his prepared remarks at the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference in San Diego.

“We remain committed to continue confronting those threats — both here in the United States and overseas,” he said.

“I want to take a moment to offer my heartfelt condolences to the people of Israel, and share the outrage I know we all feel at the sheer brutality and disregard for innocent lives there,” Wray added.

The FBI does not have “specific and credible intelligence indicating a threat to the United States stemming from the Hamas attacks in Israel,” but continues to monitor events as they unfold, the agency said in a statement issued on Monday.

No further efforts by Wray or the agency have been made public as of yet, although the release noted that FBI personnel was involved in efforts to locate affected Americans.

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DeSantis: U.S. should not accept Gaza refugees

Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis on Saturday said the U.S. should not accept Gaza refugees as conflict in the Middle East escalates.

“If you look at how [people in Gaza] behave, not all of them are Hamas, but they are all anti-Semitic,” the Florida governor said at a campaign event in Iowa.

Israel is expected to move forward with a ground invasion of northern Gaza in retaliation for Hamas’ attacks last weekend. Palestinians in Gaza have struggled to follow an evacuation order, which covers an area with over 1.1 million residents — about half of the territory’s population — and demands that they cram into the southern half of the 25-mile strip.

“We cannot accept people from Gaza into this country as refugees,” DeSantis told the audience.

Instead, he said “the Arab states” should take them in. “You don’t fly people and import them into the United States of America,” he added.

DeSantis, a longtime supporter of Israel, called for a “swift and lethal response” following Hamas’ attack last week.

The Florida governor signed an executive order Thursday directing the state to arrange charter flights for Americans out of Israel — in addition to those already ordered by the Biden administration.

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Reuters videographer killed in southern Lebanon, other journalists injured

A Reuters videographer was killed while working in southern Lebanon, the news agency said Friday.

The videographer, Issam Abdallah, was part of a crew providing a live signal. According to the Reuters statement, two other journalists, Thaer Al-Sudani and Maher Nazeh, sustained injuries.

The statement didn’t include further details of Abdallah’s death, but it noted that Reuters is seeking more information and working with regional authorities.

“Our heartfelt prayers are with the families, the family of the journalist who was killed and also our prayers are with the injured journalists for their full and swift recovery,” said White House spokesperson Olivia Dalton during a press gaggle Friday.

“We know that the work that you all do is incredibly dangerous and today is a reminder of that,” Dalton said.

Separately, The Associated Press reported that an Israeli shell landed among a group of international journalists killing the Reuters journalist and injuring six others.

An AP photographer at the scene saw the body of the Reuters videographer and the six who were wounded, the AP reported, and images from the scene showed a charred car.

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DeSantis and Haley camps take whacks at each other before donor confab

Top officials with Gov. Ron DeSantis’ campaign made the case to a gathering of top donors opposed to Donald Trump on Friday that rival GOP candidate Nikki Haley could not defeat the former president in a head-to-head matchup.

If they wanted to stop Trump, they argued, the Florida governor remained their best bet.

In another presentation made to the same group, Haley’s team argued the opposite. DeSantis’ campaign had flatlined, they insisted, pointing to data that showed that the former UN ambassador was ascendent and, therefore, the logical choice for the anti-Trump crowd.

Haley’s team, according to a person familiar with the arguments they made, pointed to public and private polling that showed her ahead of DeSantis in key early voting states. They also noted that Haley’s campaign has more cash on hand than DeSantis, who is leaning heavily on an allied super PAC to pick up much of the tab.

“By every metric,” the person said, “Nikki is moving up and Ron is moving down. It IS a two person race: one man and one woman.”

The dueling presentations were delivered to a major Republican donor network gathering that includes hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer and investor Ken Griffin, two of the biggest contributors in the party. It was delivered amid growing concern in some quarters of the party that a Trump nomination is quickly becoming inevitable.

Real estate developer Harlan Crow organized the conference in Dallas with an eye toward helping consolidate the field of Republican candidates. Many anti-Trump donors have been eager to winnow down the race to a one-on-one contest with Trump, who is leading in the polls against a splintered field.

Staffers for only two candidates — DeSantis and Haley — were invited to present their case, an indication that donors are increasingly zeroing in on those two contenders.

Haley advisers present included campaign manager Betsy Ankney and senior adviser Jon Lerner.

The DeSantis crew included senior adviser Ryan Tyson and campaign manager James Uthmeier, who made several arguments in an effort to win over the room, according to two people familiar with the presentation.

The first was that 90 percent of current DeSantis supporters would ultimately vote for Trump should he drop out, whereas Haley’s voters would disperse to other non-Trump candidates, namely DeSantis. That dynamic, they added, meant that the Florida governor was the one non-Trump candidate who could keep the former president’s vote share down in a primary. The DeSantis officials argued that Haley would ultimately lose a head-to-head contest with Trump by a 70-30 margin.

They also argued that DeSantis besting Trump in the Iowa caucus would provide a chink in the former president’s political armor. And they contended that the proof of their continued viability was evident by the fact that Trump’s team has continued to attack DeSantis, despite his diminished standing in the race. The former president in recent weeks has also begun to attack Haley — the former South Carolina governor — and has coined a nickname for her, “Birdbrain.”

The case from the DeSantis camp was made as their operation has faced a number of setbacks. The Florida governor has seen his polling numbers fall both nationally and in the key early voting states.

But while Haley has managed to improve her standing in the race over the course of several well-regarded debate performances, the main beneficiary of DeSantis’ fall has been Trump, who has consolidated support in the polls

Anti-Trump Republicans hope the gathering, held on the Old Parkland Campus, a development owned by Crow, signals a new phase of the campaign, in which candidates begin to drop out and consolidate around a single Trump opponent.

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Russia launched 'renewed offensive' against Ukraine, Kirby says

Russia appears to have launched a “renewed offensive” against Ukrainian troops in the eastern part of the country as the war inches closer to entering its second winter, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said on Friday.

But Russian troops haven’t made much progress, Kirby said, adding that the new attacks are “not a surprise.”

“The Russian military appears to be using human wave tactics where they throw masses of poorly trained soldiers right into the battlefield without proper equipment, and apparently without proper training and preparation,” he said.

The announcement comes on the fourth day of Russia’s intense offensive on the eastern Ukrainian city of Avdiivka, though its forces have made little headway, CNN reported on Friday. Russian forces have launched hundreds of attacks on Kyiv’s troops in the city using tanks and armored personnel carriers.

Kirby also said that North Korea and Russia’s military cooperation has been “expanding.” In recent weeks, North Korea has provided Russia with more than 1,000 containers of military equipment and munitions, he said.

“We also are increasingly concerned about Russian assistance” to North Korea, he said.

In return for support, Kirby said, the U.S. believes Pyongyang wants to obtain fighter jets, surface-to-air missiles, armored vehicles and equipment to make ballistic missiles, among other materials to build advanced technologies.

The U.S. has seen Russian ships off-loading containers in North Korea, he said, but didn’t specify what was delivered. In response, Washington will continue to sanction those involved in the military cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang.

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Ukrainian pilots expected to start F-16 training in Arizona next week

Ukrainian pilots are expected to begin training to fly the F-16 fighter jet at an Air National Guard base in Tuscon, Ariz., next week, according to four U.S. officials.

A small number of pilots, who arrived in the United States last month to participate in an English language course at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas, have passed their first test for English proficiency and are headed to Morris Air National Guard Base in Arizona, according to one of the officials, who like the others were granted anonymity to speak ahead of an announcement. There, they will train with the 162nd Wing, the main F-16 training hub for the Air Force, two of the officials said.

The pilots will first learn the basics of operating the F-16 in the classroom and in simulators before moving on to flying the actual jets, as is typical for any Air Force pilot training program. However, the course may be accelerated due to the urgent need to get them back to the battlefield, the first official said.

The group of Ukrainian pilots has been participating in an English language program at the Defense Language Institute English Language Center at Lackland, said Air Force spokesperson Rose Riley.

“Testing will determine their next courses and when the pilots would be able to commence F-16 training. Training location options are still being considered at this time,” Riley said.

The news comes as the U.S. announced on Wednesday that it will head up a coalition of countries training Ukrainian pilots and crew to operate and maintain the F-16s, alongside the Netherlands and Denmark. So far, 11 countries have signed up to help with the training, while the Netherlands, Denmark and Belgium will donate aircraft.

During a press conference in Brussels earlier this week, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the F-16s would arrive on the battlefield next spring at the earliest.

The training begins amid concerns that the Pentagon is running out of money to continue sending military aid to Ukraine, after lawmakers passed a last-minute spending bill to avert a government shutdown that did not include funding for Kyiv. And it comes days after Hamas militants launched a surprise attack on Israel, sparking a conflict that has rocked the region.

Officials in Kyiv have been pushing to get modern fighter aircraft to the battlefield for more than a year. The Ukrainian military, working with DOD, has managed to integrate Western air-launched missiles with its Soviet-era fighter jets, according to one of the U.S. officials, an effort Politico reported was ongoing in March. However, Ukrainian officials say modern fighter jets will give them an advantage.

President Joe Biden finally approved an international effort to train Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16s in May, but the coalition took months to straighten out the details of the program. Initially, officials said the pilots and maintainers would train in Europe; the Pentagon announced last month that some of the training would take place in the U.S.

A group of Ukrainian pilots training in Europe are already learning on F-16 flight simulators, Ukrainian Air Force spokesperson Yurii Ihnat said earlier this month. The next stage is “flights with an instructor in real jets,” he said.

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