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From the SitRoom to the E-Ring, the inside scoop on defense, national security and foreign policy. | | | | |  | | By Alexander Ward and Matt Berg | |  Sen. Chris Van Hollen joined more than a dozen Senate Democrats last month looking to place conditions on military aid to Israel — or any other country — that doesn't comply with U.S. and international law. | Andrew Harnik/AP | Subscribe here | Email Alex | Email Matt With help from Paul McLeary Sen. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D-Md.) just came back from a Middle East visit where he learned about how the aid-delivery process into Gaza works — or, more accurately stated, doesn’t. The biggest issue, he said, is that the deconfliction channel — whereby Israeli troops know the location of aid trucks and workers so they don’t get bombed — has broken down. That’s led to the deaths of humanitarian workers, an unreliable delivery schedule and imperiled Palestinians in Gaza who travel to pick up food, water and medicine. Every aid organization coordinating assistance into the enclave told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee member “they've never had a more broken deconfliction process than they do in Gaza.” But the senator also found that the delivery process was a mess even outside of the deconfliction problem. Van Hollen and Sen. JEFF MERKLEY (D-Ore.) met with the president and foreign minister of Egypt, the king and foreign minister of Jordan and multiple aid groups, including United Nations agencies. They also traveled to al Arish, a staging point for assistance flowing into Gaza in northern Sinai before heading to the Rafah crossing between Egypt and the strip — becoming the first lawmakers to visit since the war began on Oct. 7. Van Hollen described a massive warehouse at al Arish full of unused products like water-testing kits, medical tools to deliver babies, oxygen tanks and even tents. “A whole array of goods that had been turned back in what seemed like a totally arbitrary process, and I say arbitrary not just because from looking at these goods, there was no plausible argument that they were going to be used for weapons,” he told NatSec Daily. There’s also much confusion in the clearance process. Some trucks thought they got the green light from Israeli authorities via a preclearance procedure, only to have the truck turned away at the final inspection point — sometimes leading to delays as long as 20 days. The senator also noted that some aid trucks entering from Jordan have to traverse Israeli settler-inhabited parts of the West Bank. As a result, Israeli officials mandated that items from the Jordanian truck be offloaded onto an Israeli truck, only to be put back Jordanian trucks again later in the process. “The unloading and offloading itself was a huge time delay,” Van Hollen told us. There are no quick solutions to these issues, but in the meantime Gaza’s 2.3 million people suffer the consequences. Israel is moving to a less-intense phase of its operations in the enclave, but the situation is already dire for those without food, water, shelter and medical care. Van Hollen joined more than a dozen Senate Democrats last month looking to place conditions on military aid to Israel — or any other country — that doesn't comply with U.S. and international law. He’s critical of the Biden administration for often saying the right things about improving humanitarian conditions in Gaza while repeatedly bypassing Congress to send millions in weapons to Israel. The question President JOE BIDEN or anyone on his team should be asking, per Van Hollen, is: “Are the countries receiving these U.S. weapons complying with the terms of those policies?”
| | A message from Lockheed Martin: Our mission is to prepare you for the future by engineering advanced capabilities today.
Many of today’s military systems and platforms were designed to operate independently. Through our 21st Century Security vision, Lockheed Martin is accelerating innovation, connecting defense and digital to enhance the performance of major platforms, to equip customers to stay ahead of emerging threats. Learn more. | | | | | TEHRAN SEIZES TANKER: Iran’s navy boarded and seized a Greek-operated oil tanker off the coast of Oman today, near where Houthi rebels have been attacking merchant ships and facing off with American and British naval vessels in the Red Sea, our own JEREMY VAN DER HAEGEN reports. The St. Nikolas tanker, previously known as the Suez Rajan, was at the center of a dispute between Washington and Tehran last year after U.S. authorities seized the ship, loaded with 1 million barrels of Iranian crude oil. Iran’s actions today, however, elevate the risk of wider conflict erupting in the region, where a U.S.-led coalition is currently patrolling the Red Sea to safeguard commercial ships from Houthi attacks. SOUTH AFRICA’S GENOCIDE TRIAL: National Security Council spokesperson JOHN KIRBY said the U.S. will stand by Israel as South Africa began its trial today accusing the country of “genocidal intent” in Gaza. “We have said repeatedly that we believe these allegations of this case is unfounded, and that there is no basis for accusations of genocide against against Israel,” Kirby told reporters. “That’s not a word that ought to be thrown around lightly. And we certainly don’t believe that it applies here.” Speaking before the International Court of Justice in The Hague, South African representatives cited statements from top Israeli officials, including Defense Minister YOAV GALLANT, who have said they would impose complete siege on the Gaza Strip because its military is fighting “human animals.” Comments like those, South Africa argued, suggest the intent to commit genocide, The New York Times’ RONI RABIN reports. Those statements show that Israel wants “to create conditions of death of the Palestinian people in Gaza, to die a slow death due to starvation and dehydration or to die quickly because of a bomb attack or sniper, but to die nevertheless,” said TEMBEKA NGCUKAITOBI, a South African attorney making the case. Intent is the most difficult element to provide in genocide cases. Per the U.N. genocide convention, there must be proof that a perpetrator aims to physically destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group. Israel has denied the charges and will lay out its case on the second and final day of the hearing on Friday. BIDEN’S AUSTIN REACTION: The Defense Department’s inspector general is reviewing why Defense Secretary LLOYD AUSTIN’s hospitalizations and condition were kept from senior Pentagon staff. “The objective of the review is to examine the roles, processes, procedures, responsibilities, and actions related to the Secretary of Defense’s hospitalization in December 2023 – January 2024, and assess whether the DOD’s policies and procedures are sufficient to ensure timely and appropriate notifications and the effective transition of authorities as may be warranted due to health-based or other unavailability of senior leadership,” REISHIA KELSEY, deputy inspector general, said in a statement today. The inspector general could “expand the objective and scope as the review proceeds,” per the letter sent to relevant Pentagon offices. That’s now at least the third review of the issue after the DOD chief of staff initiated a 30-day probe into the notification process and Rep. MIKE ROGERS (R-Ala.), chair of the House Armed Services Committee, launched an investigation. Meanwhile, more information has come out about how the White House handled the startling information of Austin’s condition. When Biden learned that his defsec was secretly in the hospital for several days, he immediately asked: Is Austin alright? How could this happen? — as our own EUGENE DANIELS, Alex, ADAM CANCRYN and SAM STEIN reported Wednesday evening. His dual responses have continued to define the White House’s handling of the Austin saga: While the president and his aides have felt concern for the Pentagon chief, they’ve also been dismayed at his decision to conceal his illness and hospitalization. Scroll down to On The Hill for more Austin news. HEADS UP FOR HEZBOLLAH: There’s a rising risk Lebanese Hezbollah militants will strike Americans in the Middle East — and even potentially hit inside the United States, four officials familiar with U.S. intelligence told our own ERIN BANCO and LARA SELIGMAN Wednesday evening. The Iran-backed militant group would likely target U.S. personnel in the Middle East first, the officials said, including U.S. troops or diplomatic personnel overseas. The chance for an assault on U.S. soil is also growing as tensions in the region escalate, the officials said. IT’S THURSDAY: Thanks for tuning in to NatSec Daily. This space is reserved for the top U.S. and foreign officials, the lawmakers, the lobbyists, the experts and the people like you who care about how the natsec sausage gets made. Aim your tips and comments at award@politico.com and mberg@politico.com, and follow us on X at @alexbward and @mattberg33. While you’re at it, follow the rest of POLITICO’s national security team: @nahaltoosi, @PhelimKine, @laraseligman, @connorobrienNH, @paulmcleary, @leehudson, @magmill95, @johnnysaks130, @ErinBanco, @reporterjoe, and @JGedeon1.
| | | | POLITICO AT CES® 2024: We are going ALL On at CES 2024 with a special edition of the POLITICO Digital Future Daily newsletter. The CES-focused newsletter will take you inside the most powerful tech event in the world, featuring revolutionary products that cut across verticals, and insights from industry leaders that are shaping the future of innovation. The newsletter runs from Jan. 9-12 and will focus on the public policy-related aspects of the gathering. Sign up today to receive exclusive coverage of the show. | | | | | | | | | RON WOULDN’T PUSH ISRAEL: Florida Gov. RON DeSANTIS said he wouldn’t stop Israel from forcibly removing Palestinians from the Gaza Strip if he’s elected president. “As president, I am not going to tell them to do that. I think there’s a lot of issues with that,” DeSantis said during the GOP presidential debate Wednesday night. “But if they make the calculation that to avert a second Holocaust, they need to do that — I think some of these Palestinian Arabs, Saudi Arabia should take some. Egypt should take some.” His remarks follow calls from far-right Israeli politicians to “resettle” Palestinians in Gaza and rebuild settlements in the territory. “I don’t think you have to remove Palestinians from Gaza,” GOP presidential candidate NIKKI HALEY told CNN last week. “I think you have to remove Hamas from Gaza.”
| | | | Enter the “room where it happens”, where global power players shape policy and politics, with Power Play. POLITICO’s brand-new podcast will host conversations with the leaders and power players shaping the biggest ideas and driving the global conversations, moderated by award-winning journalist Anne McElvoy. Sign up today to be notified of new episodes – click here. | | | | | | | | CYBERATTACKING TAIPEI: Taiwan is dealing with a deluge of cyberattacks days before a critical presidential election, with experts blaming China for an increasingly sophisticated level of interference, our own MAGGIE MILLER and JOSEPH GEDEON report. The election on Saturday is the first real security test of 2024 — one of the biggest years for democratic elections in history — and underlines the rising cyber threat posed by China. Cyberattacks have reached new levels in the final quarter of 2023, spiking 3,370 percent since the previous year, according to a new threat report from website security firm Cloudflare. “The number and types of attacks China wages against Taiwan are very different from what they deploy to other nations,” former FBI Executive Assistant Director of Information and Technology JAMES TURGAL said. He calls the strategy an “embarrassment campaign,” where China infiltrates a system not to steal data but to post degrading statements that make Taipei’s institutions look bad. The White House also warned late Wednesday that China is trying to influence the result of Taiwan’s presidential election through disinformation and misinformation operations, our own PHELIM KINE reported. “It is no secret that Beijing has views on the outcome of the election and is trying to shape and coerce in various different ways,” a senior administration official told reporters. “Beijing will be the provocateur should it choose to respond with additional military pressure or coercion.” MICROSOFT LAB, PART II: Yesterday, we wrote about how top Microsoft leaders have debated what the future of the company’s prized artificial intelligence lab in China should be. Today, Sen. JOSH HAWLEY (R-Mo.) gave his two cents. “What should Microsoft do with its AI lab in China? Easy. Shut it down. No American company should be partnering with China in any way on AI,” he tweeted.
| | EU VS. HOUTHIS: The European Union wants to send at least three warships to safeguard vessels in the Red Sea facing attacks by Yemen's Houthi rebels, our own JACOPO BARIGAZZI reports. According to a document from the EU's diplomatic arm seen by Jacopo, the bloc should create "a new EU operation" that would "act in a broader area of operation, from the Red Sea to the Gulf." The operation could be launched as soon as the end of February. The proposal says "the exact size and composition of the operation would be subject to further operational planning" but includes "at least three anti-air destroyers or frigates with multi-mission capabilities for at least one year." DOD’S STRATEGY: The Pentagon has been trying for years to better understand the web of thousands of small companies that supply parts to major weapons manufacturers. That work is getting a boost with its first-ever strategy to maintain the strength of the nation’s defense industrial base, which was released today, our own PAUL McLEARY writes in. The public report unveiled at the Pentagon is in line with a draft copy obtained in December by Paul, warning that America’s defense industry is struggling to achieve the kind of scale and responsiveness displayed by China in recent years. China has transformed into a “global industrial powerhouse in many key areas” the report notes, “from shipbuilding to critical minerals to microelectronics – that vastly exceeds the capacity of not just the United States, but the combined output of our key European and Asian allies as well.” The response from the Pentagon? It’s working on it. Read: Russia finds way around sanctions on battlefield tech by our own DOUGLAS BUSVINE
| | SYMPATHY FOR AUSTIN: While top Democrats want more information about the controversy swirling around Austin’s hospitalization, they largely aren’t worried about political blowback that could come from it, our own NICHOLAS WU, URSULA PERANO, KATHERINE TULLY-MCMANUS and CONNOR O’BRIEN report. The party’s top member on the House Armed Services Committee, ADAM SMITH of Washington, said he’s already heard from the White House. The Pentagon chief still needs to answer key questions about his decision to keep his illness and treatment secret from the White House and Congress for days before revealing his prostate cancer diagnosis, he added. But for all their confusion and angst, Democrats feel sympathy for Austin and appear willing to wait — for now — before fretting about the broader consequences from the episode. “He should recover and return. And then what we have to look at is the impact of what happened and, I think, make a determination: Was there any serious gaps in coverage?” said Senate Armed Services Committee Chair JACK REED (D-R.I.), though he didn’t rule out hearings on the matter. Meanwhile, the Pentagon’s congressional affairs team blasted out MAX BOOT’s Washington Post op-ed defending Austin last night to multiple House offices.
| | | |   | | | | | WHY NOT ME? The next NATO chief should come from a country that walks the talk on defense spending, Latvian Foreign Minister KRIŠJĀNIS KARIŅŠ told POLITICO's Power Play podcast. Latvia is investing "about 2.4 percent of our GDP into defense this year, and we're heading up to 3 percent in the next three years," said Kariņš, who is in the running for the job to replace JENS STOLTENBERG. "We sort of put our money where our mouths are … which is important, I think, for any secretary-general to be able to speak to those members who are not yet doing it." Aside from Kariņš, Estonia's Prime Minister KAJA KALLAS, who could become the alliance's first female boss, and the Netherlands' outgoing Prime Minister MARK RUTTE have also said they are interested in the job. ICYMI — Haters gonna hate: Pentagon pushes back against Fox News conspiracy theory involving TAYLOR SWIFT by our own OLIVIA ALAFRIZ
| | — ERIC BULLER joined L3Harris Technologies as a senior principal in the space and airborne systems segment. He was previously at Deloitte in the government and public sector.
| | — ANDERS FOGH RASMUSSEN and ANDRIY YERMAK, Foreign Affairs: Victory is Ukraine’s only true path to peace — VERA BERGENGRUEN, Time: For Antony Blinken, the war in Gaza is a test of U.S. power — ROBERT CARLIN and SIEGFRIED HECKER, 38 North: Is KIM JONG UN preparing for war?
| | — The Center for Strategic and International Studies, 10 a.m.: Security in the western Pacific: building future capabilities in the time of AUKUS — The Center for Strategic and International Studies, 11 a.m.: Anything afoot in Japan-DPRK relations in 2024? CORRECTION: Due to a producer error, yesterday’s newsletter included a photo caption that misspelled Dani Miran’s name and misstated Omri Miran’s nationality. The report also misstated the name of the kibbutz from where Omri Miran was kidnapped. Thanks to our editor, Heidi Vogt, who has long led a broken process. We also thank our producer, Gregory Svirnovskiy, who is so strong he could crush us with his bare hands.
| | A message from Lockheed Martin: Our mission is to prepare you for the future by engineering advanced capabilities today.
Many of today’s military systems and platforms were designed to operate independently. Through our 21st Century Security vision, Lockheed Martin is accelerating innovation, connecting defense and digital to enhance the performance of major platforms, to equip customers to stay ahead of emerging threats. Learn more. | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |  |
