Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said Sunday that the White House’s position on aid and Israeli accountability in the humanitarian situation in Gaza is not yet completely clear. .
CBS’s Margaret Brennan asked Van Hollen if he was clear about Biden’s position on making conditions on aid to Israel, saying the Democratic senator has been asking White to “act based on the president’s own standards” on national security. He pointed out that he was asking for House.
“I’m not sure,” he answered.
“While I was happy to see the president finally tell Netanyahu that there would be consequences if he did not comply with my demands, at least as reported, the president and the White House have not yet reached a conclusion. “We cannot say what the consequences will be and what they are going to impose. And even though the president has made demands on the Netanyahu government for months, They ignored that request, and we sent in another 2,000 pounds of bombs, and the situation continues to be that we can’t do it.” “Back to that. When the president asks for something, We have to make sure we have the means to enforce it,” Van Hollen said.
Chris Van Hollen spoke to Margaret Brennan on Sunday about the White House’s position on Israel. (Screenshot/CBS)
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Mr. Brennan asked Mr. Van Hollen about the $14 billion aid package for Israel pending in the House of Representatives and wondered whether it was being reconsidered.
Van Hollen said the president’s National Security Memorandum No. 20 states, “If recipients of U.S. military aid, including the Netanyahu government, limit the provision of humanitarian aid, we will not send any more weapons.” “You should not do it,” he explained.
“So it’s very important that the Biden administration implements its own policies,” he continued. “This was signed by the President of the United States as a directive to the government, and it must be enforced.”
Mr. Brennan also interviewed John Kirby, the White House national security communications adviser. Mr. Kirby was pressed on why the president has not talked about the potential terms of aid to Israel.
President Joe Biden speaks at a campaign event at Pullman Yards on March 9, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Megan Varner/Getty Images)
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“I’m not going to preempt the president or any decisions he may or may not make going forward,” Kirby told CBS. “He made it very clear in his call with the Prime Minister that if we don’t see some changes in their policies and the way they conduct operations in Gaza, we’re going to have to make some changes ourselves. .”
Biden warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday that U.S. policy in Gaza could change if the Israeli military does not do more to improve the humanitarian situation.
In a call with his Israeli counterpart, Biden emphasized that Israel’s “attacks on humanitarian workers and the humanitarian situation in general are unacceptable,” according to a reading of the White House call earlier reported by Fox News Digital.
President Joe Biden speaks during a meeting of the National Infrastructure Advisory Council in the Indian Treaty Room of the White House on Wednesday, December 13, 2023 in Washington, DC, USA. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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Kirby and Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed similar sentiments later Thursday, according to the Jerusalem Post, with Blinken telling reporters that “if we don’t see the changes we need to see,” the U.S. said he would change gears.
The 30-minute call came after an Israeli airstrike killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers this week, raising concerns about the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Fox News Digital’s Michael Lee contributed to this report.
