Van Hollen: U.S. ‘Should Not Be Sending More Bombs’ to Israel Until Humanitarian Aid Allowed In Gaza

Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that the United States should not be sending more bomb” to Israel until more humanitarian aid gets in.

Partial transcript as follows:

MARTHA RADDATZ, Let’s talk about those weapons. You’ve been outspoken about the U.S. continuing to supply weapons. But these were approved a long time ago. So, what could the Biden administration have done?

VAN HOLLEN: Well, it’s good to be with you. We need a little more hope in the world this Easter, including a ceasefire and a return of all the hostages. Look, the Biden administration had been planning to submit to Congress and a new round of weapons proposals. They decided not to do that because clearly they knew they would encounter resistance and so, they’ve essentially done an end run with this earlier version. So, my view, Martha, is until the Netanyahu government allows more assistance into Gaza, to help people who are literally starving to death, we should not be sending more bombs.

RADDATZ: Do you think they should have tried to stop this, just not send more weapons?

VAN HOLLEN: I think the Biden administration needs to enforce the president’s requests. He’s made two very simple requests. One, allow more humanitarian assistance into Gaza. The president said no excuses. He’s also said it’s a red line for him to have an invasion of Rafah. So, it’s my view that as part of a partnership, we should get those assurances for the Netanyahu government upfront, rather than just send weapons now and ask questions later.

RADDATZ: But how do you do that? You’ve listened to Prime Minister Netanyahu. You know he stands firm. You know he says again and again, we can’t defeat Hamas unless — unless we keep going the way we’ve been going. So, how do you push him further, if — short of stopping weapons?

VAN HOLLEN: Well, I think we need to better use our leverage. We have different parts of leverage and one of them is sending more offensive weapons. So, President Biden needs to be as serious about ensuring more humanitarian assistance gets into Gaza as Netanyahu has been in making his demands. I mean, we have a situation where the Netanyahu government continues to rebuff the president of the United States time and time again, ignores reasonable requests. And what do we do? We say we’re going to send more bombs.

My view is that a partnership needs to be a two-way street, not a one-way blank check with American taxpayer dollars. So, this is not about saying we’re not going to provide any more weapons. It’s about saying, hey, we have requests. Don’t let people starve to death.

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