Senate Democrat Hits Biden for Mixed Messaging on Israel: ‘I’m Not Clear’ on the White House’s Position

Senate Democrat Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) is pushing the Biden administration to reveal what consequences it plans to impose on Israel if the Netanyahu government doesn’t change the way it’s fighting Hamas.

President Joe Biden spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week after seven aid workers were deliberately targeted and killed by IDF missile strikes. Israel has admitted the targeting of those civilians was a “grave mistake” and has since fired two officers.

CBS News’ Margaret Brennan asked Van Hollen on Sunday’s Face the Nation, “You have been pressing for the White House to act on its own standards for national security and to hold Israel to account in terms of possibly conditioning military aid. Were you clear on what the White House position is?”

“I’m not clear,” Van Hollen replied. “First of all, I should say, I’m glad [CIA Chief] Bill Burns is in Cairo. I hope we get a ceasefire and the return of all the hostages.” Van Hollen continued:

I was glad to see the president, at least as was reported out, finally say to President Netanyahu, that if you don’t follow out these, my requests, that there will be consequences. But the president and the White House have yet to lay out what consequences they have and what they want to impose. And we have had a situation, for months the president has made requests to the Netanyahu government, they have ignored those requests, and we have sent more 2,000 pound bombs. We cannot revert back to that. We have to make sure that when the president requests something, that we have a means to enforce it.

On Friday, White House spokesman John Kirby seemed to give mixed signals on how the administration would handle Israel from now on. Kirby said that the U.S. still backs Israel’s right to defend itself against Hamas, but “the manner in which they’re defending themselves against the Hamas threat needs to change.

“And that is the conversation that we had today. But both things are true. Our support is ironclad and consistent. It’s not gonna stop, it’s not gonna…waver. Will there perhaps be some policy changes we might have to make if we don’t see policy changes out of Israel? Yes.”

Watch the clip above via CBS News.