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Interview
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Well, thanks for having me on, Jim. I appreciate it.
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Well, first of all, I think President Biden is taking the right approach in urging President Net -- Prime Minister Netanyahu, sorry. But to focus on, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is enormous right now. And I think it's clear that Israel isn't doing enough to make sure that humanitarian assistance gets in. So, focusing attention on that I think is absolutely appropriate.
We go back to October 8th -- Israel was no food, no water, no nothing and they were reacting out of anger and I understand that on October 8th, six months later, it's clear that the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza is number one, a humanitarian catastrophe that we all ought to be concerned about. But number two is undermining Israel's ability to achieve its own security.
Now, to the specific question of whether or not President Biden is doing enough. What I think three according hasn't done enough of is to understand the balance that President Biden is trying to reach. Hamas is a threat. Israel is threatened also by Iran and Hezbollah deeply and profoundly.
How does Israel manage that threat? Most of the reporting I see just doesn't even talk about the role that Hamas this is playing in this.
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And the fact that there's a peace deal on the table -- sorry, a ceasefire deal on the table. I should that Israel has continually opt their side of it and Hamas has continually said no.
I think part of the reason for that, I mean, the U.N. hasn't even condemned Hamas. Hamas feels like there is no pressure on them whatsoever and no incentive for them to get to a ceasefire.
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Well, that's (AUDIO GAP) just trying to balance.
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Totally (ph).
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Well, I want to make one thing perfectly clear. I totally agree with you that we should hold Israel to a higher standard absolutely than Hamas, that's not my point. My point is that if Hamas is not participating in it, then it's not really a successful ceasefire. And that's part of the challenge.
Yes, we should hold Israel to a higher standard. But what we want is a ceasefire that sticks. And if Hamas isn't willing to agree to it, and they attack and Israel is going to respond.
I will say to Senator Coons' point, I think we're getting to the point where yes, President Biden will have to apply greater pressure than he has and potentially that may mean conditioning some of the assistance that he has been giving because Israel is not doing enough to allow humanitarian assistance in. They are not doing enough to protect the humanitarian assistance that is in there as the incredible tragedy of the strike in the World -- I'm sorry, on the World Food Kitchen shows.
So yes, we have got to get Israel to change that aspect and that may require more pressure than is currently being applied. I don't disagree with that at all.
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Well, look, if you are president, if you are the incumbent running for reelection, you face issues like this all day long, it's part of the challenge of being in a responsible position. Now, you've seen what, you know, the presumptive Republican nominee, Donald Trump, has had to say about this, you know? But, he's not responsible for anything.
So, yes, I mean, the president being in a responsible position on this issue, on Ukraine, on, gosh, thousand different things, it is a politically difficult thing to navigate, to govern effectively, to make the right decisions in the face of political pressure. So, yeah, no, it's going to be part of the challenge in this election that President Biden faces, no doubt.
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I do have some confidence in the latter question at the moment. There has not been movement and look, what you have to understand here what Speaker Johnson wants to do. And he has said this publicly. He does not want to abandon Ukraine, but he wants to find a way to achieve that goal without causing more turmoil within his party.
That's going to be very difficult to achieve. That's why he's trying to come up with all of these other options for what an aid package might look like instead of doing what has to be done, which is to give us a vote on the Senate package that is already passed with 77 bipartisan votes in the Senate.
So Johnson is still imagining that there's some other solution. But as you've seen, even to this moment, no other option has been presented by the House Republicans. I think it is unlikely that they will be able to come up with one. The sooner he accepts that and gives us a vote on the Senate bill, that's when we get there, but that's the trap we're in right now. He said next week, so, hopefully next week, we'll be when we do get a vote
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It (AUDIO GAP) could not be more urgent.
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Absolutely.
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Thanks, Jim.
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