US Senator Chris Van Hollen sharply criticized the policy of US President Joe Biden in the Middle East and the behavior of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“We’ve found ourselves in a situation where Netanyahu continues to basically, you know, give the president of the United States the middle finger,” the Democratic politician said during an interview Sunday on ABC News. “We are also sending more bombs. It’s absurd.”

Israel has a right to defend itself against Hamas, but the bilateral partnership “must be a two-way street, not a one-sided blank check with American taxpayer money,” he continued.

Clear demands must be made, and one of them — a necessary condition — is the distribution of more humanitarian aid to civilians in the Gaza Strip, the Maryland state senator insisted.

We must “say that we are setting conditions: don’t let people starve,” he explained.

President Biden needs to act after his recent criticism of the way the Israeli military operation is being conducted, claimed Chris Van Hollen.

He reiterated that the Israeli government is preventing the distribution of humanitarian aid to the civilian population in the Gaza Strip, which is a flagrant violation of international law. Non-governmental organizations and the UN also complain.

The Israeli government denies this.

The pressure in the US domestic political landscape for President Biden to handle Israel differently is intensifying. Recently, Washington has raised the tone, especially for the planned ground attack on Rafah, in the southern part of the Palestinian enclave, on the closed border with Egypt, where some 1.5 million internally displaced people have taken refuge.

However, the Washington Post, citing unnamed Pentagon and State Department officials, revealed that Washington had recently “tacitly” approved deliveries of bombs and advanced fighters to the Israeli military.