Sen. Jeanne Shaheen on Gaza blockade

The Israeli prime minister's office on Friday had a very harsh statement about the famine designation. They called it, quote, "a modern blood libel spreading like wildfire through prejudice." That suggests this is about anti-Jewish hate rather than starvation. How do you make sense of the Israeli defense? I don't think that's a good defense. The fact is, this is not about antisemitism, which I abhor. And the United States' position is against antisemitism, and we need to do everything we can to prevent it. But the reality is, we have people dying because they are systematically being starved to death because Israel is refusing to allow in the humanitarian aid that people need to keep alive. Not only that, they've already started planning another major incursion into Gaza in ways that are going to kill more people. So this is not acceptable. The world needs to speak out. I think it's very important that we allow that humanitarian aid in to the people who are starving. I understand your criticism right now. I want to ask you a little bit, though, about standing US policy because this has been a problem even during the Biden administration. In fact, former deputy national security advisor for President Biden, Jon Finer, just wrote a piece in TheAtlantic. And he said that while he stands by the decision to embrace Israel after October 7, he believes "we did far too little, far too late to limit the truly catastrophic civilian harm that Israel's response inflicted." Do you agree with him? And do you wish that you spoke out more forcefully sooner? I don't think this is a partisan position. With me on this journey to Jordan is Congressman Joe Wilson from South Carolina. He agreed with me that we need to make sure those humanitarian aid trucks get into Israel. We need to do everything possible to ensure that Prime Minister Netanyahu is stopping the roadblocks that are preventing the humanitarian aid from getting in. I think it's something that I hope that both Democrats and Republicans can embrace.

But do you agree with this self-criticism by this key Democrat? Do you think Democrats should have--

We should be doing more, and we should have done more. Absolutely. I want to also--

I think everybody should have said more sooner, not just Democrats but Republicans.

Mm-hm. Why are you now? We had the opportunity to be here today to meet with those Jordanians who are working very hard to try and get humanitarian aid into Gaza, who are being stymied in that effort by bureaucratic obstacles that make no sense when it takes hours to scan a truck, which could be done in two to three, and it diverts the aid when it's costing hundreds of dollars per truck, and they turn those trucks away. And when they come back the next day, it costs another hundreds of dollars more for the same truck when they find an excuse for why it gets stopped at the border. That's not a legitimate effort to get humanitarian aid into the people of Gaza who are starving. And that can be changed. All it takes is Prime Minister Netanyahu saying, we're going to allow that aid in. Senator Jeanne Shaheen joining us from Amman, Jordan.