Though he caucuses with the Democrats, Maine’s Sen. Angus King has worn the “independent” designation every bit as credibly as Vermont’s Bernie Sanders, the Senate’s other independent, albeit from broadly different perspectives.

So when King speaks out on a matter of international import, as he did Monday, it’s well worth listening. And what he said about Israeli’s blockade of food aid in Gaza was this: “I cannot defend the indefensible … What appears to be a deliberately induced famine among a civilian population — including tens of thousands of starving children — can never be an acceptable military strategy.”

He no longer backs Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s policies: “I am through supporting the actions of the current Israeli government and will advocate — and vote — for an end to any United States support.”

Though King is just one among a hundred senators, his words have weight and moral force. Even President Trump, previously an unalloyed Netanyahu booster, expressed concern and said, in his inimitable fashion, that based on television coverage, “those children look very hungry,” adding that it was “real starvation” and “you can’t fake that.”

Profound malnutrition on the scale seen in Gaza hasn’t been experienced since Ethiopian war-related famines of the 1980s killed 1 million, most of them children. War is behind the Gaza famine too. Netanyahu’s government was justified in retaliating after the horrendous Hamas attack of Oct. 7, 2023, that left 1,200 Israelis dead, most of them civilians.

But nearly two years later, with more than 60,000 Palestinians dead, also mostly civilians, there can be no reason for the relentless bombing that, like the American bombardments in Vietnam, seems calculated to “make the rubble bounce.”

Almost nothing is left standing in Gaza, as its 2 million unfortunate inhabitants — those still alive — move unceasingly to keep ahead of the latest strikes. It’s hard to know Netanyahu’s intentions. He may believe that once fighting stops, he will fall from power.

That’s hardly enough reason for Americans to support this campaign of extermination, and without U.S. support Netanyahu will finally have to wind down the war — which he continued only by unilaterally breaking the ceasefire negotiated by President Biden before leaving office.

For those of us who remember the days when Israel seemed a beacon of democracy in the war-torn Middle East, the David who miraculously defeated Goliath — the Arab forces in the Six-Day War of 1967 — this is bitter fruit. Supposedly, occupying Gaza and the West Bank was temporary, before another trade of “land for peace.”

Instead, the trade never occurred, the occupied territories remain occupied and the state of Israel has been transformed beyond recognition. Far from an endangered outpost, it’s the region’s dominant military power. Its bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities, followed by Trump’s “me too” follow-up, with uncertain results, shows no hostile force can prevail against it.

There’s no rationale for Americans to support a long-time ally now betraying all the rules of civilized government. The last serious peace discussions involving the U.S. came when George Mitchell — who helped bring peace to Northern Ireland a decade earlier — met with Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in 2009, during which the newly reelected Netanyahu showed utter contempt for Abbas.

Since then, it’s been all downhill. Religious-based parties now dominate the government, advocating a “Greater Israel” based on the Bible that leaves no land and no rights for the Palestinians, reduced to a permanent form of subjection.

Nor should we believe the Israeli opposition has much greater concern for Palestinian rights. The focus of protests has been return of remaining hostages taken on Oct. 7, not any version of the “two-state solution” that remains official U.S. policy. That may now be changing, in Israel and among American supporters, but there’s no good end in sight.

No policy denying all rights to half the people of any territory can ever be just or lasting. The war in Gaza will someday come to an end, leaving a dearth of hope and abundant hate, likely producing a return to terrorism — the weapon of the weak against the strong.

We must learn from what is happening to Israel. As we face our own attempt to create and justify one-man rule, we must do better in facing the forces of fear and hatred without losing our humanity in the process.