Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told CNN that the United States needed to take action to push Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reduce civilian casualties, referring not to Israelis but Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
“We all support Israel. It is in our national interest, our security interest to do so, our values interest to do so over time,” the longtime California representative said on Monday. “But right now, the leverage that we have given Netanyahu has been used in a way that is most destructive.”
Christiane Amanpour, chief international anchor for the cable-news network, asked Pelosi to explain what that “leverage” meant.
House Speaker Emerita @TeamPelosi tells me the leverage given to the Netanyahu government by the White House "has been used in a way that is most destructive." pic.twitter.com/p3izUq5dZy
— Christiane Amanpour (@amanpour) October 14, 2024
“Well, our support for Israel has always been bipartisan. And we want it to continue to be so in the Congress, in the House, the Senate, the White House as well as among the American people,” she said. “But it does not give license to so many people dying—not combatants, as I said—in the war.”
Pelosi told Amanpour: “We have to again try to strive to bring it to a two-station solution. I emphasize the word ‘solution’ because I’ve said that to Netanyahu; it’s not just a two-state situation, it’s a solution, one that really works out the security, the prosperity, the freedom for the Palestinian people as well as the security of the Israelis.”
