Former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Saturday the US should “more fully leverage” its relationship with Israel to reduce civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip, The Hill reported.
Pelosi said the situation in Gaza is “intolerable,” but reiterated US support for Israel and its right to defend itself, calling the country “our security partner, our values partner, and the rest.”
“The distinction here that the debate is about is, where do you draw the line between,” Pelosi said during her Saturday appearance at The Texas Tribune Festival in Austin when asked if Congressional Democrats will continue to support giving US weapons to Israel.
“We have always said we would help Israel defend itself, where people might be thinking some of these weapons are being used offensively,” she added, as quoted by The Hill. “It’s a challenge. It’s not as easy as it may seem, but I do think that we should be able to use our leverage more fully with Israel to make sure that the collateral damage to civilians is not anything that we can associate ourselves with.”
Pelosi called Hamas a terrorist organization. She said that October 7 was a “horrible day” and the “consequences of it were horrible.”
“So it’s not to be ignoring how we got to this place, but it is to be saying there has to be a better way to deal with this, than tens of thousands of Palestinians being killed,” she added.
Some of the progressive elements in the Democratic Party have demanded an arms embargo on Israel, but President Joe Biden has ruled that out and Democratic presidential nominee did as well when asked about the issue in a recent CNN interview.
“Let me be very clear: I’m unequivocal and unwavering in my commitment to Israel’s defense and its ability to defend itself, and that’s not going to change,” said Harris.
"October 7th - 1,200 were massacred. Many young people who were simply attending a music festival. Women were horribly raped. As I said then I say today: Israel has a right to defend itself - we would - and how it does so matters," she added.
The United States has been pushing an outline for a ceasefire and hostage release deal that President Joe Biden first laid out in May, but Hamas has continuously rejected every proposal that has been presented to it.
The Washington Post reported this past week that the US has been engaging with Egypt and Qatar to outline a final "take it or leave it" deal.
However, the same newspaper reported on Saturday that US officials have announced that they have "indefinitely postponed" the presentation of the final deal.
According to the Post, the latest obstacle is Hamas' "abrupt introduction" of its demand that Israel release high-profile terrorists even in exchange for humanitarian prisoners.