In a recent interview Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) claimed that, since the Hamas attack of October 7th, the United States has sent Israel no weapons that have been used to carry out atrocities in Gaza.
The former House speaker was asked multiple questions about the Biden administration’s foreign policy by Tim Sebastian at the annual Munich Security Conference.
“If you don’t like what Israel is doing, and the president has made it clear that some of what Israel is doing he doesn’t like, and you go on supplying them with hardware to do these things you own this operation every bit as much as they do, don’t you?” asked Sebastian.
“No, we don’t. We don’t,” replied Pelosi. “We have always supported Israel as our national security friend largely because it was in our interest to do so. We had shared values, [it’s] the only democracy in the region. The behavior of Netanyahu is, in my view, inexcusable in terms of how it has effected the collateral damage of children and families and the rest, but nobody can take away the right of any country to defend itself that has been brutally attacked in that way.”
When Sebastian referenced an EU official’s recent comments suggesting that the U.S. should cut off weapons to Israel, Pelosi said that, “Israel is very well equipped with weaponry.”
“There’s nothing that we have sent since Oct. 7 that has contributed to this brutality. In the longer run, they are in a dangerous neighborhood,” she added.
The United States government sends Israel more than $3.8 billion in military aid every year, and Biden is pushing Congress to approve another $14 billion for the country. A February 17 Wall Street Journal report cites unnamed U.S. officials who say the U.S. is preparing to send Israel more bombs and weapons in the coming days.
The proposed package includes a thousand MK-82 500-pound bombs and a thousand KMU-572 Joint Direct Attack Munitions, which turn unguided munitions into precision-guided bombs. According to the report, the administration has supplied Israel with about 21,000 precision-guided munitions since the Hamas attack. According to the paper, this would be enough to carry out another 19 weeks of bombing unless Israel decides to attack Lebanon.
An Amnesty International investigation from last December found that US-made munitions killed 43 civilians in two Israeli airstrikes days after October 7th.
“The fact that US-made munitions are being used by Israeli military in unlawful attacks with deadly consequences for civilians should be an urgent wake-up call to the Biden administration. The US-made weapons facilitated the mass killings of extended families,” said Amnesty International’s Secretary General Agnès Callamard at the time.
Pelosi was also asked about past presidents who have taken actions to impact Israeli policy, such as Ronald Reagan holding up a delivery of fighter jets over its actions in Lebanon and George H.W. Bush blocking loan guarantees over settlement expansion.
“The president has said something about settlements,” Pelosi offered. When Sebastian pointed out that there’s a big difference between talking about settlements and cutting off weapons, the representative said, “It’s a path.”
Pelosi also criticized Palestine protesters, who have consistently targeted the congresswoman over her support for Israel’s assault on Gaza.
“I don’t hear a lot of the people, and they’re outside my house almost every day…saying ‘Free the hostages’,” said Pelosi. “I don’t hear any of them saying, ‘Hamas is a terrorist organization.’ I hear them praising Hamas, I hear them ignoring the hostages. So there’s a lot, shall we say, behavior we all have to address.”