Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, while chiding Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said this week that she has "protected" Palestinians from the FBI in her home district in San Francisco.
"I have a lot of Palestinians in my district, and I've protected them from the FBI going to Arabic bookstores, I've protected them after 9/11 to bring them together, we all were in the streets against the Muslim ban," Pelosi told Sky News, reported The Independent.
She also insisted that she admires Israeli President Isaac Herzog "the most," while she "had it" with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "years ago," claiming that he has not been trying to make peace.
"I saw President Herzog here, and I said, 'How's it going?'" Pelosi said. "He said, 'We just have a little more to do, then we will be there. So I was encouraged because he's a decent person. He's not Netanyahu."
Pelosi said she confidence that the Israel-Hamas war will end soon.
"I always say everything is an opportunity, and maybe it'll be an opportunity for Israel to see this disfavor that many in the world had as to how they conducted themselves after Oct. 7 and will strive maybe for a two-state solution," she said.
Pelosi said Israel has a right to defend itself after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack and to ensure that it doesn't happen again, but said she is "very sad" about the collateral damage in Gaza.
"So many people killed; so many innocent people, children, and families," she said. "They weren't combatants or anything, but they were collateral damage."
Pelosi also defended President Joe Biden's administration for continuing to supply military aid to Israel while not pushing it to stop its strikes in Gaza.
"I think our administration, from what I can see, has been very clear in their message to Israel in terms of respecting the lives of all of those people, also, to try to discourage them from what might come next in attack," she said. "Israel is their own country, and they do what they do."