Dear Friends,

In the last few weeks, our nation lost our dear Dianne Feinstein, our Forever Mayor in San Francisco and our beloved Senator and stateswoman, nationally; the People’s House has fallen into unprecedented chaos and stalled without a Speaker; and we have borne witness to unimaginable terror and barbarity inflicted on our friends – the Israeli people – by Hamas.

In the face of this devastation, our great President, Joe Biden, has spoken powerfully, wisely and with deep empathy and resolve from the start to reinforce the American people’s solidarity and support for Israel — and he just announced humanitarian assistance for the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank. As President Biden said: "Civilians are not to blame and should not suffer for Hamas’s horrific terrorism. Civilian lives must be protected and assistance must urgently reach those in need."

Know that in the Congress of the United States there is bipartisan unity – in the House and Senate – in support of what we need to do to help Israel, our closest ally in the Middle East, to defend itself, and to help the Palestinian people. I have always supported a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians — and neither Hamas nor Islamic Jihad can be part of that.

Amid the devastation and uncertainty, our immediate focus is to free the hostages taken by Hamas — many of them women and children: we must get them back home.

My father, Thomas D’Alesandro, Jr., a New Deal Democrat, was elected to the U.S. Congress in the 1930s. My father worshipped at the shrine of President Franklin Roosevelt. Yet, my father courageously confronted the Roosevelt Administration, challenging our nation to take decisive action in regard to the millions of Jews who had been killed by the Nazis and urging, early on, the establishment of the State of Israel in Palestine. When I went to Israel the first time as Speaker decades later, the newspapers said, “Speaker Pelosi comes by her support for Israel naturally” – because of my father. I am heartbroken today at the devastation and suffering in Israel.

My father’s courage so many years ago underscores how long people of conscience have had to speak out against the scourge of anti-Semitism and the need for each and every one of us to not only speak up for but to work for safety, for peace, for justice for the Jewish people.

May God bless America and may God bless the people of Israel at this difficult time.

Thank you.

NANCY