Nancy Pelosi quotes Israeli poem in first appearance since brutal attack on husband

From California, US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on 4 November quoted an Israeli poem that she has cited before, in her first public appearance since the brutal attack on her husband Paul Pelosi on a video call. “I have no other country. "Although my land is burning, my veins, my soul with an aching body and with a hungry heart, here is my home,” said Pelosi while reading from Ehud Manor’s. Continues the reading, “I Have No Other Land. I will not be silent. For my country has changed her face. I will not give up on her, I shall remind her and sing into her ears, until she opens her eyes." During the video call, US House Speaker Pelosi thanked those who outpoured support for Paul Pelosi's speedy recovery. After reading from the poem, her ending statement was “we need to bring our country together.”

Nancy Pelosi has quoted Manor’s poem several times over the past few years, including in response to the US Supreme Court’s overturning of a federally-guaranteed right to abortion and after the incident of Capitol storming on January 6, 2021. This poem was originally written in the year 1982. The song mentions Manor's passion for Hebrew while also pledging to "not keep silent and sing" to a nation that "has changed her face" during the time that a right-wing Likud government was fighting a controversial war in Lebanon. Ofra Fuchs, Manor's widow, stated that it was meant to be a left-wing protest song in 2015. During the Isreal visit of Nancy Pelosi in February, she was hosted by President Isaac Herzog for a meeting also attended by Fuchs where Herzog quoted Manor’s “I Have No Other Land” to Nancy Pelosi in 2016 as they both were experiencing political troubles. That's when she put it down on a napkin and eventually quoted by her many times. 

Paul Pelosi's brutal attack

This was Nancy's very first appearance after her husband was brutally attacked with a hammer as stated by police earlier. A man who broke into the couple’s house in San Francisco on an early Friday assaulted him.  Chief William Scott of the San Francisco police said at a news conference, the intruder ripped the hammer out of Mr Pelosi’s grip and “violently assaulted him with it” in front of the officers. Nancy Pelosi's husband underwent surgery after sustaining a ghastly attack which led to a skull fracture and serious injuries to his hands and right arm and was expected to make a full recovery.