Senator John Fetterman (D-Penn), 54, said in a Zoom interview on Wednesday: “I do find it confusing where the very left progressives in America don’t seem to want to support really the only progressive nation in the region that really embraces the same kind of values I would expect we would want as a society.”
Senator Fetterman is not Jewish, but has maintained close ties with the Pennsylvania Jewish community.
He referred to the demonstrators supporting Hamas who blocked the streets outside his district offices, demanding his endorsement of a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip. These demonstrators overlooked the fact that halting the war effort would revive the world’s worst terrorist group since ISIS. Former campaign staff, in an anonymous letter, called Fetterman’s backing of Israel a “gutting betrayal” of their perceived values. Progressives are frustrated that Fetterman has chosen to rally behind Israel instead of the “Palestinians.”
Fetterman has been a strong supporter of Israel–United States relations since he took office in January, and said that as a US senator he would “lean in” on the “relationship between the United States and Israel.” He said that the US–Israel relationship “is a special one that needs to be safeguarded, protected, supported and nurtured through legislation and all available diplomatic efforts in the region.”
He supports US foreign aid to Israel, including Iron Dome funding, and criticized Congressional Democrats who voted against Iron Dome funding, casting them as “fringe” and “extreme.” He has said he supports Israel’s right to defend itself and is “passionate” in his opposition to BDS. He supported Pennsylvania governor Tom Wolf who barred the state from entering into contracts with companies that boycott Israel. He also supports the two-state solution and the expansion of the Abraham Accords.
Earlier this week, Fetterman posted a May 2022 MSNBC interview to support his claim that “I’m not a progressive, I’m just a regular Democrat.”
“I’m not a progressive, I’m just a regular Democrat.” https://t.co/M1OER4beUI
— John Fetterman (@JohnFetterman) December 18, 2023
In a December 1 “The View” interview, Fetterman explained why he disagrees with placing conditions on further military aid to Israel: “It’s really primarily because I believe that Israel has the right, but I also think it has the imperative to destroy Hamas.”
Sen. John Fetterman on why he disagrees with placing conditions on further military aid to Israel: “It’s really primarily because I believe that Israel has the right, but I also think it has the imperative to destroy Hamas.” https://t.co/cVclFZQmjA pic.twitter.com/ZCiVjUBrlT
— The View (@TheView) December 1, 2023
Fetterman told NBC News, “I just think I’m a Democrat that is very committed to choice and other things. But with Israel, I’m going to be on the right side of that. And immigration is something near and dear to me, and I think we do have to effectively address it as well.”
He maintained his stance on being pro-immigration while supporting policies aimed at managing and restricting the flow of migration to sustainable levels. This puts him at odds with progressives who oppose placing new limits on asylum and criticize certain ideas in the negotiations as cruel. “It’s a reasonable conversation – until somebody can say there’s an explanation on what we can do when 270,000 people are being encountered on the border, not including the ones, of course, that we don’t know about,” he said.
The senator stressed that while it’s “not ideal” to connect asylum and parole policy with the aid for Israel and Ukraine, the Republicans are insisting on combining them as their condition to advancing the bill, and so the “progressives better do that because we can’t leave Israel – we can’t sell them out, and we can’t sell Ukraine out, and we have to deliver on this. I just would very much like to get a deal to deliver this critical aid.”
On Wednesday, Fetterman told PennLive that the attack against him by progressives “seems almost disingenuous when anybody can just look and see that I’ve been very clear about that.”
Fetterman also supports raising the minimum wage, universal healthcare, unions, legalizing marijuana, and LGBTQ+ rights.
