US Senator Fetterman struggles to defend support for Israel as progressives win big
The staunchly pro-Israel Democratic Senator John Fetterman has told television host and podcaster Jon Stewart that he would rather lose support in his own party than turn his back on Israel for any reason.
The comments are striking because they come at a time when progressive Democrats who are vocal on Palestinian rights are making substantial election gains around the country.
On Wednesday, in the key battleground state of Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed beat out a pro-Israel candidate funded by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, moving one step closer to becoming the first Muslim senator in US history.
Even Rahm Emanuel, a former advisor to Barack Obama whose father was part of the Irgun militia that ransacked Palestinian homes and killed their residents in 1948, has acknowledged the Democratic Party needs to move away from unconditional support for Israel.
"There are a lot of stories of how I've become increasingly more unpopular with Democrats in my state. And I'm aware of it. But these were all very specific choices," Fetterman told Stewart in an interview recorded on Tuesday.
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"I would rather have people know what I happen to believe... My proud standing with Israel through everything after 10/7 has put me at odds more than anything," he added, referencing the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, which prompted the nearly three-year-long assault by Israel on Gaza that holocaust experts and the United Nations have labelled a genocide.
While many older, centrist Democrats can feel the same, Fetterman has always been an outlier in the party. He has represented the battleground state of Pennsylvania in the Senate since January 2023 and largely votes alongside Democrats, except when it comes to issues related to Israel.
The 56-year-old has voiced his disdain for the widespread college campus protests in 2024 that called for an end to Israel's genocide in Gaza, supported President Donald Trump's war on Iran, and has been entirely immovable on unconditional foreign aid to Israel, which he calls a "special ally".
"So for you, you could agree with [Democrats] 90 percent, but Israel is the red line," Stewart told Fetterman.
"Absolutely. Israel, for me, like I can't ever turn my back to Israel after where it's at," Fetterman said.
"I mean no disrespect on this, but that is not our country," Stewart pushed back.
Fetterman responded by referencing growing antisemitism in America.
"The Jewish community and Israel are not the same thing, brother man. They're not - that is not the same thing," replied Stewart, who is Jewish, while Fetterman is not.
"If I have to pick a side for after 10/7 and after Iran, I'm always going to stand with Israel," the senator said. "I'm always going to vote and support whatever that's necessary to protect themselves and to prosecute Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran too."
"If anyone in the Democrat Party is fine with Iran building a nuclear bomb, I disagree with that person," he added.
"I think you're caricaturing the issue," Stewart said. "Is there anything you would criticise Israel about?"
"No."
Talking points
Stewart tried to elicit empathy from Fetterman on the more than 22,000 children that have been killed by Israel in Gaza.
"It's awful," the senator acknowledged.
"Would you say everything Israel is doing is for their own self-defence?" Stewart asked.
"Destroying its enemies, yeah," Fetterman replied
"Flattening a tiny area and pushing two million people into 30 to 35 to 40 percent of that territory, and having a siege of that area. Is that in their self-defence?"
"People forget that Hamas were just rapists and they were terrorising and killing civilians," Fetterman said.
To date, there has been no first-person or direct eyewitness evidence documented by international organisations that rape was committed during the dawn attack on 7 October 2023.
When asked if what is happening in Gaza is a genocide, Fetterman said that "by definition", only the Jewish community has "experienced a true, true genocide".
"If Israel's goal was to eliminate as many Palestinians as possible, they could have accomplished that a long time ago," the senator declared.
"Just because you're killing a group slowly doesn't mean you're not killing a group," Stewart countered.
Fetterman explained that the term "Zionist" is now being used as a "slur" among some people in the Democratic Party, and that he himself has been hounded by protesters calling him a "Zio".
He then asked why university students were not protesting against the Iranian government for its killing of protesters during a mass uprising earlier this year.
"That's because we don't consider Iran an ally. We don't give money to Iran. We don't give billions of dollars a year to Iran. We sanction them," Stewart said.
Fetterman pivoted to how much Israel has actually been helping Gaza.
"Actually, Hamas has been stealing all of the aid," he said.
The former head of the World Food Programme, an American citizen and a Republican, acknowledged last year that there was no evidence that Hamas members were attacking or stealing from the limited aid trucks entering the enclave.
Confusion
The interview took a bizarre turn at times, when Fetterman seemed to be trying to recall, unsuccessfully, talking points or even structure his answer. He would veer into another topic entirely, almost like he didn't understand the question, rather than trying to evade it.
In his final year as lieutenant governor in Pennsylvania - some three months before he beat television personality Mehmet Oz to win the Senate seat in November 2022 - Fetterman suffered a stroke. As he recovered and made public appearances, he seemed incapable of articulating himself in interviews, or indeed in the candidates' debate he had with Oz.
Fetterman still ended up winning with 51 percent of the vote.
He was sworn into office at the US Capitol in January 2023, and a month later, revealed he had been suffering from depression, leading him to be hospitalised for two months. The announcement was lauded by his colleagues as a brave admission on how men in particular should handle their mental health.
During the 75-minute interview with Stewart, about half the time was spent discussing the unpopular state of the Democratic Party establishment, the rising Democratic Socialists who have galvanised voters, and the economic status quo that has turned Americans away from centrist politicians.
"Don't you think this new sort of energy and economic populism is a response to that?" Stewart asked.
"Well, what is that? Is that socialism... communism?" Fetterman responded, arguing that Democrats with socialist policy platforms cannot defeat Republicans in swing states, which can go either way at elections.
"That sounds like a caricature," Stewart fired back. "El-Sayed.. wants to ban corporate money. Wants higher taxes on billionaires for housing and education, Medicare for all. You know, when you say that's communism, that feels like a caricature."
"No, no, I never said that," Fetterman said.
"I call real communists that are cheering for communism, people like Hassan Piker, for example. You know, he's a big, big influence."
"I don't think it's a communist. I think he said he's socialist," Stewart said of the political influencer and Twitch streamer who has backed Sayed and joined him at rallies.
"But the point being... capitalism, as it is being practised in America, is increasing inequality and leaving too many people behind," Stewart explained.
"I return it back to this idea that AI is transforming the world, whether you like it or not," Fetterman replied, in one of the stranger moments in the discussion.
"The second we hinder our own ability to develop these kinds of tools, the Chinese will seize the lead," he continued.
When Stewart tried to get him back on track, Fetterman said that while he agrees that money should be taken out of politics in the US - as Sayed and others have campaigned - Piker remains "pro-Hamas", and so Fetterman cannot support the candidates that Piker endorses.
"I feel like you're caricaturing people's views if they're critical of Israel. If someone says, 'I think Hamas and Israel are both criminal'... how is that pro-Hamas?" Stewart asked.
"What I would say is... our party is starting to elect people that are going to struggle to win in the kinds of places that are going to define who's going to win in [20]28," Fetterman said.
"When we live in a very divided country right now, I think the responsibility is to police your own ranks."
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