Sen. John Fetterman, D-Penn., was gifted a silver-plated beeper during a visit with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after the lawmaker praised Israel’s covert operation in which it detonated pagers last year worn by Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon. <\/p>\n
Fetterman repeatedly has voiced support for Israel while breaking with the Democratic Party, which has been critical of Israel’s military operations in Gaza, and has demanded that Hamas return all the hostages the terror group took on Oct. 7, 2023. <\/p>\n
He was visiting Netanyahu’s office in Jerusalem this week when he reiterated his support for the Jewish state. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
‘Hamas does not want peace. I unapologetically, 100% stand with Israel, and demand the release of all remaining hostages,’ he wrote Tuesday on X. ‘Sending this from Israel.’<\/p>\n
During an exchange of gifts, Fetterman gave Netanyahu a framed news article about an effort to memorialize Netanyahu\u2019s brother, the fallen Israeli soldier Yoni Netanyahu, in Philadelphia, where Netanyahu lived as a teenager, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported.<\/p>\n
The fallen prime minister’s brother is considered a hero in Israel after he was killed in the 1976 Israeli raid in Entebbe, Uganda during the rescue of 102 hostages taken by German and Palestinian terrorists in a plane hijacking.<\/p>\n
Netanyahu then reciprocated with his gift.<\/p>\n
‘What can I give a man who has everything? How about giving him a beeper?’ Netanyahu said. ‘This is a silver-plated beeper. The real beeper is, like, one-tenth the weight. It\u2019s nothing, but it changes history.’<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The beeper references Israel’s September 2024 operation in which it detonated pagers used by members of Hezbollah in Lebanon,<\/u> killings dozens of people. <\/p>\n
‘When that story broke, I was like, \u2018Oh, I love it, I love it.\u2019 And now, it\u2019s like, thank you for this,’ Fetterman responded. <\/p>\n
The operation came before Israel killed Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah\u2019s leader, and weeks ahead of an Israeli ground invasion of Lebanon. That conflict ended in a ceasefire in late November.<\/p>\n