John Fetterman and Benjamin Netanyahu exchanged gifts in Israel. One was inspired by an attack in Lebanon, the other came from Philadelphia.
Israel's prime minister called the Pennsylvania senator 'Israel's best friend' during his first visit to the country last year.
Sen. John Fetterman (D., Pa.) and Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu exchanged gifts Wednesday evening during the senator’s second visit to Israel. One was inspired by exploding pagers in Lebanon, and the other was a photograph from Philadelphia.
Netanyahu gave Fetterman a silver pager inspired by Israel’s September attack on Hezbollah in Lebanon that exploded pagers used by members of the insurgent group. The operation killed at least 12 people, including two young children, and wounded thousands, according to the Associated Press. A similar attack the next day played out, exploding walkie-talkies.
“This is a silver-plated beeper,” Netanyahu told Fetterman. “The real beeper is like one-tenth the weight, it’s nothing, but it changes history.”
Fetterman said that when the story of the pagers broke, he “was like, ’oh, I love it.’”
Fetterman gave Netanyahu a framed 1986 newspaper article with a photograph of the prime minister at the dedication of a memorial for his brother Jonathan Netanyahu in Philadelphia. Netanyahu’s office said the prime minister was “moved” by the gift.
The Pennsylvania Democrat and his wife, Giselle Fetterman, met with both the prime minister and his wife, Sara Netanyahu. Fetterman wore a black Carhartt hoodie while meeting with the suited prime minister. The two couples sat at a table with a flower arrangement, an American flag, and an Israel flag.
Fetterman, a fierce supporter of Israel and its war in Gaza, visited the country for the first time last June. He wore a Nova Music Festival wristband given to him by a family of a victim of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel during that visit, and Netanyahu called him “Israel’s best friend.”
Fetterman, who is not Jewish, has been criticized by progressives for his staunch advocacy and embraced by supporters of Israel as an appreciated ally.
» READ MORE: Netanyahu called John Fetterman ‘Israel’s best friend’ during the senator’s first visit to the country
Last May, he was honored with the Presidential Medallion at Yeshiva University’s commencement, a high honor that was previously given to the creator of Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system. Fetterman removed his Harvard University hood at the Orthodox Jewish university’s ceremony in protest of the Ivy League school’s handling of antisemitism.
In September, he received the Defender of Israel award from the Zionist Organization of America, a pro-Israel group that has also honored President Donald Trump.