EXCLUSIVE — Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), a pro-Israel Democrat, said Wednesday that the “Democratic Party is expecting for Israel to grovel” a day after Israel-skeptical candidates swept their New York congressional primary races.
“I would strongly encourage Israel not to, because they haven’t done anything wrong,” Fetterman told the Washington Examiner. “It was entirely appropriate and necessary to destroy Hamas and Hezbollah and also to make sure Iran could never acquire a nuclear bomb.”
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s slate of three endorsed candidates won handily on Tuesday. Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) fell to former City Comptroller Brad Lander. The two, both of whom are Jewish, distinguished themselves largely based on their varying degrees of support for and criticism of Israel.
Darializa Avila Chevalier, who defeated Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chairman Adriano Espaillat (D-NY), previously likened Zionism to a “political system where one group of people has more standing before the law than another group of people.” State Assemblywoman Claire Valdez, meanwhile, falsely claimed that her opponent received money from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
“The people that are winning in the left districts have learned they can be more and more and more intensely anti-Israel, and essentially just much of it is antisemitism,” Fetterman said.
Fetterman added that Tuesday’s congressional primaries were a “red-letter day for the dirtbag left.” Fetterman also highlighted a May race in his home state, where anti-Israel candidate Chris Rabb won a primary in a Philadelphia district.
Despite his criticism of fellow Democrats, Fetterman maintained his allegiance to the Democratic Party.
“I will always be a proud supporter of Israel here in the Democratic Party here in the Senate,” he said.
Fetterman’s comments come one day after he broke from the Democratic Party in voting against a Senate resolution that called for President Donald Trump to halt the war against Iran, which Israel has supported.
“I support the war against Iran and want to make sure Iran doesn’t have a nuclear bomb,” Fetterman said.
“Not one single Democrat have supported, whether it’s the war in Gaza or whether it was all the other necessary military choices, so they’ve effectively lost their standing to really criticize her to weigh on it at this point,” He added. “Do something that’s necessary to make sure Israel is able to live in peace.”