"Unfortunately, tragically, because Daddy was a member of Hezbollah. He brought that danger and evil into their home. And that’s what tragically resulted in that poor child’s death. And that’s what’s so terrible. She paid the price because her father was a terrorist for Hezbollah." . . .
John Fetterman’s Move to the Right on Israel | The New Yorker |
"John Fetterman is the Democratic Senator from Pennsylvania who suffered a serious stroke in the course of his campaign. If he is not at the limit of his recovery he is still recovering. Yet a brain-damaged John Fetterman has distinguished himself from the Democrat pack with his undiluted support of Israel and a clearer understanding of Israel’s current ordeal than some of the speakers at President Trump’s rally last night, to take just one example close at hand. (John wrote about them in the adjacent post.)
"Fetterman not only cuts through the fog, he expresses himself with admirable concision, as in his interview with the left-wing writer Lulu Garcia-Navarro published here by the New York Times last week. The entire interview is worth reading. Below I have excerpted several of her questions and his answers on Israel’s defense of itself in the war. Ms. Garcia-Navarro began this part of the interview with a question about the rationale of Fetterman’s support of Israel. His answer is immediately below, with her questions following in bold.
"Quotable quote: “There isn’t any nuance.' ”. . .
. . ."You think that the price that’s been paid is fair?
"Fetterman: The price is terrible. It’s awful. That’s history. And that’s war. And Israel was forced to fight an enemy that are cowardly. They hide in tunnels. They hide in schools and in refugee camps. And they’re in those kinds of places and that forces them to reach them. They have to go through these civilians. That’s why they’re so evil. And that’s why that’s designed. The death and destruction and the misery was designed by Hamas. They understood that that’s going to happen. They don’t care. So we can both agree that the misery and the deaths in Gaza is terrible. And, you know, some people blame Israel. Well, I blame Hamas.
"As you mentioned, you visited Israel for the first time in June. You met with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who thanked you for your courage and your support of Israel. How do you see his leadership during this conflict?
"Fetterman: I thought it was really curious that Democrats felt like they needed politically to criticize Israel, but that would be difficult, so they found that, well, we’re going to just focus on Netanyahu. And you can think he’s a bad leader or a bad person or anything, but that happens to be the democratically [elected] leader of Israel. And he’s on our side. That’s our ally. And if you had to pick who you want to criticize, you should be criticizing Hamas. You should be calling out Iran, or you should be calling out Hezbollah. Certainly not, you know, our ally. I think it was incredibly unhelpful." . . .
"In the moral morass of post-October 7 politics, as American lawmakers were silenced by the mob baying for Israel’s blood, one politician stood tall. At 6’8”, John Fetterman, the once progressive junior senator from Pennsylvania, has emerged as a man of steely conviction in a party whose left flank has moved to embrace the Hamas narrative, a surprising yet steadfast defender of the Jewish state in its darkest hour" . . .