POLITICS: John Fetterman Defends Biden’s Record on Israel, Says His Senate Votes Will ‘Follow Israel’ During Trump Presidency

US Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) on Thursday defended President Joe Biden’s record on Israel and stated that he plans on maintaining his support for pro-Israel efforts advanced by President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration.

During an appearance on the ABC talk show “The View,” Fetterman said that he would remain an “unapologetic” supporter of Israel during the Trump presidency and that he will continue to support legislation and initiatives that benefit the Jewish state.

“I’m a really strong, unapologetic supporter of Israel and it’s really not going to change for me when Trump becomes [president]. My vote and voice is going to follow Israel,” Fetterman said. 

Fetterman also vouched for Biden’s record on Israel, although he conceded that he has disagreed with some of Biden’s policy positions regarding the Israel-Hamas war. 

“I do think that the president has been a strong supporter of Israel, although there were times when I disagreed with some of the choices he made,” Fetterman said. 

In the year following Hamas’s invasion of southern Israel last Oct. 7, Fetterman has emerged as a surprisingly stalwart ally of the Jewish state. He has regularly criticized other Democrats, including Biden, over their perceived fragile and unreliable support of Israel. 

The lawmaker openly criticized Biden after the president threatened to withhold arms from Israel if the Jewish state greenlighted military operations in the city of Rafah in southern Gaza. Fetterman repudiated Biden’s ultimatum, saying that the US should “stand with our key ally throughout all of this.” He has also rebuffed pressure by progressives to adopt a more adversarial posture against Israel, saying that he does “not support any conditions” on American military aid to the Jewish sate.

Fetterman on Thursday also lauded Israel for its progress in deteriorating the Hamas terrorist group’s military capabilities. The senator asserted that Hamas needs to be completely eradicated and removed from the Gaza Strip.

“We cannot allow Hamas to function at all. They can’t be a part of any rebuilding Gaza or anything. Hamas has to surrender. It’ll be completely destroyed, and I think right now that largely that’s already happened now,” Fetterman said, adding that he wants to “salute what Israel has accomplished.”

The senator applauded the Jewish state, claiming “they destroyed Hamas, they’ve destroyed Hezbollah and, [they] exposed Iran as absolutely a paper tiger.” The Pennsylvania lawmaker added that Israel’s defensive military actions against Iran revealed that the regime is unable to hold the Middle East “in check.”

“Israel did the hard things and confronted these kinds of organizations and these proxies. And that’s why I’m proud to stand with Israel through it all, until absolutely through to the last hostages are brought back home,” Fetterman said.

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