John Fetterman And The Democrats' Israel Problem

Until politicians stop getting a pass for having terrible politics on Israel, they will keep having terrible politics on Israel.

A lot of people are mad at Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman right now, and with good reason. Fetterman has been notably horrible on the crisis in Gaza, issuing bloodthirsty statements.

He has been saying, in other words: Israel, do whatever you want to Gaza. Kill as many people as you want, bomb as much as you want, until Hamas is “neutralized,” whatever that means. (Any time politicians start using weird battlefield cosplay words like “neutralized,” things have gone wrong.) Not that Israel needed Fetterman’s permission to carry out mass indiscriminate genocidal warfare against Gaza, but I’m sure his endorsement was appreciated.

The sight of John Fetterman, the supposed Gritty of politics, talking like a standard AIPAC-backed hack clearly disturbed many people, including some of Fetterman’s former campaign staffers, who wrote an open letter urging Fetterman to change course and back a ceasefire. That, as Fetterman has made plain, is not going to happen.