Netanyahu gifts silver-plated pager to visiting US Senator Fetterman
Pennsylvania Democrat, who says he loved the Israeli operation targeting Hezbollah, in turn gives PM a framed photo of news article about an effort to memorialize his brother Yoni
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleBen Sales is a news editor at The Times of Israel
JTA — When US Senator John Fetterman said he loved the Israeli operation that sent exploding pagers to members of Hezbollah, he probably never expected that Israel would give him a beeper, too.
But that’s what happened this week, when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed Fetterman, an outspokenly pro-Israeli Democratic lawmaker, to his office in Jerusalem.
The beeper handover took place during an exchange of gifts. The Pennsylvania senator gave Netanyahu a framed news article about an effort to memorialize Netanyahu’s brother, the fallen Israeli soldier Yoni Netanyahu, in Philadelphia — where Netanyahu lived as a teenager.
Netanyahu’s gift was smaller — and didn’t explode.
“What can I give a man who has everything? How about giving him a beeper?” Netanyahu said, handing over a small silver box to Fetterman. “This is a silver-plated beeper. The real beeper is, like, one-tenth the weight. It’s nothing, but it changes history.”
Fetterman responded, “When that story broke, I was like, ‘Oh, I love it, I love it.’ And now, it’s like, thank you for this.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara met this evening, at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem, with US Senator @JohnFetterman and his wife Gisele.https://t.co/FqAtVFXS3i pic.twitter.com/wiUupjXIGx
— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) March 19, 2025
Pagers belonging to Hezbollah members exploded across Lebanon in September, wounding and killing many, in addition to a number of civilians, in a long-planned Israeli operation. The operation came 10 days before Israel killed Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s leader, in an airstrike, and two weeks ahead of an Israeli ground invasion of Lebanon targeting Hezbollah. That conflict ended in a ceasefire in late November.
Fetterman has praised the beeper operation before, including in comments to a representative of the militant right-wing pro-Israel group Betar US.
And Netanyahu has gifted a pager to a US official before. In a visit to the White House last month, he gave one to US President Donald Trump. That one was plated with gold.
The Times of Israel Community.