PM Netanyahu gifts Senator Fetterman silver-plated beeper in second visit to Israel

U.S. Senator John Fetterman has been a rare outspoken voice supporting Israel in the Democratic Party since the Hamas attacks on Oct. 7, 2023.

This week, he made his second visit to Israel as a senator, during which he received an unexpected gift from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – a silver-plated beeper. 

The gifting took place at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, where the two exchanged gifts. 

Fetterman and his wife, Gisele Barreto, gifted Netanyahu with a framed newspaper clipping and photo from the dedication ceremony of a memorial set up in Philadelphia to Yoni Netanyahu, the prime minister’s older brother.

Yoni Netanyahu died during the Entebbe rescue mission in 1976, in which Israeli commandos successfully rescued 103 hostages from a hijacked French airliner in Uganda. Netanyahu lived in Philadelphia when he was a teenager. 

After receiving the gift from Fetterman and his wife, Netanyahu presented him with a silver plated beeper, memorializing the operation against Hezbollah leaders which caused a series of major setbacks for Hezbollah, eventually leading to the assassination of long-time Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, and the signing of a ceasefire meant to keep the Shia terror group north of the Litani River. 

“What can I give a man who has everything? How about giving him a beeper?” Netanyahu said, as he handed over the silver-plated beeper to Fetterman. 

Netanyahu went on to explain that due to the silver plating, the gifted beeper is much heavier than the original device. 

“This is a silver-plated beeper. The real beeper is, like, one-tenth the weight. It’s nothing, but it changes history.”

In  receiving the beeper, 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.” 

Fetterman’s visit to Israel coincides with a week-long break in the Senate sessions. The senator did not visit any of the sites from Oct. 7 during his first visit to Israel last summer, saying he did not want to make anyone revisit the trauma.

It is not known if he will visit any sites during his current visit, as he did not publish a schedule of his time in Israel. 

Netanyahu’s gift of a beeper to the senator is not the first time he has given a beeper in commemoration of the critical operation. 

During his visit to Washington D.C. earlier this year, Netanyahu gave President Donald Trump a gold-plated beeper while at the White House, and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, a close confidante of Netanyahu, gave a silver-plated beeper to Vice President J.D. Vance shortly after that visit. 

During his visit to Jerusalem, Fetterman also met with Natan Sharansky and former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman.