Fetterman Writes Letter Asking Israel’s President to Pardon Netanyahu

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) prepared a letter in recent days asking Israel’s president for a favor.

In a previously unreported letter obtained by TPM, Fetterman asked Israel’s President Isaac Herzog to pardon Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“In a world this dangerous, I question whether any democracy can afford to have its head of government spending valuable hours, day after day, in a courtroom rather than the situation room,” Fetterman wrote in a copy of the letter, dated Dec. 2, obtained by TPM.

Netanyahu formally asked Herzog for a pardon late last month.

Fetterman, expressing surprise that TPM had a copy of the letter, stood by it in a brief Thursday interview. 

“I support it and it’s a pointless distraction,” he said, seemingly referring to the charges against Netanyahu. “I fully support it and I stand on the letter.” 

He did not answer TPM’s questions about whether he’d sent the letter or heard back from Herzog, pivoting back to his surprise that the letter had gotten out: “I know you guys use things like leaks but I don’t know who did that.” 

Per a source familiar, the letter was delivered to Herzog. TPM asked Herzog’s office and the Israeli embassy to the U.N. about the letter; neither returned our requests for comment. 

Fetterman has worked over the past two years to ensure that nobody in Democratic politics can claim to be a bigger supporter of Israel and its government than he is. He has largely oriented his advocacy towards defending Israel’s conduct in its war on Gaza, launched after Hamas and other groups staged a series of attacks on Oct. 7, 2023. The war has left Gaza devastated. Per the Gaza Ministry of Health, more than 70,000 have died. At the height of an Israeli blockade over the summer, international monitoring groups declared a famine. A recent poll found that American Jews have become increasingly critical of Israel, and Netanyahu’s government in particular; another found that nearly 70 percent of Democrats now hold negative views of the country.

Yet Fetterman has been ostentatious in establishing his pro-Israel bona fides, and found ways to thumb his nose at supporters who are confounded by his position. In March, he called for the U.S. to partner with Israel on bombing Iran, a strategy the Trump administration eventually pursued but many Democrats opposed. He’s traveled to the country to meet with Netanyahu, who at one point gave Fetterman a silver-plated beeper to commemorate the country’s operation that blew up the pagers of Hezbollah members. When asked about the attack, Fetterman replied: “I love it.” New York magazine reported that, earlier this year, Fetterman told the leadership of J Street, a progressive Jewish organization, that he opposed a ceasefire and said, “let’s get back to killing.” 

Fetterman’s letter to Herzog demonstrates Fetterman going beyond a defense of Israel’s conduct in the war. He’s advocating for Netanyahu personally, using his office to push for the Israeli prime minister’s political survival.

The letter is written on Senate letterhead. It includes Fetterman’s signature, and is written in the style of a personal appeal. The senator wrote that he’s been watching the court proceedings against Netanyahu stemming from a corruption scandal with “growing alarm.” He argued that no democracy can afford to have its executive fighting off a criminal case.

In that context, Fetterman offered Herzog what he described in the letter as a “quiet observation.”

“It seems that the legal proceedings against the Prime Minister, dragging on year after year, have become a drain on the nation’s spirit and its focus. In a world this dangerous, I question whether any democracy can afford to have its head of government spending valuable hours, day after day, in a courtroom rather than the situation room,” the letter reads.

“I believe there is a strong case to be made for a pardon — not to erase the past, but to secure the future.”

Fetterman argued in the letter that Israel faces a tradeoff between pursuing the case against Netanyahu and its own security. He touted his own support for Israel as having “cost me support from my own ‘base’ and fractured relationships I held dear.” The letter frames this as an example that Herzog, whose decision to pardon Netanyahu would be opposed by parts of the Israeli public, could follow.

It’s not the only time that Fetterman has said that he believes Netanyahu should be pardoned. In a Dec. 3 appearance on right-wing Newsmax, he told host Greta van Susteren that “that’s the wrong thing at this time, to have Israel focusing on those kinds of things.” 

The letter doubles as a private defense of conduct that alienated Fetterman from significant swathes of his supporters. “I did it because I knew it was the right thing to do, regardless of the fallout,” Fetterman wrote. “Real leadership often means making the choice that feels impossible because it is the only way to ensure the nation’s survival.”

President Trump has also chimed in in support of a pardon for Netanyahu. Democrats have largely avoided commenting on the topic. Herzog met Fetterman in New York City this week at a Sunday Hanukkah dinner and award ceremony.

Netanyahu, in his letter to Herzog requesting a pardon, did not admit guilt. He argued that, while it was in his interest to prove his innocence, the “public interest” requires an end to the corruption trial.

Fetterman in his letter argued that the trial would allow Netanyahu “to devote every ounce of his energy to the complex threats facing your borders.”

“Sometimes, the most practical solution is also the most moral one,” Fetterman wrote. “Clearing the deck so that your government can focus entirely on the safety of its citizens is a decision that I believe history would view with great understanding.”