Netanyahu gifts Fetterman silver pager in Jerusalem meeting
In return, Fetterman gave the prime minister a newspaper clipping of his late brother’s 1986 memorial dedication in Philadelphia
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gifted Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) a silver pager during a meeting at Netanyahu's office in Jerusalem, March 19th, 2025
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gifted Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) a silver pager, a nod to Israel’s operation last fall against Hezbollah that detonated thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by the terror group’s members in Lebanon, during their meeting in Jerusalem on Wednesday.
The Pennsylvania senator was given the present alongside his wife, Gisele Fetterman, while the two were hosted by the prime minister and his wife, Sara, in Netanyahu’s Jerusalem office. “What can I give a man who has everything? How about giving him a beeper? This is a silver-plated beeper. The real beeper is, like, one-tenth the weight. It’s nothing, but it changes history,” Netanyahu said to Fetterman in a video shared by the prime minister’s office of the gift exchange.
“When that story broke, I was like, ‘Oh, I love it. I love it,’” Fetterman replied with a smile. “Thank you for this.”
Fetterman, who traveled to Israel with mental health organization Relief Resources, also brought Netanyahu a gift: a copy of an article from an American newspaper featuring a picture of the prime minister at a 1986 dedication ceremony of the Philadelphia memorial to his late brother Yoni, who was killed in a counter-terror mission that freed over 100 Israeli hostages held in Uganda. The prime minister, who planned to hang the framed newspaper clipping in his office, was “moved” by the gesture, according to the readout of the meeting.
The prime minister’s office said that the Netanyahus “thanked Sen. Fetterman and his wife for their consistent support of Israel since the outbreak of the war” during what they described as a “warm and friendly meeting” between the four.
The Israelis have given three pagers to U.S. leaders as gifts in recent months. Netanyahu presented President Donald Trump with a gold-plated pager during his visit to the U.S. last month, and the Prime Minister’s Office confirmed to Jewish Insider thatIsrael’s Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, a close confidante of Netanyahu, gifted Vice President J.D. Vance a silver plated pager shortly after Netanyahu’s visit to Washington.
Fetterman also met with Natan Sharansky and former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman while in Jerusalem.
Lahav Harkov contributed to this report.