Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) said on Monday that the votes by more than 100 House Democrats last week in favor of an effort to end all U.S. aid to Israel indicates the party is “flirting with” making opposition to Israel the official party stance, something he said would lead him to leave the caucus. 

Fetterman, who has dismissed discussions about him leaving the party in recent years despite his increasing isolation from Democratic colleagues on Capitol Hill, said in a series of media appearances last week that he would leave the Democratic Party if it called for opposing offensive or defensive aid to Israel or ending the U.S.-Israel relationship in its official platform.

“It’s very clear, if the Democratic Party becomes the official anti-Israel party, then that forces me to rethink my membership in that party,” Fetterman told Jewish Insider in an interview on Monday. “Candidates run on the platform, on whatever the platform is, any one member of it effectively agrees with it. If they put that in the platform that we will never vote for aid for Israel, or we describe Israel as a genocidal or apartheid state, then yes, you have to rethink it.”

The Pennsylvania senator said that the move by nearly half of the House Democratic caucus to vote for Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY)’s measure indicates the party is “flirting with” the idea of shifting its platform. 

“It’s absurd. The Democratic Party are increasingly voting not to support the only Democratic state in the entire region,” Fetterman told JI. “I’m saying, effectively, you are flirting with it. You are increasingly making it more official. Inculcate it into our platform, then that’s a fundamental betrayal of the Democratic Party’s core morality.”

“I’ve been warning — I have been. Maybe two years ago I said I’ll be the last man standing if it’s what’s necessary,” he continued. “In July of ‘24, [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu had a joint address [to Congress]. I was the only Democrat that would engage him, shake his hand, get a photo with him, support the decision when every other Democrat was pushing for a ceasefire [in Gaza]. I mean, the Democratic Party was entirely wrong with that approach, and imagine what the security situation would be if Israel was pushed into a ceasefire.”

Fetterman referenced an Axios article published earlier Monday that credited the letter House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) sent to all House Democrats urging them to oppose the amendment with keeping 30 to 40 additional lawmakers from voting for the measure. 

“It could have been 150 Democrats to vote against that,” Fetterman said. “I mean, that’s the direction the party’s going. … My views aren’t controversial, or they shouldn’t be. What should be controversial is the trash that’s coming out from many Democrats and out of J Street.”

The Pennsylvania senator took pointed aim at J Street, referring to the progressive Israel advocacy organization as “the embodiment of the suicidal empathy against the Jewish state of Israel” and criticizing the group for associating with Hasan Piker, the far-left streamer who has a record of antisemitic remarks. 

“Nothing embodies suicidal empathy like J Street,” Fetterman said. “I wouldn’t describe them as cancer, but it’s vile the views that they are adopting, and they are becoming the useful idiots for the Hamas and Iranian propaganda machine. Are they gonna invite Hasan Piker to be on their board?”

“J Street is the group that said and gave political cover for Democrats so they don’t have to vote for Iron Dome [funding]. That’s a fact,” he continued. “They were trying to provide political cover for Democrats to say, ‘Well, J Street said it, so that seems pretty reasonable.’”

Fetterman had previously brushed off reports that efforts to recruit him to the GOP would be successful, writing in a Washington Post op-ed in May that he would “be a terrible Republican who still votes overwhelmingly with Democrats.” 

Questions about Fetterman’s future political plans began circulating again earlier this month, however, when he and Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA) launched Common Ground PA, a joint fundraising committee combining two of each senator’s PACs and allowing them to fundraise together. 

Fetterman warned last week that he could become a deciding swing vote in the next Congress if the Democratic Party wins control of the Senate in November, which Democrats need to flip four seats to accomplish.

“If we flip those four seats, then I would be 51,” Fetterman said Wednesday at The Hill Nation Summit. “Watch what I do.”