The Pennsylvania senator explains anti-Zionism never stops at Israel—and why defending the Jewish state is not disloyalty to America.
Bob Goldberg | The New Zionist Times | Aug 06, 2026
Jon Stewart tried to lecture Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman on the difference between Jews and Israel. Fetterman told Stewart the defending Israel means defending Jews everywhere.
It was then that Stewart went into “as a Jew” mode, telling the Senator that “the Jewish community and Israel are not the same thing, brother man. That is not the same thing.”
Fetterman told Stewart, in essence, that Israel is the political expression of Jewish peoplehood—the homeland, refuge and means of self-defense created after centuries in which Jews learned the cost of depending on others for their survival.
That is why, he argued, an anti-Israel Democratic Party crosses a political red line when it attacks Israel and excuses Hamas. Stewart was incredulous: how could Fetterman agree with progressives on most domestic issues yet reject them over Israel?
Then came “as a Jew” Stewart’s corrective: Israel “is not our country.”
Geographically, Stewart was impeccable. Fetterman represents Pennsylvania, not Petah Tikva. But Fetterman had never claimed otherwise. He said abandoning Israel was a red line—not that Israel was his country.
Stewart’s formulation nevertheless carried an unmistakable insinuation: Fetterman’s support for the Jewish state makes his loyalty to America suspect.
Stewart’s “not our country” retort was especially dishonest because Fetterman had already explained why Israel matters to America.
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