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Military Chiefs Warn Hegseth Iran War Is Stretching U.S. Forces to the Breaking Point

Matzav -

Senior U.S. military commanders have warned Secretary of War Pete Hegseth that the six-month conflict with Iran is placing an unsustainable strain on American forces and potentially weakening defenses elsewhere, according to a report by The Washington Post.

The concerns were detailed in the Aug. 14 edition of the Secretary of War Orders Book by the leaders of the Army, Navy and Air Force, as well as four-star commanders responsible for American military operations in Europe, Asia and Latin America.

The classified document, produced twice each month, provides an accounting of the worldwide availability of U.S. military personnel, warships, aircraft and weapons systems, according to individuals familiar with the assessment who spoke to the Post on condition of anonymity.

One source summarized the broader message from military leaders as “too much for too long.”

The commanders of U.S. European Command, U.S. Pacific Command and U.S. Southern Command, together with Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle, registered a formal “non-concur” with the document. The designation indicates that they oppose the deployment extensions even though they will carry out the orders.

Army and Air Force officials approved the extensions while simultaneously warning of substantial risks associated with them.

President Donald Trump has maintained more than 50,000 U.S. Central Command troops on alert for months while seeking to pressure Tehran into reopening the Strait of Hormuz and agreeing to American terms for bringing the war to an end. The conflict began Feb. 28 with U.S. and Israeli airstrikes against Iran.

The United States reinstated its naval blockade of Iranian ports in early August after Iranian attacks against commercial shipping caused a June memorandum of understanding to collapse, according to a Congressional Research Service report released this month.

Under the Aug. 14 orders, some American forces deployed to the Middle East are expected to remain there through September, while others could stay in the region into 2027.

Adm. Samuel Paparo, commander of U.S. Pacific Command, objected to the continuing requirement that his command provide an aircraft carrier strike group and destroyers for operations against Iran. Leaders of European Command and Southern Command similarly warned Hegseth that transferring ships and surveillance aircraft to CENTCOM has diminished their ability to carry out homeland-defense missions.

Caudle warned Hegseth that the Navy cannot maintain its current operational tempo indefinitely without a clear end date. He also reported that only about one-quarter of the Navy’s destroyer fleet is currently ready for deployment, representing a steep decline from readiness levels before the war.

Speaking recently at an event in Norfolk, Virginia, Caudle publicly described the deployment extensions as “very challenging for our sailors,” adding that he pushes back hard on them, “but the enemy gets a vote.”

The Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, which mobilized 2,000 soldiers in March and would be expected to play a central role in any U.S. ground invasion of Iran, is anticipated to remain in the region through at least September, with additional extensions considered likely.

Army Patriot air-defense units are also expected to have their deployments extended. Supplies of Patriot interceptors have been reduced by their extensive use during the Iran conflict as well as earlier transfers to Ukraine.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell told the Post that decisions about where and how long U.S. forces are deployed are based on current threat assessments, President Trump’s priorities and recommendations from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and combatant commanders.

Parnell added that the Department of War “does not discuss internal operational processes,” including the orders book or “specific concurrences, non-concurrences, or risk assessments.”

The Trump administration, meanwhile, has disputed reports that the U.S. military is facing shortages of munitions.

{Matzav.com}

Trump Says Venezuelan Oil Will Be Used to Refill Depleted U.S. Strategic Reserve

Matzav -

President Donald Trump announced Sunday that oil obtained through his administration’s newly reached agreement with Venezuela will be directed toward replenishing the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which has fallen to levels not seen in decades following major drawdowns in recent years.

In a social media post, Trump said the process of “topping out” the reserve would begin soon, calling the Venezuelan crude a “Gift from Venezuela to the People of the United States.”

Questions remain over how quickly oil supplied under the Venezuelan agreement could begin flowing into the U.S. reserve or whether the arrangement will have an immediate impact on fuel costs for American consumers. The broader deal unveiled by Trump on Friday is intended to rebuild Venezuela’s struggling petroleum industry, an undertaking expected to require substantial investment and improvements to the country’s energy infrastructure before production can increase significantly.

As of August 21, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve contained approximately 290 million barrels, putting the emergency stockpile near its lowest level in 44 years. Oil has been released from the reserve under both the Biden and Trump administrations amid international supply disruptions, including those stemming from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the conflict with Iran.

The announcement came a day after Venezuelan interim President Delcy Rodriguez disclosed additional details about the energy agreement with Washington, saying the arrangement would run for 25 years and seek to increase crude production to 1.5 million barrels per day while maintaining Venezuelan sovereignty over the country’s natural resources.

In an address Saturday night, Rodriguez characterized the agreement as “historic,” saying it could play a major role in reviving Venezuela’s economy, expanding government revenues and determining the country’s economic direction in the years ahead.

“This 25-year bilateral project envisages the development of 17 strategic oilfields with a production target of more ⁠than 1.5 million barrels per day,” Rodriguez said on state broadcaster VTV.

“That figure relates solely to the bilateral agreement between Venezuela and the United States.”

Rodriguez said the planned 1.5 million barrels per day represents an initial production objective. The wider initiative also calls for developing eight previously undeveloped oil blocks as Venezuela seeks a broader expansion of its energy industry.

President Trump first unveiled the arrangement Friday, announcing plans for the United States to obtain partial control over Venezuela’s enormous petroleum reserves. The administration is betting that American companies can help rehabilitate the country’s badly weakened oil sector while creating an additional source of crude that could contribute to lower fuel prices in the United States.

Trump offered relatively few specifics about the structure of the agreement, saying the United States had obtained majority control over more than 65 billion barrels of Venezuela’s proven petroleum reserves through a partnership involving private industry.

Although Venezuela possesses the largest proven oil reserves in the world, its current output stands at only about 1.25 million barrels per day, considerably below its potential. Years of inadequate investment, poor management and international sanctions have taken a heavy toll on the country’s oil industry.

Rodriguez estimated that the agreement could ultimately produce approximately $209 billion in revenue for the Venezuelan government if oil averages $65 per barrel, while acknowledging that petroleum prices could change. She said Venezuela would receive approximately $19 from every barrel produced and sold through the agreement, potentially providing a major new source of government income.

The Venezuelan leader insisted that the arrangement does not surrender the country’s control over its petroleum resources. She said Venezuela would retain “ownership of and sovereignty” over its natural resources, “while leveraging capital, technology and operational expertise to support the recovery of a strategic industry that has been severely affected by sanctions.”

The agreement has nevertheless encountered opposition inside Venezuela. Earlier Saturday, dozens of groups supportive of the government assembled in central Caracas to demonstrate against the U.S. presence in the country.

Despite those protests, Rodriguez publicly embraced the energy arrangement following Trump’s announcement, arguing that it would stimulate Venezuela’s economy while generating additional revenue for the government.

Venezuelan authorities are now preparing to finalize agreements as early as next week that would award new exploration and production rights to several energy companies, including firms based in the United States.

Two people familiar with the negotiations said Friday that Chevron is among the companies expected to complete discussions aimed at moving its existing Venezuelan joint ventures into the new energy framework.

Homan: ICE Will Go ‘Where We Need to Go’ for Deportations

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White House border czar Tom Homan said Sunday that federal immigration agents will pursue illegal immigrants wherever necessary, stressing that criminals and national security threats will find “no safe harbor” as the Trump administration expands immigration enforcement efforts across the country.

“President Trump is the president of the United States because he promised to enforce immigration law, and that’s exactly what we’re doing,” Homan said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“We’re sending a message to the world: The borders are no longer open. You can’t come here for a free pass and expect to stay forever,” he added.

During the interview, Homan mounted a broad defense of President Donald Trump’s deportation policies, addressing controversies involving arrests near school bus stops, the deportation of Haitians who have lost Temporary Protected Status, and accusations that ICE officers mistreated individuals being deported.

One issue involved reports from Connecticut that ICE agents arrested parents in the vicinity of school bus stops. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., has accused immigration authorities of targeting parents who were waiting with their children in Danbury.

Homan said he had not been informed about the specific incidents but pledged to raise the matter with the Department of Homeland Security.

“ICE is out there to enforce the law against those that have been ordered removed by a federal judge,” Homan said. “And especially if they’re a criminal or if they’re a national security threat, there’s no safe harbor for them in this country. We’ll go where we need to go.”

Homan pushed back against claims that ICE agents were deliberately attempting to intimidate children, describing those allegations as political rhetoric that has helped fuel threats against federal immigration personnel.

The border czar also defended the administration’s decision to deport Haitians after their Temporary Protected Status was terminated, despite the violence and instability that continue to plague Haiti.

“They lost their TPS status. They’re ordered removed. They got to go home,” Homan said. “They have no status here anymore. They can’t stay here.”

Pressed on whether he was comfortable with people being sent back to Haiti in light of the country’s dangerous security conditions, Homan said he was not familiar with the current situation there but insisted that ICE has an obligation to carry out lawful removal orders.

“The bottom line is they’ve been ordered removed,” he said. “The judge has made a decision. They must go home.”

Homan also discussed Sunday the deportation of Milo Yiannopoulos, the British right-wing provocateur and Trump supporter who was taken into custody Thursday and deported to the United Kingdom the next day.

According to Homan, his understanding of the case was that Yiannopoulos had remained in the United States beyond the expiration of his visa, failed to appear for immigration court proceedings, and subsequently was ordered deported by a judge.

“He had his due process, ordered removed by a federal judge, and ICE removed him. It’s that simple,” Homan said.

Homan rejected suggestions that Yiannopoulos received special treatment because he was removed from the country only a day after his arrest. He said the Department of Homeland Security has been working more broadly to reduce the amount of time individuals spend in detention and to carry out deportation orders more rapidly.

The interview also touched on a New York Times report alleging that deportees who resisted leaving a U.S. deportation flight after it arrived in Liberia were subjected to abusive treatment. Homan said he did not believe the alleged conduct had taken place, while emphasizing that the accusations would nevertheless be investigated.

“We use minimum force required to make a detainee comply,” Homan said. “If someone acted out of line, it would be investigated by internal affairs.”

Homan additionally renewed his support for outfitting ICE field officers with body cameras, although he said he could not verify whether the agency had achieved its goal of providing cameras to every officer by the end of August.

“I’m a big proponent of cameras because I want the American people to see what the officer sees when he makes a decision,” Homan said.

Homan said the rollout of the cameras was underway but acknowledged that he did not know whether implementation had been completed across the agency.

“Are they 100% deployed today? I’m not sure,” he said.

{Matzav.com}

CAIR Back-to-School Guide Blames U.S. Israel Support for 9/11, Directs Students to Bin Laden’s ‘Letter to America’

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The Council on American-Islamic Relations included educational material blaming U.S. support for Israel among the factors behind the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and directing students to Osama bin Laden’s “Letter to America” in a back-to-school resource guide that was subsequently removed.

CAIR, one of the nation’s largest Muslim advocacy organizations, released its annual “Back to school resource guide” for K-12 students on Monday. The 16-page document contained a link to a “Muslim Studies Curriculum” presenting an account of 9/11 and its aftermath. The link disappeared from the guide the following day.

Screenshots of the material obtained by The Post show that the curriculum described the perpetrators of the attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people, as a “group self-identifying as Al Quaeda hailing from the mountains of Afghanistan.”

The curriculum attributed the motivations behind the Sept. 11 attacks in part to U.S. “support of Israel,” along with American involvement in the Persian Gulf War and the “vast presence” of U.S. military forces throughout the Middle East.

The material then focused on the American response to the attacks, saying 9/11 produced an “aggressive shift in US domestic and foreign policy,” helped launch the War on Terror in the Middle East and resulted in an “erosion of civil liberties of many Americans.”

“While Islamophobia and anti-Muslim racism existed long before the 9/11 attacks, this time period marked a stark shift in US policy and state sponsored Islamophobia in the US and abroad. There was immediate backlash against anyone perceived to be Muslim” wearing traditional garb, the curriculum stated.

The guide also argued that Muslims received unfair treatment in media coverage following terrorist attacks, contrasting that response with the treatment of “white supremacists” and “extreme animal rights activists” who, according to the material, had also resorted to “violence to further their cause.”

Nicholas Haros Jr., whose mother, Frances, was killed in the Sept. 11 attacks, condemned the material as “evil propaganda.” Haros has previously drawn attention for criticizing Rep. Ilhan Omar over her description of 9/11 as an occasion when “some people did something.”

“Israel had nothing to do with 9/11,” Haros said.

He warned that children growing up decades after the attacks could be influenced by an account of the events that places blame on the United States.

“The further we get from 9/11, this new generation of kids will learn to blame our country. These kids are going to be poisoned – and that’s the intent.”

The curriculum devoted considerable attention to what followed the attacks, saying the period saw “the rise in hate crimes and discrimination against American Muslim and perceived- Muslim communities.”

CAIR separately said in a press release that classroom discussions surrounding the terrorist attacks can become “a particularly dangerous time for Muslim students,” who “often experience a surge in bullying during school lessons about 9/11.” The organization has been designated a foreign terrorist organization by the state governments of Texas and Florida.

Among the recommended materials included in CAIR’s student resources was bin Laden’s “Letter to America,” the manifesto in which the 9/11 mastermind sought to explain and justify his hostility toward the United States.

In that document, bin Laden wrote, “Your law is the law of the rich and wealthy people, who hold sway in their political parties, and fund their election campaigns with their gifts. Behind them stand the Jews, who control your policies, media and economy.”

The curriculum also presented background on bin Laden’s emergence during the Soviet war in Afghanistan. It portrayed him in the context of the Afghan resistance to the Soviet invasion and referred to the fighters as “rebels.” Among them, the guide said, was a “man named Osama bin Laden,” who with the “people later formed the Taliban.”

Another recommended background resource was the film “V for Vendetta,” which the guide described as being about “a young woman living in a dystopian society meets a shadowy freedom fighter who is plotting to overthrow their tyrannical government.”

The guide additionally defended bringing international political issues into classrooms, arguing that doing so could “promote understanding.”

Its suggested material also addressed how educators should speak with children about Gaza and “genocide.” The Post noted that the section did not discuss the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attacks in Israel, in which approximately 1,200 people, including children, were killed.

When The Post contacted CAIR and asked whether the organization continued to stand behind the 9/11 material, CAIR did not deny that the hyperlink had been removed. The organization instead pointed to an attached note offering a general explanation for revisions made to an earlier version of the document.

The contents of the guide drew condemnation from Jewish community representatives, who accused CAIR of providing students with a distorted presentation of both the Sept. 11 attacks and the Israel-Hamas war.

“CAIR just nationalized a curriculum that refuses to call the 9/11 hijackers terrorists, assigns Osama bin Laden’s ‘Letter to America’ as high-school reading, and coaches five-year-olds on Gaza without ever naming Hamas or October 7. That is not inclusion – it’s dangerous propaganda,” Moshe Spern, president of United Jewish Teachers, told The Post.

CAIR was established in 1993. The organization came under federal scrutiny during the prosecution of officials associated with the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, a Texas-based charity that was shut down after five of its leaders were convicted in 2008 in a case involving more than $12 million sent to Hamas.

{Matzav.com}

NASA Launches $4.3 Billion Roman Telescope on Mission to Unlock Universe’s Greatest Mysteries

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NASA’s newest major space observatory began its journey Sunday, launching on an ambitious mission to discover distant planets, investigate the mysterious forces shaping the universe and survey billions of galaxies and stars at unprecedented speed.

The $4.3 billion Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope lifted off shortly after sunrise from Kennedy Space Center aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. Its destination is an observation point approximately 1 million miles from Earth, where it will operate in the same region of space as NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.

Roughly the size of a bus, Roman is named for Nancy Grace Roman, NASA’s first chief astronomer. The spacecraft is expected to spend more than three months traveling to its observation point before beginning a sweeping examination of portions of the universe that scientists have struggled to study in detail.

“It’s going to find thousands of supernovae, tens of thousands of planets, billions of galaxies and tens of billions of stars,” said NASA science mission director Nicky Fox. “It’s going to be able to do things that we’ve never been able to do before with its massive field of view.”

Roman’s enormous viewing area is one of the features that sets it apart from NASA’s other flagship observatories. Its field of view is more than 100 times wider than that of the Hubble Space Telescope, which continues producing remarkable images after 36 years in orbit.

The Webb telescope, meanwhile, offers an even narrower but extraordinarily precise view, allowing scientists to closely examine extremely distant objects dating back nearly to the Big Bang.

Scientists plan to use Roman, Hubble and Webb in complementary roles. Their observations will also be combined with findings from the European Space Agency’s Euclid spacecraft and the National Science Foundation’s Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile as researchers pursue answers to some of astronomy’s most enduring questions.

Among Roman’s major assignments will be searching distant galaxies for stars surrounded by planets. After Roman identifies promising worlds, Webb’s greater sensitivity and power can be directed toward those targets for closer examination.

“Roman’s vast reach will allow us to find the weird, the rare and the unusual,” senior project scientist Julie McEnery said ahead of the launch. “We’ll redefine what it means to find a needle in a haystack.”

The mission is also expected to provide scientists with important new information about dark matter and dark energy, two mysterious components believed to account for most of the universe despite remaining largely invisible and poorly understood.

By creating an enormous catalog of galaxies, Roman will allow researchers to study the expansion of the universe and better understand the role these unseen forces play in determining its structure and evolution.

One of Roman’s greatest advantages will be the speed with which it can conduct its surveys.

According to McEnery, Roman can accomplish in approximately one month a survey of the Milky Way that would require Hubble roughly a century to complete. Scientists expect the telescope to rapidly scan the dense galactic bulge at the center of the Milky Way, producing an exceptionally deep view into the heart of our galaxy.

Roman is equipped with a wide-field infrared camera offering sensitivity comparable to Hubble while operating about 1,000 times faster.

It also carries an experimental coronagraph designed to block the overwhelming light coming from distant stars. By artificially creating an eclipse-like effect, the instrument could allow Roman to directly photograph faint planets orbiting stars that would otherwise obscure them from view.

NASA engineers have also designed Roman with the possibility of extending its operating life. The telescope can be refueled, meaning a robotic servicing spacecraft developed during the next decade could potentially replenish its fuel and keep it operating longer.

The mission reached the launch pad nearly a year ahead of schedule and remained within its budget. Roman also becomes the first NASA space telescope named for a woman.

Retired NASA scientist Ed Weiler said the recognition is particularly appropriate. Weiler, whom Roman hired in 1978, dubbed her the “Mother of Hubble” because of the crucial role she played in advancing the concept of placing observatories above Earth’s atmosphere.

Roman joined the newly established NASA in 1959 and became a forceful advocate for space-based astronomy, arguing that telescopes operating beyond the atmosphere could observe the universe with far greater clarity and reach. She died in 2018 at the age of 93.

“This is very, very fitting. I think Nancy would be very proud” that the telescope carrying her name will investigate fundamental mysteries including dark energy, Weiler said.

Roman’s primary mirror measures nearly 8 feet in diameter, approximately the same size as Hubble’s. Unlike a mirror originally manufactured specifically for a NASA telescope, however, Roman’s was once surplus hardware from a U.S. spy satellite program.

The National Reconnaissance Office donated two unused mirrors to NASA more than a decade ago so they could be repurposed for scientific missions. One ultimately became the heart of the Roman Space Telescope, while the second remains in storage.

{Matzav.com}

NYC-Funded Family Puppet Show Veers Into Anti-Israel Politics, Leaving Jewish Mother Horrified

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A Jewish mother who brought her 4-year-old son to a Lower Manhattan puppet performance expecting an entertaining show about New York City says she was stunned when the production abruptly shifted into attacks on Israel, including accusations involving Israeli military actions and references to U.S. taxpayer support for the Jewish state, the NY Post reports.

“The Cardboard Pizza Puppet Circus,” produced and performed by the Boxcutter Collective, appeared this month at the International Puppet Fringe Festival, a multiday event supported in part by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York State Council on the Arts. The troupe promotes the production as “a celebration of” New York City.

Promotional material presented the show as a whimsical tour through familiar elements of city life. “Featuring dancing skyscrapers, giant rats, fossil-fuel-fighting flowers, a live brass band, and Lady Liberty herself,” its description states.

But roughly 15 minutes into the Aug. 13 performance, according to a 43-year-old Brooklyn mother who attended with her young son and asked that her name be withheld, the production suddenly departed from its New York theme and began incorporating political messages aimed at Israel.

“The anti-Israel stuff came out of nowhere,” the mother said.

“It went from pizza rat and parallel parking to accusations of Israel bombing hospitals.”

The approximately hourlong performance was held in a crowded courtyard before what the mother estimated was an audience of about 200 people. One segment featured eight performers staging a flotilla scene, which she said prompted enthusiastic anti-Israel reactions from members of the audience. The production also included comments about U.S. tax dollars being sent to Israel, according to the mother.

The woman, who described herself as a “proud Zionist,” questioned why such material was inserted into a production otherwise advertised as a celebration of New York.

“How does anti-Israel propaganda figure into a play that’s otherwise entirely about New York? Is hatred for Israel as synonymous with the City’s brand as pizza rat?” she asked, adding that her 4-year-old son “kept asking what was happening when he saw I was taken aback.”

The mother, a refugee from the Soviet Union who now lives in Windsor Terrace, said she became increasingly alarmed as the performance continued and members of the audience appeared receptive to what she characterized as “the litany of accusations” directed at Israel.

“(I was) feeling like I was surrounded by my ideological enemies,” she said.

“This particular group had very antisemitic views,” she said of the Boxcutter Collective. “It felt like a mob – the hairs on your neck stand up.”

The Boxcutter Collective has previously participated in pro-Palestinian programming. In November 2023, weeks after the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack on Israel in which approximately 1,200 people were killed, the troupe participated in a performance of the “Gaza Monologues” on “The International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.” The event was presented in response to the “horrific war taking place in Gaza.”

The Brooklyn mother said she decided against challenging the performance because she feared how the surrounding audience might react.

“I knew that if I shouted something against Hamas, the crowd would turn against me, so I kept my mouth shut,” the mother told The Post. “My generation is now experiencing a fresh iteration of antisemitism here in New York that my family escaped back in the Soviet Union.”

Manuel Moran, founder and producer of the International Puppet Fringe Festival, told the Jerusalem News Syndicate earlier this week that festival organizers may not have known beforehand that the performance would contain the controversial material.

“As with many festivals, the full content of a production is not always known in advance, and the company premiered many elements of this work as part of the event,” Moran told JNS. “We stand behind our role in providing a platform for artists while recognizing that artists are responsible for their own work and should be able to speak to it directly.”

Moran also pointed to other programming at the festival, telling JNS that one performance incorporated Yiddish elements. He said the Israeli Hanut Theater Company had also been invited to participate but was unable to secure the necessary visas.

The controversy drew criticism from Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, who questioned the use of government funding for programming that left a Jewish attendee feeling threatened.

“This is an inappropriate use of public resources. Publicly funded cultural programming should never contribute to an environment in which Jewish New Yorkers feel unsafe,” Greenblatt wrote on X.

{Matzav.com}

Fetterman Blasts Democratic ‘Socialism Problem,’ Calls Far-Left Candidates ‘Garbage’

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Sen. John Fetterman is escalating his criticism of the Democratic Party’s progressive wing, warning that the party has a “socialism problem” and accusing far-left candidates of damaging Democrats politically.

The Pennsylvania Democrat singled out Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed, making clear that sharing a party affiliation would not prevent him from publicly condemning candidates he believes have moved too far to the left.

“These garbage kinds of people like El-Sayed in Michigan,” Fetterman told The Hill in an interview. “I don’t care if he’s a fellow Democrat.”

Fetterman also pointed to Democratic Senate nominee Troy Jackson in Maine, who has received the endorsement of the state’s Democratic Socialists of America chapter. He additionally cited Graham Platner, a far-left candidate who withdrew from the Maine Senate contest after a former girlfriend accused him of rape, an allegation Platner denied.

“Look at these other terrible communists and socialists,” Fetterman said. “Our party has a socialism problem.”

“I’ll be the one Democrat that calls it for what it is and not use the euphemism that it’s a big-tent situation,” he added.

Fetterman reserved particularly sharp criticism for El-Sayed’s decision to campaign alongside left-wing streamer Hasan Piker, who previously drew widespread condemnation for declaring that “America deserved 9/11.”

“Democrats like El-Sayed are proud to campaign with garbage like Hasan Piker,” Fetterman said.

The comments are the latest example of Fetterman’s growing public break with the progressive flank of his party, with Israel emerging as one of the most significant areas of disagreement.

Fetterman has established himself as one of the Senate Democratic caucus’s strongest supporters of Israel and has repeatedly pushed back against members of his own party over their positions toward the Jewish state. Last month, he went so far as to say that he would leave the Democratic Party if it officially adopted an anti-Israel posture.

“If our party ever becomes — and just makes it official — the anti-Israel party, that’s when I would leave because that’s been a moral clarity for me,” Fetterman said at The Hill Nation Summit.

Fetterman’s willingness to challenge Democrats from the right has also earned him unusually strong approval among Republican voters in his home state.

A recent New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer and Siena University poll found that 73% of registered Republicans in Pennsylvania hold a favorable view of Fetterman.

{Matzav.com}

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