At Harvard Talk, Former Israeli PM Joked He Would Give Exploding Pagers to Protesters

[Celerity]

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2025/3/10/naftali-bennett-hbs-talk/



March 10, 2025

Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett joked to hundreds of people about sending explosive devices to dissenting event attendees at a talk at the Harvard Business School on Thursday, according to six people present at the discussion.

HBS professor Paul A. Gompers ’86, the moderator, began the off-the-record event by explaining Harvard’s guidelines on disruption, noting that dissenting audience members who interrupt the speaker would be removed. Bennett then interrupted to add: “I think we’ll just give them a pager.”

The comment, which received some laughter from the audience, was an apparent allusion to the Sept. 17-18 Israeli attacks on Lebanon and Syria, where Israel detonated thousands of handheld pagers and walkie talkies originally intended for members of the Lebanese militia group Hezbollah. The attack killed dozens of people and injured nearly 3,000, according to the Lebanese government.

Israel did not initially take ownership for the attacks, but a spokesperson for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accepted responsibility in November. Netanyahu later gifted U.S. President Donald Trump a golden pager in a February meeting at the White House with a plaque praising Trump as Israel’s “greatest friend and greatest ally.”

snip



Benjamin Netanyahu gives silver-plated beeper to John Fetterman, who praised Lebanon pager operation

“It’s nothing, but it changes history,” the Israeli prime minister told the Democratic senator

https://forward.com/fast-forward/705610/benjamin-netanyahu-gives-silver-plated-beeper-to-john-fetterman-who-praised-lebanon-pager-operation/



(JTA) — When Sen. John Fetterman said he loved the Israeli operation that sent exploding pagers to members of Hezbollah, he probably never expected that Israel would give him a beeper, too. But that’s what happened this week, when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed Fetterman, an outspokenly pro-Israeli Democratic lawmaker, to his office in Jerusalem.

The beeper handover took place during an exchange of gifts. The Pennsylvania senator gave Netanyahu a framed news article about an effort to memorialize Netanyahu’s brother, the fallen Israeli soldier Yoni Netanyahu, in Philadelphia — where Netanyahu lived as a teenager.

Netanyahu’s gift was smaller — and didn’t explode.

“What can I give a man who has everything? How about giving him a beeper?” Netanyahu said, handing over a small silver box to Fetterman. “This is a silver-plated beeper. The real beeper is, like, one-tenth the weight. It’s nothing, but it changes history.” Fetterman responded, “When that story broke, I was like, ‘Oh, I love it, I love it.’ And now, it’s like, thank you for this.”

Pagers belonging to Hezbollah members exploded across Lebanon in September, wounding and killing many, in addition to a number of civilians, in a long-planned Israeli operation.

snip

[sop]

1. Fetterman looks more and more like Uncle Fester.

[2naSalit]

2. And I bet...

It will blow up the first time he doesn't vote in favor of some Bill helping the criminal network carry on their with their evil.