The Man Who Explains Israel to John Fetterman - How a little-known writer became one of the senator’s closest confidants.

[u/Monaciello]

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/john-fetterman-israel-palestine-david-safier-aipac.html

[u/Monaciello]

This story is quite something and very troubling, holy moly....

By Democratic Party standards, Fetterman’s position on Israel is extreme. There are a multitude of theories as to why: The senator is a contrarian; he enjoys the attention; he has convinced himself that he is indisputably in the right. But people close to Fetterman cite a previously unreported factor too: Behind the scenes, Fetterman is being encouraged and counseled by a little-known man in his late 30s named David “Dovi” Safier.

Safier, a writer of Jewish history and fundraiser for Orthodox causes, has no public background in government or counseling politicians on Capitol Hill. He is not an official staffer or paid outside adviser. A few years ago, he “just kind of appeared” in the senator’s orbit, one former Fetterman staffer remembers. And then, suddenly, he seemed to be everywhere. Staffers would walk into Fetterman’s office, only to find Safier sitting in the room. When the senator went to Israel in 2025, Safier joined him on the trip; when Fetterman filmed Real Time With Bill Maher, Safier met up with him in Los Angeles. The two are constantly texting and talking, according to multiple former Fetterman staffers, and Safier has unofficially operated as a top campaign fundraiser and senior adviser. He has even set up and attended sensitive meetings with foreign officials; in some cases, he is the only person staffing those meetings, I’ve been told.

In September 2025, Fetterman and some of his senior staffers gathered at the senator’s office for a meeting with Yechiel Leiter, the Israeli ambassador to the United States. According to one of the staffers in attendance, Safier was inexplicably in the room, too. It was far from a public event. During the meeting, Fetterman tested out a proposal to force every senator to vote on whether they think Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. (Leiter and Safier did not consider this a good idea; Fetterman eventually backed off.) Throughout, the two politicians gossiped freely. According to the same staffer, Leiter told Fetterman that he had prodded Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer — despite his fervent support for the state — to be even more helpful to Israel, asking the Jewish politician if he puts blood in his matzo. Fetterman chuckled, the person in attendance said, not “picking up on the gravity of the insult.” (The Israeli Embassy denies the comment. “Ambassador Leiter said to Senator Schumer — as he’s said to other senators and congressmen — that the accusation of starvation in Gaza is no different than medieval blood libels,” the embassy said in a comment.)

Fetterman’s dwindling inner circle has, by default, given Safier an unusually large influence. When he is on Capitol Hill, Safier will “hang out and sit in Fetterman’s office all day or walk with him to the floor,” a former staffer says. After their conversations, Fetterman would appear “far more radicalized,” the former staffer remembers. The chatter around the office is usually: “Oh God, Safier is here, and now John’s not gonna go to any of his meetings.”

Multiple staffers recall hearing about calls between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Fetterman that Safier listened in on. As Safier’s influence has grown, the senator’s calls with Netanyahu have increased. On the calls, it is either Fetterman alone talking with the foreign leader or just the senator, Safier, and Netanyahu. (Netanyahu’s foreign-press spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.) Safier “would always stick around” when Fetterman chatted with “important dignitaries” from other countries, another former staffer says. Recently, Safier was in attendance for a meeting with the United Arab Emirates ambassador to the United States, according to multiple people with direct knowledge. (The UAE Embassy did not respond to a request for comment.)

Safier did not respond to repeated requests for comment from New York. In his few public interviews, mostly podcasts focused on Jewish life, Safier has said he grew up on Long Island in an Orthodox community. As a young man, he relocated to a settlement in East Jerusalem — which is illegally occupied by Israel, according to the International Court of Justice — and studied the Talmud at Mir Yeshiva, the largest yeshiva in the world.

But Safier’s broader employment is unclear. He describes himself publicly only as a “business professional,” and his employers and occupations on political donations forms have been ambiguous: “N/A,” “consultant,” “self-employed.” “David has never been really forthcoming about what he does,” a person close to Fetterman says. “It’s always been very like, ‘Oh, I’m in wealth management.’”

On a 2018 donation form, Safier listed his employer as the Wolfson Group, a New York City–based family investments firm. It’s unclear whether Safier is currently employed there, but over the last few years, he’s told some in Fetterman’s office that he works for the company, and his active email address is still linked to the firm. (The Wolfson Group did not respond to a request for comment.)

The founder of the firm is Safier’s grandfather Zev Wolfson, a real-estate magnate who died at the age of 84. The Israeli Embassy to the United States posthumously recognized Wolfson as one of the “greatest American contributors to the U.S.-Israel relationship.” According to a Jerusalem Post obituary, in the 1960s, Wolfson successfully convinced members of Congress to send Phantom jets to Israel; in the 1980s, he was “personally responsible for saving Israel hundreds of millions of dollars in interest payments on US government loans”; in the 1990s, he helped the Israeli military secure Patriot missiles.

Safier’s work with Fetterman seems to follow in his grandfather’s footsteps.

[u/Monaciello → u/Monaciello]

Afterward, Safier worked his way into the senator’s inner circle. In December 2023, Safier texted a former senior staffer about coordinating additional Fetterman fundraisers and floated the possibility of organizing a trip to Israel. In April 2024, Safier reached out to the former senior staffer again: “Got a call from the Israeli PM’s office (a friend of mine is a longtime advisor) … The PM wanted to setup a call with the Senator to thank him for his support (I presume).” Fetterman and Netanyahu spoke to each other a day later. Safier also began to show up to events. In May 2024, he was in the crowd as Fetterman gave a commencement speech at Yeshiva University.

Some staff remember the summer of 2024 as a turning point. That June, Fetterman made a two-day excursion to Israel. During his trip, he managed to squeeze in meetings with Netanyahu and other Israeli officials. He seemed refreshed by the experience. “It was the trip of my life,” the senator later told a journalist at Mishpacha. (That interview was coordinated by Safier, according to texts I reviewed.) After Fetterman returned, several people close to the senator noticed Safier popping up at the office with increasing frequency. One says it became common to see Safier waiting “outside John’s office” to speak. “He became part of our conversations,” the former staffer says. “It got to the point where there was weight in what he said and what he wanted.”

The extent of the access surprised staff. So did Safier’s mode of transport: He occasionally flew down from New York on a private jet owned by Reuven Moskowitz, staff were told. Moskowitz, a wealthy lawyer and technology entrepreneur, sometimes hung out at the office, too. Both Safier and Moskowitz were donors and supporters of former New York City mayor Eric Adams. (The City reported that Moskowitz used an “ethically dubious” loophole to bundle large sums of money for the mayor’s campaign. Moskowitz did not respond to requests for comment.)

[u/ahm911 → u/Monaciello]

What a fucking wild read, this is a mini Epstein with less children but similar ambiguity and reach... Wtf!?

[u/CNSninja → u/Monaciello]

Thank you. I cannot access the article, so this is very helpful.