Short answer: Yes. As of August 2026, Daniel Pipes, the American historian and founder of the Middle East Forum, remains one of the most prominent and long-standing pro-Israel voices in American commentary. For decades he has argued that only a clear Israeli victory over Palestinian rejectionism, not further negotiation, can end the conflict. He is Jewish, has been publicly honored in Israel for his advocacy, and responded to the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack the same afternoon by calling for Israel to destroy Hamas.
What Daniel Pipes has actually said and done
- 1949: Daniel Pipes was born in Boston to Richard and Irene Pipes, both Polish Jews whose families fled German-occupied Poland; his father Richard Pipes went on to become a Harvard historian of Russia, according to Wikipedia.
- April 1990: Pipes wrote that in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute "there can be either an Israel or a Palestine, but not both," an early statement of the zero-sum view he would build his career around, as recorded by Wikipedia.
- 1994: Pipes founded the Middle East Forum, a think tank focused on Middle East policy and countering Islamism, which he led as president for three decades, per the Middle East Forum's own bio.
- May 2006: Bar-Ilan University's Rennert Center for Jerusalem Studies in Israel gave Pipes its "Guardian of Zion" award, and he delivered the acceptance lecture at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, according to danielpipes.org and confirmed by Wikipedia's entry on the award.
- April 27, 2017: Pipes and the Middle East Forum helped launch the Congressional Israel Victory Caucus with Republican members of Congress, building on his paper arguing Palestinians must be made to accept defeat before real peace is possible, as reported by the Times of Israel.
- October 7, 2023, afternoon: Hours after the Hamas attack on Israel began that morning, Pipes published a Wall Street Journal piece, "Israel's Opportunity to Destroy Hamas," calling for Israel to eliminate Hamas rather than pursue a limited response, republished on danielpipes.org.
- June 2024: Pipes published his book "Israel Victory: How Zionists Win Acceptance and Palestinians Get Liberated," laying out his thesis that only decisive Israeli victory, not further negotiation, resolves the conflict, per the Middle East Forum.
- February 2025: After 31 years running the Middle East Forum, Pipes moved from president to chairman of its executive committee, with Gregg Roman named executive director; he has remained active as a writer and commentator on Israel and the Middle East, according to the Middle East Forum's announcement.
Where his views on Israel come from
Daniel Pipes (born 1949) is an American historian, author, and foreign-policy commentator, and one of the highest-profile pro-Israel voices in American public life. Jewish by birth, with parents who survived by fleeing Poland ahead of the Holocaust, he built his career on Middle East and Islam scholarship, taught at institutions including the University of Chicago and Harvard, and served in appointed roles under multiple U.S. administrations. In 1994 he founded the Middle East Forum, which he led until stepping back to a chairman role in February 2025, and he remains an active writer for the organization and for outlets such as Commentary and the Wall Street Journal.
His signature position, developed over decades and most fully laid out in his 2024 book "Israel Victory," is that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will not end through negotiation but only once Palestinians are made to accept that Israel has won, with Palestinian statehood on maximalist terms off the table. He has consistently argued for firm Israeli military and territorial responses rather than concessions, helped seed the Congressional Israel Victory Caucus in 2017, and was honored by Bar-Ilan University in Israel in 2006 for his advocacy, even though the award citation also noted he has criticized specific Israeli policies he viewed as too conciliatory. He responded to the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack the same day, publishing an op-ed calling for Hamas's destruction, a position that became mainstream Israeli and American policy in the weeks that followed.
Pipes is also known, separately from his Israel advocacy, as a controversial figure on questions of Islam and Muslim immigration; civil-rights groups have criticized him as Islamophobic, and he has publicly defended the legitimacy of Canary Mission, which publishes dossiers on pro-Palestinian campus activists, while he and the Middle East Forum deny any organizational affiliation with it. Those controversies concern his broader views on Islamism and Muslim communities, not his support for Israel, which has been consistent and central to his public career.
The bottom line
Daniel Pipes is a longtime, outspoken, and well-documented supporter of Israel: Jewish by background, honored in Israel for his advocacy, and the author of a specific doctrine, Israel Victory, calling for decisive Israeli victory over Palestinian rejectionism rather than further negotiation. His support for Israel is not in question. Separate controversy exists around his broader views on Islam and Muslim communities, but that is a different conversation from where he stands on Israel.
Wear your own answer
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Last updated August 2026. We update these profiles as the record changes.
