Short answer: No. As of August 2026, Fareed Zakaria is not a supporter of Israel in any advocacy sense. He is the host of CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" and a Washington Post foreign-affairs columnist, not Jewish (he was raised in a secular, non-practicing Muslim family in Mumbai, India), and there is no public record of donations, event appearances, or personal visits tied to Israel. His editorial record is consistently critical of Israeli government policy: he backs a two-state solution, has written that Israel is guilty of "bigoted policies" toward Palestinians, and in 2025 gave airtime to a scholar's argument that Israel's Gaza campaign meets the legal definition of genocide. At the same time, he has repeatedly and explicitly rejected antisemitism and anti-Zionism when campus protests cross that line.
What Fareed Zakaria has actually said and done
February 14, 2019: In a Washington Post op-ed, Zakaria wrote that Muslims should be "particularly thoughtful" when discussing Israel because "anti-Semitism has spread through the Islamic world like a cancer." In the same piece he wrote that Israel was "guilty of bigoted policies towards Palestinians", while also criticizing how Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib framed their critiques of Israel, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Times of Israel.
November 3, 2023: Following the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack, Zakaria's Washington Post column said Israelis were understandably horrified and traumatized by the attack, noting the political push for what Prime Minister Netanyahu called "mighty vengeance," while urging attention to the history of prior counterterrorism campaigns.
May 10, 2024: On PBS's Firing Line with Margaret Hoover, Zakaria said campus protests against Israel since October 7 had "too often morphed into anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, which are views that I profoundly reject," while maintaining that it is legitimate to criticize Israel's conduct in Gaza and to argue the occupation should end.
May 24, 2024: Zakaria's Washington Post column argued it was "not a stretch" to imagine Netanyahu eventually supporting a two-state solution under the right diplomatic conditions, while noting that Israeli public opinion had swung hard against that outcome since October 7,.
June 17, 2025: Zakaria's Washington Post column argued that "only recognition of Palestine can keep the two-state solution alive," positioning formal recognition of a Palestinian state as necessary to prevent the two-state framework from collapsing.
July 20, 2025: On Fareed Zakaria GPS, Zakaria interviewed Israeli-born, IDF-veteran genocide scholar Omer Bartov, who argued Israel's war in Gaza meets the legal definition of genocide. Zakaria framed the segment by noting that Israel "was founded in the wake of the Holocaust" and that one of the world's foremost Holocaust scholars was now making this charge, a segment he also shared on X.
October 12, 2025: After the Gaza ceasefire and hostage-release deal, Zakaria's CNN segment credited President Trump's transactional diplomacy for the breakthrough and analyzed what the truce revealed about a changing Middle East.
July 26, 2026: Zakaria remained active and on-air, hosting a Fareed Zakaria GPS episode featuring Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, confirming he continues in his CNN and Washington Post roles into 2026 as part of his broader global-affairs coverage.
Who Fareed Zakaria is and why this comes up
Fareed Zakaria, born in 1964 in Mumbai, India, holds a Ph.D. in government from Harvard and has spent decades as one of America's most prominent foreign-affairs commentators. He was raised in a Konkani Muslim family (his father, Rafiq Zakaria, was an Islamic scholar and Indian National Congress politician) but describes himself as secular and non-practicing, with no Jewish ancestry or personal identity connection to Israel. There is no public record of him visiting Israel for reporting or events, donating to Israeli or pro-Israel causes, or making personal statements of support for the Israeli state as a matter of identity or advocacy. His entire public record on the subject is that of an analyst weighing strategic and moral trade-offs from an editorial distance, not an advocate for either side. He supports a two-state solution, has criticized specific Israeli policies, and has also criticized how some American politicians and commentators frame anti-Israel arguments, consistently rejecting antisemitism and anti-Zionism when they surface in protest movements.
The bottom line
Fareed Zakaria does not present as a supporter of Israel. He is a non-Jewish, secular-Muslim-raised journalist whose extensive commentary on Israel is analytical and frequently critical of Israeli government policy, including his two-state solution advocacy, his criticism of settlement and Gaza-war conduct, and his airing of a 2025 genocide argument on his own show. He separately and consistently condemns antisemitism and anti-Zionism when protest movements cross that line. There is no evidence in the public record of donations, event appearances, or personal ties to Israel.
Wear your own answer
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Last updated August 2026. We update these profiles as the record changes.
