Does Jesse Watters Support Israel?

Zach Mandel Feb 26, 2025 4 min read

Short answer: As of July 2026, Jesse Watters, the Fox News host of "Jesse Watters Primetime" and a co-host of "The Five," is a vocal supporter of Israel's security and has condemned Hamas in strong terms since the October 7, 2023 attack. At the same time, several of his on-air remarks about Palestinians and Arab Americans have drawn public accusations of racist and dehumanizing rhetoric, including from a fellow journalist who called his language "genocidal." He is not Jewish; multiple biographical profiles describe him as raised Catholic, though no major outlet has published a definitive statement from Watters himself on his faith.

What Jesse Watters has actually said and done

October 9, 2023: Two days after the Hamas attack, Watters called it "the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust" and said Iran had sponsored the attack as a proxy move against the Abraham Accords, arguing Hamas had no justification, according to Fox News.
November 1, 2023: On air, Watters said that if an Arab American tore down posters of Jewish or American hostages held in Gaza, "someone is going to get punched in the face." The White House press office, through spokesperson Andrew Bates, said Fox News "owes an apology to every single viewer for this sickening attack on the rights and dignity of their fellow Americans" and called the remarks "hateful lies," as reported by TheWrap and Poynter.
February 2025: On "The Five," Watters said Palestinians are "demographically... a threat" to Israel, citing a comparison of average birth rates (5.5 versus 2.5). Those cited figures were themselves inaccurate: actual 2022 fertility-rate data put the numbers closer to roughly 3.4 for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza versus 2.89 for Israel, per demographic sources including Statista and Macrotrends. The remark drew sharp criticism, including from former MSNBC anchor Mehdi Hasan, who wrote on X that "there is no one, no one, on American television who speaks in a more racist and genocidal way about Palestinians than Jesse Watters" and called the segment "Nazi-level shit," per Media Matters for America and HuffPost.
As of July 2026: No reporting has surfaced of Watters visiting Israel, donating to Israeli causes, or appearing at pro-Israel organizational events such as AIPAC or the Republican Jewish Coalition. His Wikipedia biography and other mainstream profiles do not address his religious background directly.
As of July 2026: Several secondary biography and entertainment sites, including Beliefnet, describe Watters as raised Catholic in Philadelphia. No major outlet such as the Associated Press or the New York Times has independently confirmed this, and Watters is not Jewish by any account found.

Is Jesse Watters Jewish, and how does his commentary fit the bigger picture?

People searching this question are often trying to sort out two separate things: Watters's personal background, and where his on-air commentary lands on Israel. On background, the record is thin but consistent. Nothing in his Fox News biography, Wikipedia entry, or mainstream press coverage indicates Jewish heritage. The Catholic-upbringing detail circulates on secondary celebrity-bio sites rather than top-tier news outlets, so it should be read as a widely repeated but not fully verified biographical claim, not a confirmed fact.

On commentary, Watters's framing since October 7, 2023 has consistently centered Jewish and Israeli victims and treated Hamas as illegitimate, which is broadly in line with the conservative, pro-Israel-alliance posture common across Fox News programming. That is distinct, though, from his rhetoric about Palestinians and Arab Americans. The November 2023 comment implying violence against Arab Americans who removed hostage posters drew a direct, on-record rebuke from the White House press office, not a vague partisan complaint. The February 2025 comment framing Palestinian birthrates as a demographic threat, built on figures that were themselves wrong, drew equally specific criticism from named commentators using terms like "racist," "genocidal," and "Nazi-level." It is worth being precise here: those controversies are about how Watters talks about Palestinians and Arab Americans, not about any documented action on behalf of Israel itself. No visit, donation, or appearance at a pro-Israel organization turned up in the available record.

The bottom line

Jesse Watters is not Jewish, and is commonly described, though not authoritatively confirmed, as Catholic. There is no evidence in the public record of a personal or financial connection to Israel: no visit, no donation, no appearance at a pro-Israel event. His on-air commentary has repeatedly condemned Hamas and centered Jewish and Israeli victims since October 7, 2023, which reads as pro-Israel in intent. His specific language about Palestinians and Arab Americans, however, has drawn on-record criticism from the White House and pointed accusations of racist and dehumanizing rhetoric from named journalists, a stronger characterization than softer summaries suggest.

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Last updated July 2026. We update these profiles as the record changes.