Does Jordan Peterson Support Israel?

David Svetsky Feb 26, 2025 Updated Aug 06, 2026 4 min read

Short answer: Yes. Jordan Peterson, the Canadian clinical psychologist, has been publicly and consistently supportive of Israel since at least 2022. He lectured in Jerusalem calling Israel a "shining light on a hill," reacted to the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack with a widely covered tweet backing Prime Minister Netanyahu, and has hosted senior Israeli and pro-Israel American officials on his podcast. He is not Jewish; he is a practicing Christian, and his support is framed in religious and civilizational terms rather than personal identity. As of August 2026.

What Jordan Peterson has actually said and done

September 2022: Peterson interviewed Israel's then-ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer (later Minister for Strategic Affairs), on his podcast in an episode titled "Arabs vs Jews? Maybe Not," discussing Israel's history and standing, according to The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast.

October 6, 2022: Peterson made his first visit to Israel, giving a lecture titled "The Future of Freedom" in Jerusalem to about 3,000 people, hosted by the Tikvah Fund. He closed by telling the audience the Jewish people carry a "tremendous moral responsibility," calling Israel a "little, tiny people" on whom "the fate of the world depends," and urging them to be a "shining light on a hill," as reported by the Times of Israel.

October 11, 2022: Peterson toured the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Temple Mount compound in Jerusalem's Old City with Ben Shapiro for a Daily Wire documentary. Critics, including some Muslim commentators, said the group "stormed" the site; Peterson said he had been invited to film there and denied wrongdoing. This is a genuinely disputed episode, and it is documented on both sides: by the Jerusalem Post and by Middle East Monitor.

October 7, 2023: On the day of the Hamas attack on Israel, Peterson posted on X, "Give 'em hell @netanyahu... Enough is enough," a message widely read as public backing for Israel's military response and one that drew significant online criticism from pro-Palestinian commentators. The post itself is on his account, X (@jordanbpeterson), with the reaction covered by outlets including Morocco World News.

July 2022: In his Daily Wire "Message to Muslims" video, Peterson argued Iran was "feeding Hamas" partly out of desperation because peace via the Abraham Accords was close to materializing, and that Iran's leadership wanted to frame the conflict as "Islam against Jews" to turn the Arab world against the Accords, according to an analysis piece in The New Arab.

October 31, 2023: Peterson revisited his "give 'em hell" tweet in an on-camera conversation with Piers Morgan, reflecting on the reaction to it rather than retracting the underlying sentiment, as summarized by Scoop Empire.

Who is Jordan Peterson, and why does his support look the way it does

Jordan Peterson is a Canadian clinical psychologist, University of Toronto professor emeritus, and author of books including 12 Rules for Life, Beyond Order, and We Who Wrestle with God. He built a public following through lectures and commentary on psychology, mythology, and culture. He is a practicing Christian, not Jewish, and his pro-Israel statements are consistently framed through a religious and civilizational lens, Israel as biblically and morally significant to Western civilization, rather than through personal Jewish heritage or identity. There is no evidence in the public record of Jewish ancestry or conversion.

His Israel-related record has two distinct sides, both well documented: warm, high-profile engagement with Israeli officials and institutions (the Tikvah Fund lecture, the podcast conversation with Ron Dermer, and, per public podcast listings, an episode with former US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman), and the October 2022 Al-Aqsa/Temple Mount visit with Ben Shapiro, a genuinely controversial episode that critics called provocative even though Peterson denies wrongdoing. No boycott participation, refusal, or Israel-specific donation activity by Peterson turned up in the public record through August 2026. In 2025 to 2026 Peterson went through a serious, publicly disclosed health crisis, including pneumonia, sepsis, and complications from chronic inflammatory response syndrome, which paused his usual podcasting and touring. No new Israel-specific public statements from that recovery period were found, which should be read as an absence of evidence rather than a change in position.

The bottom line

Jordan Peterson is alive and has a consistent, multi-year public record of pro-Israel statements and appearances, from his 2022 Jerusalem lecture and podcast interviews with Israeli officials to his October 7, 2023 tweet backing Netanyahu. His support is religiously and civilizationally framed rather than rooted in Jewish identity, since he is Christian, and it sits alongside one genuinely controversial episode, the Al-Aqsa/Temple Mount visit, that a full accounting should not omit.