Short answer: Seymour Hersh is a Jewish American investigative journalist who has said plainly, on the record, that he is not anti-Israel and has close friends there whom he visits regularly. At the same time, his published work spans more than three decades of sharp criticism of specific Israeli government policies, most notably its undeclared nuclear arsenal and, more recently, its conduct of the Gaza war. He is not a donor or public advocate for pro-Israel causes; his record is that of a critic who separates the country from its government's decisions. As of August 2026.
What Seymour Hersh has actually said and done
1991: Hersh published "The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy" (Wikipedia / Random House), a book arguing that Israel secretly developed nuclear weapons with tacit American cooperation. The book also contained contested claims, including that Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir shared intelligence with the Soviet Union and that media magnate Robert Maxwell worked for Mossad, and it drew legal pushback at the time.
February 18, 2008: In an Al Jazeera interview, Hersh said, "I'm Jewish and I'm not anti-Semitic and I'm not anti-Israel." In the same interview he urged American Jews to read Israeli papers like Haaretz to see the "vibrant criticism of the Israeli government" that already exists inside Israel itself.
Early 2009 (ahead of a March 10, 2009 talk at the University of Minnesota): In an interview published by the American Jewish World, Hersh again rejected the "anti-Israel" label, saying, "That's crazy. I've got great friends there," and, "The Israelis are as much fun as anyone in the world." He said he visits Israel frequently.
October 25, 2023: Weeks after the October 7 Hamas attack, Hersh reported on his Substack, picked up by TASS, that both U.S. and Israeli intelligence had warned for months of a major Hamas assault, that groups beyond Hamas's Qassam Brigades took part in the attack, and that his sources described Iran as the attack's most vital outside backer.
July 2025: On his Substack, Hersh reported that Israeli officials had presented a formal plan for Gaza's future to Israeli legislators, and that Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said the military had endorsed annexing northern Gaza "for security purposes," as part of Hersh's continuing critical coverage of the war.
December 2025: The documentary "Cover-Up," profiling Hersh's 60-year investigative career including his exposes of the My Lai massacre and Abu Ghraib, opened in limited U.S. theaters on December 19 and began streaming on Netflix on December 26, according to Wikipedia.
January 2026: Hersh remained an active publisher on his Substack, posting new commentary such as "What Chaos Will Trump Unleash in 2026?", confirming he was alive and working as of this date.
Context: a critic of policy, not of Israel's existence
Seymour Hersh was born April 8, 1937, in Chicago, to Yiddish-speaking immigrant parents, his father from Lithuania and his mother from Poland. He is best known for exposing the 1968 My Lai massacre, which won him a Pulitzer Prize in 1970, and later the Abu Ghraib torture scandal. He has written about learning that the Jewish population of his father's Lithuanian birthplace, Seduva, was executed by a German unit with local collaborators in 1941.
On Israel specifically, Hersh has consistently drawn a line between the state and its government's policies. In on-the-record interviews he has explicitly rejected the "anti-Israel" label, identified himself as Jewish, said he has close friends in Israel, and described visiting the country regularly. At the same time, his journalism for more than three decades has targeted specific Israeli policies: The Samson Option argued Israel built a secret nuclear arsenal with quiet U.S. cooperation, and his Substack reporting on the Gaza war from 2023 through 2025 has been sharply critical of the campaign's conduct, sourcing claims about intelligence failures ahead of October 7, the scale of destruction in Gaza, and West Bank annexation plans. Notably, his reporting on Iran's role in backing the October 7 attack cuts against a narrative that would place responsibility on Israel alone.
There is no record of Hersh making donations to Israel-related causes, appearing at pro-Israel events, or endorsing a boycott of Israel. His public activity on the subject is journalism and commentary, not organizational activism on either side of the issue.
The bottom line
Seymour Hersh is not an advocate for Israel, and he has spent decades publishing sharply critical investigative reporting on specific Israeli government policies, from its undisclosed nuclear program to its conduct in the Gaza war. But he has also explicitly, on the record, rejected the label "anti-Israel," identified as Jewish, said he has close friends in Israel, and said he visits the country regularly. He is best described as a Jewish critic of Israeli government policy, not an opponent of Israel's existence, and not someone who has taken pro-Israel public actions such as donations, events, or advocacy either.
Wear where you stand
Whatever your read on any given commentator, plenty of people want a simple, unambiguous way to show where they stand on Israel. If that's you, our Support Israel collection carries pieces built for exactly that, including the I Stand With Israel bracelet, a small, everyday way to say it without saying a word.
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Last updated August 2026. We update these profiles as the record changes.
