Short answer: Warren Buffett is a longtime, publicly demonstrated supporter of Israel. He made Israeli company Iscar his first-ever international acquisition (2006, expanded 2013), and between 2016 and 2018 he personally invested in and repeatedly headlined fundraising dinners for Israel Bonds, together helping raise hundreds of millions of dollars. He has called Israel "one of the most remarkable countries in the world." He is not Jewish himself (he is agnostic) but has deep, decades-long ties to Omaha's Jewish community through friendships, business partners, and philanthropy. We found no confirmed Israel Bonds event or new Israel-related commitment from Buffett in 2024, 2025, or 2026; his most recent confirmed event was in June 2018.
What Warren Buffett has actually said and done
- 2006: Berkshire Hathaway acquires an 80% stake in Iscar, an Israeli metal-cutting-tools maker, for about $4 billion, marking Buffett's first-ever acquisition outside the United States. He would later call it one of the most important deals Berkshire ever made, as Forbes reported.
- 2013: Berkshire buys the remaining 20% of Iscar for about $2.05 billion, taking full ownership. Iscar becomes one of Berkshire's largest non-insurance holdings, according to Fox Business.
- November 8, 2016: Buffett hosts an Israel Bonds event in Omaha, personally investing $5 million and helping raise $60 million. "If you are looking for brains, energy and dynamism in the Middle East, Israel is the only place you need to go," he said, adding, "I believe Israel is going to be around forever," per the Times of Israel.
- June 13, 2017: Buffett hosts additional private Israel Bonds gatherings in New York, helping facilitate roughly $200 million in bond investments, according to Israel Bonds CEO Israel Maimon, as reported by the Times of Israel. Israel Bonds also notes Buffett previously pledged $10 million to Rambam Hospital in Haifa.
- June 2018: At an Israel Bonds dinner at the Fred and Pamela Buffett Cancer Center in Omaha, roughly 70 investors each buying a minimum of $1 million in bonds help raise $80 million, in what Israel Bonds describes as Buffett's third such event in 18 months. Buffett tells the crowd, "I've lived through Israel's entire 70-year history and I believe it is one of the most remarkable countries in the world," and "The United States and Israel will always be linked," according to the Times of Israel, corroborated by Israel Bonds' own account.
A note on sourcing: a widely-circulated aggregator post dated in 2026 repeats the November 2016 story almost word for word, down to the $5 million and $60 million figures. That appears to be a republish of the original 2016 wire story rather than a new event, and we found no independent 2024-2026 reporting, from Israel Bonds' own newsroom or elsewhere, of a fresh Buffett fundraising event. We are treating the 2016-2018 record as the confirmed timeline and have not included the 2026-dated repost as a distinct event.
An investor, not an activist, and a friend of Omaha's Jewish community
Buffett's support for Israel runs on two tracks rather than through politics or activism. The first is direct business investment, anchored by Iscar, which he has repeatedly called one of Berkshire's most important deals and which remains a major Berkshire holding today. The second is personal fundraising: from 2016 through 2018, Buffett both invested his own money in Israel Bonds and lent his name to draw wealthy investors to dinners in Omaha and New York, collectively helping raise hundreds of millions of dollars for Israel's government-backed bond program. As of this writing, we have not found evidence of a comparable event since 2018.
Buffett is not Jewish himself, he describes himself as agnostic, but he has a long, well-documented relationship with Omaha's Jewish business community. He acquired Nebraska Furniture Mart from Rose Blumkin and Borsheim's Jewelry, and a friendship-driven investment from Rabbi Myer Kripke later funded a large gift to the Jewish Theological Seminary. He has also made a point of joining a historically Jewish country club as a symbolic stand against discrimination. No source turned up in this research shows Buffett endorsing a boycott of Israel or supporting BDS; on the contrary, his Israel Bonds dinners function as a public, high-profile counter to boycott campaigns, since bond purchases are a direct financial commitment to the Israeli state.
One update worth noting for readers tracking Buffett's current role: he stepped down as Berkshire Hathaway CEO effective January 1, 2026, handing day-to-day leadership to Greg Abel. Buffett remains Berkshire's chairman, and this transition does not change the Iscar or Israel Bonds record above.
The bottom line
The public record substantiates that Warren Buffett supports Israel through sustained, concrete action: a $4 billion first international acquisition (Iscar) that he has called one of Berkshire's most important deals, and a 2016-2018 pattern of personally investing in and headlining Israel Bonds fundraising dinners that helped raise hundreds of millions of dollars. He has repeatedly praised Israel in public remarks, calling it "remarkable" and pointing to its "brains, energy and dynamism," and he has deep, longstanding ties to the Jewish community, though he is not Jewish himself. We found no confirmed Israel Bonds event or comparable public commitment from Buffett after June 2018, and no boycott participation or anti-Israel statement in this research.
Support Israel directly
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Last updated July 2026. We update these profiles as the record changes.
