Polygraph

Over half a million Jews left America to go to Israel to vote against Benjamin Netanyahu.

Posted by REAL AF with Andy Frisella, Checked

Polygraph verdictFalse
Sources
4 contradict3 support3 context
Said
1 time·
Confidence
80%
REAL AF with Andy FrisellaOct 28, 2026
View on Podcast ↗
Video frame
78 claimsThe check →

The claim overstates the number of Americans who flew to Israel to vote by roughly fifteen times.

A guest makes this claim. Listeners heard it, so it counts against the post, and on the guest's own record.

This claim is about the present, so it is judged as of the day it was checked.

What was said

… He needs people saying, "It's the fucking Jews," so that he can come on and be like, "They hate us. What do you want me to do? Protecting us." Exactly. Okay, so with that in mind, I just told you they have the highest, largest voter turnout. Over half a million Jews just left America just to go there to vote against him. What? How likely would it be if you did steal the election, you have a massive physical concentration of Jewish people in that vicinity, and then, oh, here comes a big, you know, bomb that gets dropped, killed one. It's completely hot. I don't know. …
REAL AF with Andy Frisella · · from the transcriptPost →

What we found

Contradicts. The AID Coalition estimate, reported by AP and the Washington Post, is that as many as 67,000 Israelis are returning to vote, and about half of them are flying in from the United States. That implies roughly 33,000-35,000 Americans, not over half a million.[1][2]

Contradicts. The roughly 500,000 figure cited by BBC and the New York Post is the estimated number of Israelis with American passports who can vote in both countries' elections, and it describes residents of Israel rather than people travelling to vote.[3][4]

Supports. Some Americans did fly to Israel specifically to vote, and commentators and experts suggested most were motivated by opposition to Netanyahu, so the direction of the claim is partly right.[5][6][7]

Context. Other estimates range from about 50,000 to 80,000 total returnees across all countries, with the US share put at up to 50,000, so no source reports anything close to half a million travelling to vote.[8][9][10]

Sources

10 sources: 1 fact-checker, 1 tier 2, 1 tier 1, 1 tier 3, 6 not rated

  1. 1Tens of thousands of Israelis living abroad expected to fly ...apnews.com · fact-checker · cited for: contradicts
  2. 2Tens of thousands of Israelis living abroad are expected to ...washingtonpost.com · tier 2 · cited for: contradicts
  3. 3Israelis and Americans are both voting - with global consequencesbbc.co.uk · tier 1 · cited for: contradicts
  4. 4American Jews who fled to Israel over antisemitism could ...nypost.com · tier 3 · cited for: contradicts
  5. 5At least 67,000 Israelis fly home to vote — and punish Netanyahubiz.heraldcorp.com · not rated · cited for: supports
  6. 6Three takeaways from a tight Israeli election with no clear outcomereligionnews.com · not rated · cited for: supports
  7. 7Why Israelis Are Flying From the US to Vote in Netanyahu's ...newsweek.com · not rated · cited for: supports
  8. 8Election anxiety drives some Israelis to consider exit − for goodrmb.reuters.com · not rated · cited for: context
  9. 9Israel election, Netanyahu's future has some Israelis ...usatoday.com · not rated · cited for: context
  10. 10Israeli expats spend thousands to return to Israel to vote in pivotal election - The Boston Globebostonglobe.com · not rated · cited for: context

Where this claim was made

Said in 1 published post

How Polygraph checks a claim

Our Weekly Newsletter

The Readout

The week's most-shared posts, checked. What they claimed, how they argued, and what held up.

Unsubscribe any time. See our privacy policy.