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White House blasts Fox News after host Mark Levin questions Wolf Blitzer’s Holocaust bona fides
WASHINGTON (JTA) — For the second time this year, the White House aimed fire at a Fox News Channel host for casting doubt on remembrance of the Holocaust.
On his Westwood One radio show on Wednesday, Fox News host Mark Levin went after CNN personalities for their questions about how careful Israel was in mitigating civilian casualties. CNN’s Wolf Blitzer had pressed Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the U.S. House of Representatives minority leader and a New York Democrat, for his opinion of Israel’s strike on a Hamas target in Jabaliya refugee camp.
“We don’t yet know how many civilians were killed in today’s strike on that refugee camp, but is taking out one Hamas leader or maybe two Hamas leaders who may have been there worth the deaths of so many civilians?” asked Blitzer.
Levin ridiculed the question as betraying ignorance of the Holocaust.
“Wolf Blitzer, as I understand it, his parents weren’t victims in one way or another of the Holocaust,” Levin said. “But certainly his family comes out of that background — but you wouldn’t know it.” Blitzer documented his parents’ survival of Auschwitz in a recent documentary.
Andrew Bates, a White House spokesman, took aim at Levin in an unsolicited comment emailed Friday evening to reporters. Unsolicited attacks on the media have been rare for the Biden administration.
“Not only is Fox News aligning with those who fan the flames of hate – Fox is paying their salaries,” said Bates, who in July blasted another Fox Host, Greg Gutfeld, for saying that being “useful” helped Jewish survivors make it through the Holocaust. “Lying to insult the pain that families suffered in the Holocaust has absolutely no place in America.”
Levin also said in his radio show, which is not affiliated with Fox News, “CNN is filled with a lot of self-hating Jews, in my opinion.” The comments followed ones he made the previous week about another CNN host, Jake Tapper, who, like Blitzer, is unabashed in his Jewish expression. He also called Tapper a “self-hating Jew” and “propagandist for the enemy.” (Media Matters, a liberal watchdog, first distributed the audio of Levin’s remarks.)
CNN accused Levin, who is Jewish, of “antisemitic” rhetoric.
“Mark Levin’s comments about Wolf Blitzer and Jake Tapper were wildly uninformed, inappropriate and shameful,” a spokeswoman said in an email. “Wolf is the child of Holocaust survivors and all four of his grandparents were murdered during the Holocaust, a fact that Wolf has personally reported on through a special documentary, trips to Auschwitz, written reflections, and decades of public speaking on Holocaust education and awareness. Levin’s antisemitic rhetoric is dangerous, offensive and should be universally denounced.”
Asked for a response, a Fox spokeswoman, Irene Briganti emailed the Jewish Telegraphic Agency a transcript of a subsequent Levin broadcast in which he addressed the criticism.
In it, Levin appears to acknowledge that he spread a falsehood about Blitzer and suggests that he did so unintentionally.
“I barely remember saying it,” Levin said. “But obviously, why would I say his parents ‘weren’t, weren’t’ in one way or another victims in the Holocaust? How can that even be logical? Why would I say somebody’s parents were or were not victims of the Holocaust? If they weren’t victims of the Holocaust, why would I say his parents weren’t victims of the Holocaust? Or why would I intentionally say that I didn’t? I didn’t.”
Levin said he’s “since looked it up” and that Blitzer’s parents were, indeed, Holocaust survivors, “a horrible, horrible, thing,” but that if anything that proves his argument that he — Levin — is the better supporter of Israel.
“In that entire clip, Mr. Producer, who’s defending Israel? Me,” Levin said. “In that entire clip who’s defending the IDF, taking out the Islamo-Nazi commander? Is it Wolf Blitzer? No, he’s questioning it. It’s me. I am.”
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The post White House blasts Fox News after host Mark Levin questions Wolf Blitzer’s Holocaust bona fides appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.