Daily Kickoff
Good Thursday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we report from the gathering calling for the release of the hostages outside the Qatari Embassy in Washington, and interview Michigan congressional candidate Curtis Hertel, who is running to succeed Rep. Elissa Slotkin. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: George Latimer, Idan Amedi and Jon Stewart.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for the U.S. to pressure Qatar to convince Hamas to release the 136 hostages in Gaza, in remarks heard in an audio recording of a meeting with hostages’ families. But the comments may not be a turning point in Israel’s approach to Doha, Jewish Insider’s senior political correspondent Lahav Harkov reports.
“I will use any factor for now that can help me bring [the hostages] home, but I have no illusions about them,” Netanyahu said in reference to Qatar, which he called “problematic” in the recording leaked to Israel’s Channel 12.
Netanyahu said he was “very angry” at the Biden administration for renewing its military base agreement with Qatar. “Why didn’t they say, ‘I ask that you bring back our hostages’? That’s pressure! Qatar has leverage on Hamas; first of all, pressure Qatar.”
The U.S.’ military base agreement with Qatar was finalized well before Oct. 7, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), who has been taking a hard line toward Qatar, told JI.
In response to the recordings, Qatar’s Foreign Ministry spokespersonwarned yesterday that criticizing the country could be bad for the hostages. Netanyahu is “undermining the mediation process for reasons that appear to serve his political career instead of prioritizing saving the lives of innocents, including Israeli hostages,” the spokesperson said.
That was the second time in as many days that Qatar threatened the hostages in response to negative press coverage; the Qatari Embassy in Washington said this week that a Fox News report alleging that Doha spied on Sens. Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) could “potentially affect the sensitive and ongoing efforts to bring hostages back to their families.”
Yet, for its part, Israel has done very little to pressure Qatar publicly, with mostly lower-level ministers criticizing the Gulf state, while Netanyahu and other senior cabinet members avoid public criticism when talking about Qatar. After Doha’s criticism of Netanyahu, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said that Qatar is “largely responsible for the massacre committed by Hamas,” and that “the West can and should exert much stronger levers on [Qatar] and bring about the release of the hostages.”
The founder of the Middle East Media Research Institute, Col. (res.) Yigal Carmon, was skeptical that this marks a turning point for Netanyahu, pointing out that the prime minister only criticized Qatar in comments that were not meant to be publicized. Netanyahu’s remark in the leaked recording that Qatar is “like the U.N., like the Red Cross, only more problematic,” implies that he views Qatar — “Hamas’ lifeline,” as Carmon called them — as neutral and not an enemy, said Carmon.
“Netanyahu criticizes Qatar for funding Hamas, but they couldn’t have done it without his help,” Carmon told JI, pointing out that Netanyahu was the prime minister who allowed Qatar to funnel billions of dollars into Gaza. Carmon called this “criminal collaboration” on Netanyahu’s part and the result of “degenerate narcissism, thinking that he can outmaneuver everyone.”
Major Jewish organizations in the United States, which mostly take their cues from Jerusalem on matters of Israeli security, have also kept mostly mum on the matter of Qatar. The same is true for the Hostages Families’ Forum, which has been critical of Netanyahu.
But in a break from the silence, the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington on Wednesday organized the first major pressure campaign towards Qatar at the Qatari Embassy — they avoided calling it a protest — where attendees called on the kingdom to place more pressure on Hamas. (JI’s Capitol Hill reporter Marc Rod has more coverage of the event below.)
In a Hostage Families’ Forum “exclusive expert briefing” for Jewish community officials in Washington, D.C., last week, Roger Carstens, the special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, said the Qataris are “doing all that we are asking,” according to two attendees. One of the attendees told JI that Carstens’ statement means the U.S. has not asked Qatar to throw Hamas leaders out of Doha or stop funding the terrorist organization as long as it doesn’t release hostages.
Mickey Bergman, the head of the Richardson Center, who has been advising hostages’ relatives, did not disclose in the briefing that he receives major funding from Qatar. Bergman said that while pressure on Qatar would mean making them choose between Hamas and the U.S., realistically, the only way to get the hostages out fast is for Israel to give in to Hamas’ demands, which include ending the war and releasing all Palestinian terrorists from prison, according to the attendees.
Former Middle East envoy Dennis Ross, however, told attendees that he does not think Qatar can be both a major non-NATO U.S. ally and host Hamas, and that given the relationship Qatar has with Hamas, one hostage deal in 104 days hardly demonstrates the benefits of that relationship. He said that pressure on Qatar works, and brought about the major hostage release in November. “Maybe [Hamas] should understand that Qatar will break relations with Hamas if they don’t prove it,” Ross said, referring to Hamas releasing the hostages. “I would like to see Qatar exercise more of its pressure on Hamas.”
pressuring qatar
Jewish Washingtonians gather at Qatari Embassy to push for hostage release

On a gray, chilly morning on the edge of Washington D.C.’s Georgetown neighborhood, around 200 members of the D.C.-area Jewish community, toting U.S. and Israeli flags, the now-familiar hostage posters and a few handmade signs, gathered outside the Qatari Embassy to push for the release of the hostages being held by Hamas, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Striking a balance: Interspersed with vigorous chants of “bring them home,” speakers, including Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) and Glenn Ivey (D-MD), Virginia Democratic congressional candidate Eileen Filler-Corn and former Cuba hostage Alan Gross urged Qatar to apply more pressure on Hamas to release the remaining hostages — while also expressing gratitude for the role Qatar played in the initial round of hostage releases.
First of its kind: The event, organized by the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington was the first major public push by the organized U.S. Jewish community targeting Qatar, but organizers were careful not to describe it as a “protest,” “rally” or “demonstration.” The event’s tone — most speakers both offering thanks to Qatar and calling for more pressure on Hamas — is reflective of the cautious approach that many U.S. Jewish communal organizations have taken toward the Qatari government.
Careful wording: “We purposely chose the word gathering… This is an event to speak to the Qataris, to ask them to maximize their leverage over Hamas, and to use it to strongly pressure Hamas to bring as many hostages home as possible,” Ron Halber, executive director of the JCRC, told JI ahead of the event. “We’re there to thank the Qataris and at the same time to press them to push Hamas.”
Round two: House Education and Workforce Committee Chair Virginia Foxx (R-NC) sent a letter to the University of Pennsylvania’s leadership requesting a host of documents relating to antisemitism on Penn’s campus. The letter outlines and requests documents relating to incidents both before and in the wake of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, including the Palestine Writes festival in September. Foxx gave Penn a Feb. 7 deadline to respond to the request. It’s the committee’s second such request as part of its investigation on campus antisemitism; Harvard submitted documents earlier this week.