Over the last three weeks, Qatar’s leadership has woken up to a reality it had long seemed determined to disprove: that money will only take you so far. And so Doha has fallen back on a longstanding Middle Eastern tradition of blaming Israel for its problems.

Qatar is the top foreign contributor to American universities, World Cup host, patron of the arts and donor of the new Air Force One, and the influence that comes with philanthropy led much of the world to turn a blind eye to the dark side of the Al Thani royal family’s generosity: Funding perhaps the world’s most effective propaganda arm for radical Islam, Al Jazeera, hosting the leaders of Hamas and other terrorist groups, and more. 

With a massive real estate portfolio that includes properties in London and Manhattan, its efforts to bail out White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff in 2023 and 2025, and its work with former lobbyists now in the Trump administration — such as Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel — Doha appeared to have built a winning strategy to ensure its voice was heard in the White House.

Despite public opposition from Qatar and other Gulf states, the U.S., alongside Israel, went to war with Iran. Now, Doha finds itself on the receiving end of attacks from the Islamic Republic. Tehran’s attacks on Qatari gas facilities have led to a loss of 17% of Qatar’s capacity to export liquefied natural gas and an estimated $20 billion loss of annual revenue for the next three to five years, QatarEnergy CEO Saad al-Kaabi told Reuters. 

The latest Iranian assault on Doha’s gas industry came after Israel struck the Iranian side of the South Pars gas field, shared with Qatar. In a message that appeared, at least in part, an attempt to appease Doha, President Donald Trump blamed Israel — in mild terms by Trump standards — and said he had no idea about the attack, a claim experts and former Israeli and U.S. officials have said is unlikely to be true. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a Thursday night press conference that Israel “acted alone” and will respect Trump’s request that Israel not bomb the gas field again.  

In addition, Trump threatened that if Iran attacks “a very innocent, in this case, Qatar,” the U.S. will “massively blow up the entirety of the South Pars Gas Field at an amount of strength and power that Iran has never seen or witnessed before.”

Ariel Admoni, a Qatar expert at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security (JISS), said Trump’s statement shows “great anger” in Doha “expressed through pressure on Trump and a demand to clarify that he wasn’t part of this, in order not to hurt [Qatar’s] image” of being well-connected to the administration. 

Realizing that their checkbook diplomacy is no longer enough to get what they want from the Trump administration, the Al Thanis decided to lash out at Israel rather than the country that launched the attacks on the Gulf state.

Qatar continued to triangulate with Iran. Doha expelled Iran’s military and other attaches based in Doha in response to Tehran’s “hostile approach,” but left the Iranian ambassador in place, and hours later, Admoni said, a senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps official was given a favorable interview on Al Jazeera.

Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said in a statement to the press alongside Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Thursday that “This war needs to stop immediately. The aggression needs to stop immediately. Because everyone knows who the main beneficiary of this war is, and [who is] dragging the whole region into this conflict.”

Fidan was less subtle in his remarks, adding: “It should be especially noted that the primary responsible party for this war, which has drawn our region into an unprecedented crisis, is Israel.”

Former Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al-Thani (known as HBJ) asserted in an X post that even after Iran’s assault on Qatari gas facilities, Israel is the enemy and Iran is simply misguided: “What Israel wants, unfortunately, is coming to pass … leaving us in a scene of regional war or a confrontation between the two sides of the Gulf.”

To Iran, HBJ wrote: “We have never been your enemy … What you are doing now does not deter the enemy; rather, it serves him, achieves his goals. … I previously warned of the consequences of such acts that serve only Israel alone.”

According to Admoni, HBJ is known to speak frankly and “say things that the official government can’t say … and therefore can be seen as a test balloon.”

“The fact that the message right after the attack is anger at Israel,” Admoni said, “shows how there is no desire in Qatar to make moves against Iran.”

While Qatar is beginning to “see the limitations of their strategy,” Admoni said, “in the end, they will continue to use their leverage on Trump and probably demand compensation, possibly in the form of more [missile] interceptors. They realize that Trump is one thing, but they cannot give up on the U.S. entirely and will want to ensure that when Trump leaves, they will maintain their standing in the U.S.”

Current and former Israeli and U.S. officials suggested that an Israeli strike on an Iranian gas field on Wednesday that prompted the Islamic Republic to strike Qatar was coordinated with the White House, despite President Donald Trump’s claim that the U.S. “knew nothing about this particular attack.” 

Trump made the remarks in a Truth Social post, in which he threatened that the U.S. would bomb the South Pars gas field, the Iranian portion of the larger field shared with Qatar, if Iran does not stop attacking Qatar. 

“The United States knew nothing about this particular attack, and the country of Qatar was in no way, shape or form involved with it, nor did it have any idea that it was going to happen. Unfortunately, Iran did not know this … and unjustifiably and unfairly attacked a portion of Qatar’s [liquid natural gas] facility,” the president wrote.

If “Iran unwisely decides to attack a very innocent, in this case, Qatar,” he added, the U.S., “with or without the help or consent of Israel, will massively blow up the entirety of the South Pars Gas Field at an amount of strength and power that Iran has never seen or witnessed before.”

An Israeli official told Kan News, Israel’s public broadcaster, that the attack on the South Pars gas field was coordinated with the U.S.

Dan Shapiro, the former U.S. ambassador to Israel and Pentagon official in the Biden administration, wrote on X, “Trump can post whatever he likes. But there is zero, I mean zero, chance the IDF would conduct a strike in that location without giving CENTCOM full visibility.”

“Trump knew (and approved),” Shapiro added. “Now he realizes it caused a major escalation with Iran’s (entirely unjustified) attacks on Gulf energy targets.” 

Shapiro later clarified that the Israeli strike “could not have been carried [out] without U.S. knowledge and explicit or implicit approval.” 

“It was predictable that strikes on Iranian energy facilities (by US or Israel) would lead to Iranian strikes on Gulf energy facilities,” he wrote. “There is a narrow window following the Israeli and Iranian strikes, and Trump’s Truth Social Post (untrue, but possibly useful in this context), to de-escalate away from further strikes on energy industry targets in either direction. That will still leave a very challenging situation to unwind, but [it] would be the best near-term development.”

Gilad Erdan, a former Israeli ambassador to Washington and a former member of Israel’s Security Cabinet, told Jewish Insider that it was highly likely the U.S. knew about the strike, saying that Trump did not criticize Israel in his post, and “in the same breath” as saying the U.S. was unaware, “[Trump] himself threatened to erase the [gas] field.”

Erdan noted that the South Pars gas field is “used for Iran’s domestic energy needs [and] doesn’t harm the international energy market.”

“Israel took upon itself to be at the front [of the situation] in my estimation because the field is also Qatari,” Erdan, who is also a senior fellow at the Misgav Institute for National Security, said. “Someone had to send the deterrent message about the energy field to the Iranians, that if they continue, then all options are open against them and they will be hurt badly.” (The writer is a senior fellow at the Misgav Institute and cohosts its podcast.)

Yaakov Katz, an Israeli military expert and author of While Israel Slept: How Hamas Surprised the Most Powerful Military in the Middle East, told JI that he agreed with Shapiro’s assessment. “There is no way Israel would attack such a strategic facility [without coordination] because they know it would draw the Iranians to attack the Gulf states,” he said. 

Katz pointed to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s behavior since the war with Iran began late last month as further indication that Israel was unlikely to make such a move without coordinating with the U.S.: “Why would Netanyahu who behaved so carefully all throughout the war, coordinating with Trump to not upset him so he keeps the war going … do something that would anger Trump and potentially lead him to do something brash and declare the war is over?” 

“It was coordinated, and now Trump is saying what he’s saying to distance himself, but it was done to send a message to the Iranians,” Katz added.

Also Thursday, Saudi Arabia released a statement with the foreign ministers from Azerbaijan, Jordan, the UAE, Bahrain, Pakistan, Turkey, Syria, Qatar, Kuwait, Lebanon and Egypt urging Iran to stop its attacks.

“The participants held Iran fully responsible for the losses and called on Iran to immediately and unconditionally cease its aggression and to comply with UN Security Council resolutions. The meeting also emphasized the dangers of supporting militias and destabilizing security, stressing that Iran must seriously reconsider its miscalculations,” the statement read.

If Iran continues, the foreign ministers stated, there will be “serious consequences for Iran and the security of the region, and will exact a heavy price, casting a shadow over its relations with the countries and peoples of the region, who will not stand idly by in the face of threats to their capabilities.”

Despite Qatar’s anger with Iran over the regime’s continued attacks on its territory and civilian infrastructure, experts are divided over whether the conflict will ultimately force Doha to reconsider its long-standing policy of hosting Iranian-backed Hamas officials.

Qatar has hosted Hamas’ political office and leadership, who have been reported to live lavishly and amass significant wealth, since 2012. Doha previously agreed to expel Hamas officials during hostage negotiations with Israel, but ultimately did not follow through. 

Some experts told Jewish Insider that shifting regional dynamics amid the U.S. and Israeli conflict with Iran could be sufficient to change Qatar’s calculus. In the days following the launch of the joint U.S. and Israeli military operation against Iran, Tehran has launched widespread drone and missile strikes at multiple Arab nations, including Qatar.  

Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani condemned the Iranian strikes last week as a “flagrant violation” of Doha’s sovereignty in a phone call with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and “categorically rejected” Tehran’s claims that the strikes were directed only at American interests and not intended to target the Gulf state.

Hamas — which has received significant funding, training, arms and intelligence from Tehran for decades — has not denounced the Iranian strikes, instead placing the blame on the U.S. and Israel. 

Anne Dreazen, vice president of the American Jewish Committee’s Center for a New Middle East, told JI that while Doha has raised the possibility of expelling Hamas leadership in the past, the recent attacks and the group’s lack of condemnation of the Iranian strikes signals that “the situation is a little bit different now.”

“These Iranian attacks across the Gulf have really forced many regional governments to reassess how much space they want to give the Iranian regime-aligned groups,” Dreazen said. “I think Qatar probably perceives that Hamas is siding with the Iranian regime, and so that could create some additional pressure on Qatar to act.”

Edmond Fitton-Brown, a former British diplomat and senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, echoed those sentiments, telling JI that the current conflict between the U.S. and Israel and Iran could challenge Qatar’s long-standing balancing act between Islamist movements and Western allies.

“Before the current Iran war, it [Qatar] was pursuing a business model that had it as international mediator, media superpower, host of a U.S. military base and sponsor of the Muslim Brotherhood’s global ambitions,” Fitton-Brown told JI. “It was a tightrope act, reliant on neither Iran objecting to the U.S. military base nor the U.S. objecting to the Muslim Brotherhood angle.”

However, Fitton-Brown said “the extent of the betrayal in the face of Iranian military aggression is on a different level from previous issues. “The comment made by Qatar about ‘everything being ruined’ strikes me as an acknowledgement that a return to the status quo ante is unlikely,” he added.

Fitton-Brown said that Qatar “looks unlikely to offer a stable haven” for Hamas leadership, adding that the group could find itself “sandwiched between U.S. allies on both sides of the Gulf.” 

Meanwhile, other experts and former White House officials remained more skeptical that current hostilities would push Qatar to finally expel Hamas.

“I will believe it when I see it,” Steven Cook, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, told JI.  Cook noted that while the “Qataris are angry about Iranian strikes on their territory,” it would likely not change the dynamics of their relationship with Hamas. He added that “hosting Hamas has become an instrument of Qatar’s regional power and global influence.

“Qatar has been playing both sides for decades — supporting Islamist groups including terrorist groups like Hamas, while housing the Al-Udeid base and spending billions in the U.S. to buy political protection,” Elliott Abrams, the former U.S. special representative for Iran during the first Trump administration, said. 

Abrams said it is “possible that this war has awakened them to the inherent contradictions in this game, where they protect Hamas — but Hamas doesn’t side with them,” however, he also expressed skepticism that such a move would ultimately be carried out.

Abrams said Qatar is “too used” to their current posture of playing both sides, adding that Doha receives “too many benefits from it.”

Richard Goldberg, a former Trump administration official, also said he will “believe it when I see it.” He noted that Qatar “appears to have intentionally shut down their liquified natural gas  exports and hyped the market … as a favor to Tehran and an attempt to pressure President Trump into backing down.” 

Earlier this month, Qatar halted liquefied natural gas production — which accounts for roughly 20% of global supply — after Iranian drone attacks targeted key operating facilities and infrastructure.

If the conflict does push Qatar to expel Hamas leaders, experts said Turkey could serve as a potential refuge.

“Turkey is the obvious refuge for Hamas: a powerful and self-confident Sunni Islamist state that also functions as the headquarters in the region for the International Organization of the Muslim Brotherhood,” Fitton-Brown added. “The Hamas leaders may move there soon, or may wait until the U.S.-Israel-Iran outcome is clear.”

“It would not be the end of Hamas” if they were expelled from Doha, Dreazen said. “Hamas has extensive operational infrastructure still in Gaza, and it has networks throughout several countries, Turkey being one of them. In terms of Hamas’ ability to carry out operations in Gaza, I think the impact would actually probably be limited.”

Major Gulf powers are coming together in rare lockstep amid Iran’s strikes around the region, with the United Arab Emirates closing its embassy in Iran and the Gulf Cooperation Council declaring it retains the right to respond.

After the U.S. and Israel launched a major operation against Iran on Saturday, the regime struck sites in at least nine countries around the Middle East, including Israel, Jordan, Syria and every member of the Gulf Cooperation Council — Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Despite claiming it is aiming at U.S. military assets in the region, Iran has struck widely at civilian infrastructure, including hotels, residential neighborhoods and airports in the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait and Iraq. At least 12 civilians were killed in Israel over the weekend, along with three U.S. servicemembers.

On Saturday, the first day of the operation, UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed spoke by phone with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to discuss Iran’s aggression and their response, a significant development and sign of the seriousness of the issue amid a regional rift between the two major powers.

The UAE has taken the brunt of much of Iran’s malign activity — its Ministry of Defense said Sunday that the country had been targeted by 165 ballistic missiles, two cruise missiles and 541 drones from Iran. Three civilians were killed and 58 injured in the barrage. 

Shortly after, Abu Dhabi announced the closure of its embassy in Tehran and the withdrawal of its entire diplomatic mission, citing Iran’s “hostile attacks against civilian sites … in a serious and irresponsible escalation [that] constitute a flagrant violation of national sovereignty.” The country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also summoned the Iranian ambassador to the UAE and “delivered a strongly worded note of protest” about Iran’s “terrorist attacks and assault.”

Also on Sunday, the ministerial council of the GCC held a meeting over video conference and issued a statement strongly condemning Iran’s attacks and affirming the countries’ “legal right to respond.” 

“The Council also expressed full solidarity among the GCC countries and their unified stance in confronting these attacks, stressing that the security of GCC member states is indivisible, and that any attack against any member state constitutes a direct attack against all GCC countries,” the statement went on. The countries “will take all necessary measures to defend their security and stability and to protect their territories, citizens, and residents, including the option of responding to the aggression,” they pledged.

The U.S. also joined the GCC in another statement Sunday, saying that Iran’s “targeting of civilians and of countries not engaged in hostilities is reckless and destabilizing behavior.”

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) warned on Thursday that the U.S. needs to continue to monitor the “shifting loyalties” of Saudi Arabia, amid concerns that Riyadh is pivoting away from its traditional allies and toward Islamist actors. 

The Texas senator, who serves on the Senate intelligence Committee and foreign relations committees, told Jewish Insider that while he supports the Trump administration working to add Saudi Arabia to the Abraham Accords, the U.S. should be cognizant of “shifting loyalties and alliances there.”

“The Abraham Accords were a huge and important development, and I think it’s something worth continuing to try to expand and encourage, but I think we have to go in with our eyes open and realize there’s a lot of shifting and maybe even divided loyalties occurring in this region,” Cornyn told JI. 

“Qatar has been problematic for all sorts of reasons that we all know, playing both ends against the middle, and I think Saudi Arabia is probably looking to figure out how to gain advantage, but my hope would be that we continue to put pressure on Iran and its proxies, which we’ve done,” he continued.

Talking to JI a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s White House sitdown with President Donald Trump that largely focused on Iran, Cornyn said that he was skeptical of the regime’s ability to conduct diplomacy with the U.S. or honor the terms of any agreement. 

“I think diplomacy is destined to fail because they’re not going to live up to one sentence, one word of any negotiated agreement, so they can be depended on to cheat. They are determined to destroy Israel and start a war in the Middle East. I know the president is taking it very seriously,” the GOP senator said. “I think the president is preserving all of his options, but again, how do you negotiate with somebody who cheats and who will not abide by any part of any negotiated agreement?”

“I don’t think it necessarily hurts at least to suggest that there may be some negotiations that could occur, but again, I don’t expect Iran to stand behind any negotiated outcome. I think given their commitment to the destruction of Israel, and obviously they are an ideological movement, a theocracy,” he added. “Negotiating with somebody like that is asking them to change who they are, and that will never happen.”

Despite this, Cornyn argued that it was important for the U.S. to “acknowledge that any military action against the regime in Iran would likely spill over to other places.”

Sen. Ted Budd (R-NC) called on Qatar to extradite Hamas operative Khaled Mashaal to the U.S., telling Jewish Insider on Wednesday that the leader has the “blood of Americans on his hands.”

Mashaal, who is under U.S. indictment on terrorism-related charges, appeared this past weekend at the Al Jazeera Forum in Doha, where he rejected the U.N. Security Council-backed plan for Gaza — a move that could further complicate U.S. efforts to advance Phase 2 of President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace initiative.

“[Mashaal] is responsible for plotting the brutal massacre of Americans and Israelis on Oct. 7, 2023,” said Budd. “He should absolutely be extradited to the U.S. to face justice for his appalling crimes, not walking free to make public appearances in Qatar calling for Hamas to maintain its weapons and deny foreign intervention in Gaza.”

Budd also told JI that he wants to see Qatar crack down on the content disseminated by state-backed Al Jazeera.

Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-NE) said that he wasn’t familiar with Mashaal’s case in particular, but told JI that “one would like to see the that Qataris, who are supposed to be helping us out, participate or cooperate with us when we’re trying to bring terrorists to justice.”

Also featured at the forum was Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur, who was sanctioned by the U.S. in July 2025. Appearing by video, she told forum attendees that humanity has a “common enemy” in Israel.  

Middle East policy experts have cautioned that Qatar’s hosting of prominent Hamas and U.S.-sanctioned individuals allows those figures to circumvent U.S. restrictions, while promoting anti-American sentiment. The U.S. does not currently impose any direct sanctions on Qatar. 

“The Qataris are not inherently violating U.S. sanctions by inviting these guys to speak,” said Natalie Ecanow, senior research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. But, she added, “that’s not to say that this isn’t a latent disregard for U.S. sanctions by a country that’s supposed to be an ally and a partner.”

Ecanow said it is “not the first time” the Qataris have “thrown a finger in the face of American sanctions.” She noted Doha’s significant and long-term investment in Russia’s energy sector amid the ongoing war in Ukraine, as well as Qatar’s continual hosting of Hamas officials.

“The Qataris say that they were asked by the Americans to host Hamas. I have not seen documentation to prove that,” said Ecanow. “Hamas leaders have been living there for over a decade, and they amass multi-billion dollar fortunes.” 

Edmund Fitton-Brown, a former British diplomat and senior fellow at FDD, called the forum in Doha a “convention of enemies of America,” telling JI that the decision to give Hamas leaders a platform is “thoroughly obnoxious.” 

“The fact that this is happening doesn’t seem to me to be a significant evolution from what has been completely normal practice in Qatar throughout the year and during the Trump administration,” said Fitton-Brown. “How do you have a close relationship with Qatar when it evidently supports Hamas?”

Ecanow said Doha’s actions are especially troubling as a country that is supposed to be a U.S. partner. During Trump’s second term, the White House has worked to strengthen bonds with Qatar; the president visited last May and signed an executive order in September that regards “any armed attack on the territory, sovereignty, or critical infrastructure of the State of Qatar as a threat to the peace and security of the United States.” The two countries also finalized an agreement in October that allows Doha to build an air force facility in Idaho.

“These guys are supposed to be our allies,” said Ecanow. “It’s not just some random country that’s disrespecting U.S. sanctions. It’s a major non-NATO ally. It hosts the largest American military base in the region and invests billions of dollars in the U.S. education system.” 

Michael Jacobson, a senior fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said the issue has become a “continuous source of angst and irritation in Washington circles.” He said that entities and individuals in Qatar are involved in “sanctionable activity.”

“I’m sure there’s still Qatari entities and individuals involved in trying to send money to Hamas,” said Jacobson. “It’s interesting that this administration has sanctioned many entities and pushed other governments to sanction entities tied to Hamas and its fundraising, meanwhile I don’t think there’s been any in Qatar that have been sanctioned over the last year.”

Jacobson described the issue as a “long-standing problem” and said the Trump administration’s inaction is “telling,” adding that there is “certainly stuff you could sanction if you wanted to.” However, he also argued that the U.S. relationship with Qatar does carry upside.

“It’s not like [Qatar is] doing nothing to help us,” said Jacobson. “They did serve as a liaison to Hamas, and they were able to, with the Turks, put pressure on Hamas to release the hostages and agree to a ceasefire.” 

Regardless, analysts suggested that the Trump administration is unlikely to alter its current approach to Doha.

“It would have to be something really headline-grabbing that would have the president look at it and say, ‘Hang on a minute,” said Fitton-Brown. 

“In my view, the nearest we’re going to get to [sanctions] is going to be some of the actions of the Qatari state in U.S. academia, where they’re putting money into universities with completely unacceptable conditions about not criticizing Qatar or appointing totally unsuitable faculty,” said Fitton-Brown.

He added that Qatar’s influence in education “crosses over with some of the anti‑Israel, anti‑Jewish, anti‑American manifestations on U.S. campuses that have certainly been a focus of concern from this administration.”

Even if Washington stops short of imposing new penalties, Fitton-Brown argued that the larger strategic question about Qatar’s role in the U.S. and the region remains unresolved.

“[Qatar] is not a friend,” said Fitton-Brown. “At best it’s a frenemy, and at worst it’s actually a systematic and insidious and sustained threat to America, its way of life, and its values.”

Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal addressed Qatar’s 17th Al Jazeera Forum on Sunday, at a conference that focused heavily on denigrating Israel, while featuring senior officials from Iran and Somalia.

Mashaal applauded the group’s Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel as having “brought the Palestinian cause back to the forefront of the world” and said that Palestinians “take pride” in “resistance,” a euphemism for violence against Israelis. He called to “pursue Israel and establish that it is a pariah entity that is losing its international legitimacy,” noting the “changes in the elites, universities and social networks” against Israel. 

The Hamas leader, who resides in Doha, also hailed Qatar’s “honorable role in the [Palestinian] cause.” 

Hamas is designated by the U.S., European Union and other countries as a terrorist organization, and Mashaal is wanted in the U.S. for terrorism, murder conspiracy and sanctions evasion relating to his role in planning the Oct. 7 attacks. 

Mashaal was listed on the conference’s program and list of speakers in versions of the Al Jazeera Forum website archived by independent researcher Eitan Fischberger, but as of Sunday Mashaal was no longer listed. At the same time, the Al Jazeera Forum X account extensively promoted Mashaal, with 19 posts about the terror leader’s remarks. The account featured two posts about conference keynote speaker Abbas Araghchi, the foreign minister of Iran. 

This year’s Al Jazeera Forum theme is “the Palestinian cause and the regional balance of power in the context of an emerging multipolar world.” The conference website  suggests that Israel committed a “genocide in Gaza,” and that Israel “has sought to reoccupy Gaza … or establish settlements in it.” It also argues that Israel faces strategic setbacks as a result. 

The speakers’ remarks reflected the forum’s hostile position on Israel.

Araghchi lamented a double standard toward “Israeli expansionism,” arguing that “other countries are demanded to disarm, pressured to reduce defensive capacity, punished for scientific advancement … This is not arms control, not non-proliferation, not security. It is enforcement of permanent inequality. Israel must have a military and strategic edge and others must remain vulnerable.”

Araghchi, speaking a day after he led his country’s negotiations with the U.S. in Oman on dismantling its nuclear program, said that it has an “inalienable right to enrich uranium.” 

The Iranian foreign minister also said that “Palestine is the defining question of justice … The strategic and moral compass of our region.” 

Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud floated the possibility of war with Israel in a pre-conference interview aired on Al Jazeera. He questioned why Israel would want to build a military base “in Somalia,” referring to reports of activity in Somaliland, whose sovereignty Israel recognized in December. He argued a base could only be offensive, ignoring repeated attacks by the Iran-backed Houthis, from nearby Yemen, on Israel.

“Israel is preparing or positioning itself to attack someone else,” he said. “We will fight in our capacity; we will defend ourselves, and that means that we will confront any Israeli forces coming in, because we are against that and we will never allow that.”

Another speaker was Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur who has been sanctioned by the U.S. for “infringement on the sovereignty” of Israel and the U.S. by pursuing International Criminal Court prosecutions of citizens of both countries, as Secretary of State Marco Rubio described her actions last year. 

Albanese claimed in her remarks, delivered via video, that Israel had committed a premeditated genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, and that all of humanity “now has a common enemy” in Israel.

A recently announced AI partnership between Google and Al Jazeera, the Qatar-backed media network, is raising concerns among some national security experts who say the arrangement helps to legitimize a state-controlled news organization long criticized for its sympathetic coverage of Hamas and hostility to Israel.

The agreement, announced in December, allows Al Jazeera to use Google Cloud as its main technology provider powering the network’s newly launched AI initiative, known internally as “The Core,” according to a press release. 

Though vaguely characterized, the collaboration will help Al Jazeera produce editorial content that draws on Google’s AI platforms including Gemini, a major component driving a key program called “AJ-LLM,” which the network describes as its “editorial brain.” The effort, which uses a large language model built on Al Jazeera’s archives, is among several so-called “pillars” of the media company’s AI project seeking to embed the technology in its workflow and output.

The deal represents a “major expansion” of Google’s deepening partnership with Al Jazeera that extends back to 2017, the press release says, as other leading U.S. tech companies — such as Microsoft and Cisco — have also forged closer ties to the media network.

But some experts are warning that Google’s new partnership in particular will help lend a sheen of institutional credibility to a channel that has faced accusations of spreading misinformation in service of promoting Qatar’s preferred narrative on a range of sensitive topics including the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Toby Dershowitz, a senior advisor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, an organization highly critical of Qatar, said that Al Jazeera “positions itself as an independent media outlet” even as it is “actually funded by and editorially governed by an authoritarian country,” noting the Department of Justice has required AJ+, its social media offshoot, to register as a foreign agent. “So far,” she said, “it has not obeyed the law.”

“Well-regarded Western big tech companies have a responsibility to ensure they are not colluding in Al Jazeera’s information capture, whether through the use of algorithms, AI or other methods,” she added in an interview with Jewish Insider on Wednesday. “Google’s expanding partnership with Al Jazeera is therefore deeply concerning.”

Dershowitz, who recently published an analysis investigating the Google partnership, suggested that “big tech companies like Google are being used to help amplify often compromised information and transform it into legitimate sources, allowing it to flow throughout the news ecosystem,” all “without proper labels.”

“Because it’s a black box, consumers don’t fully understand what is happening,” she explained.

Other critics have aired similar reservations about the agreement with Google, especially as Al Jazeera has emerged as a top source on such widely used AI assistants as Gemini for news summaries regarding Israel and Gaza, according to a recent analysis. 

While it is unclear if the partnership will end up influencing Gemini’s broader public output, some observers say that Al Jazeera’s plan to train the AI tool with its own archives is a red flag.

“Those archives are not neutral,” Simone Rodan-Benzaquen, a Middle East analyst and former managing director of the American Jewish Committee’s European division, wrote of Al Jazeera in a recent Substack newsletter entry. “They encode years of narrative framing: legitimization of Islamist actors, systematic delegitimization of Israel, conflict framed as oppression versus resistance.”

Google’s role in the agreement, Rodan-Benzaquen argued, “adds a crucial layer of legitimacy.” Even as it “does not endorse Al Jazeera’s editorial line,” the tech company’s “infrastructure confers neutrality.”

“A tool hosted on Google Cloud is perceived as technical, professional, objective,” she concluded.

The Doha-based network, which broadcasts in Arabic, English and other languages, has drawn criticism from U.S. lawmakers in both parties who have called it a “state-controlled propaganda arm” used “to incite violence, glorify terrorist killers as ‘martyrs’ and broadcast hateful, extremist content.” 

Al Jazeera has also faced bans from several Middle Eastern countries including Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Israel, the latter of which has accused the network of acting as a “mouthpiece of Hamas,” whose leaders have been hosted in Qatar. Last year, the Palestinian Authority temporarily suspended Al Jazeera from the West Bank over accusations it was “inciting sedition” as well as “interfering in internal Palestinian affairs.”

A spokesperson for Google referred JI to its recent press release announcing the partnership but did not respond to additional questions about the new arrangement. Al Jazeera did not return a request for comment.

Michael O’Hanlon, the director of research at the Brookings Institution’s foreign policy program, told JI on Wednesday that he had reservations about the agreement, even as he suggested he was receptive to engaging with Al Jazeera. (Brookings has previously received funding from Qatar but says it chose to end the financial arrangement in 2017.)

“I have generally felt that in most cases it’s best to work with Al Jazeera,” he said. “That said, a formal partnership is a different matter. I’m not quite sure I’d do that.”

Far-left Twitch streamer and political commentator Hasan Piker, appearing at the Web Summit conference in Doha on Tuesday, alleged that Israel’s conduct played a meaningful role in the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attacks, continuing his long-standing pattern of hateful rhetoric targeting Israel and the Jewish people. 

“What I care about is maintaining my editorial independence and speaking truth to power, and the example I always go back to is in the aftermath of Oct. 7,” Piker said to a packed room. “People were not ready, especially in Western audiences, for someone to say that Israel played a significant role in how Oct. 7 took place.”

Speaking at an event labeled “Defending truth in a post-truth world,” Piker noted that he had lost viewers at the time over his extremist statements, but said he “stuck to [his] guns” and did not tone down his commentary. 

“A lot of people were understandably horrified by the images that they were seeing on their screens, and they said, ‘This is not for me. I’ve enjoyed your commentary up until this point.’ And they left,” said Piker. “If I cared about viewership, I would have stopped right then and there, and maybe even reconfigured my commentary.”

“But I didn’t do that,” Piker added. “I knew what the truth was, and I kept covering what was going on in Gaza every single day for two years, and eventually the audience came back.” 

Piker has previously argued that Hamas’ actions on Oct. 7 were a form of “resisting,” referred to Orthodox Jews as “inbred” and Zionists as Nazis and has praised former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah as a “pretty brilliant person.” Piker has also described the conflict in Gaza as a “livestreamed Holocaust.” 

The streamer has faced several bans from Twitch over his commentary, most recently on Jan. 29, when his account was taken offline after he alleged that Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers were targeting anti-Israel protesters. He also referred to critics as “rabid ultra-Zionist pigs.” 

In response, Piker posted a statement on X listing what he alleged are permissible phrases for use on Twitch, but singled out that “you CANNOT say zionist pig.” 

“The ADL, which is an arm of Israel’s suppression in the west that works with law enforcement & does espionage has made it a bannable offense,” Piker wrote. 

That Qatar and Israel both signed onto a U.S.-led initiative to improve and strengthen AI supply chains does not mean the two nations — both of whom foster a deep reserve of hostility for each other, particularly in a Middle East transformed by the Oct. 7 attacks and two years of war in Gaza — are on the pathway toward closer ties, let alone diplomatic normalization.

But for Jacob Helberg, the under secretary of state for economic affairs who has taken a wonky but driven approach to economic diplomacy, it still counts for something. Helberg recently returned from a trip to Israel, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. He presided over a series of signing ceremonies for Pax Silica, an effort by the Trump State Department to bring American partners together to develop AI supply chains that rely less intensively on China. 

“My trip to the Middle East was actually incredibly significant, because this is the first time that Israel and Qatar have been brought under the same framework and signed the same document to actually agree that shared supply chains are more important than shared ideologies,” Helberg told Jewish Insider in an interview last week. 

Helberg is enmeshed in the specifics of AI architecture, mineral refining, semiconductor production and technology manufacturing. There is also a bigger pitch, particularly when it comes to the Middle East: that economic cooperation — driven by companies working across national borders to grow their bottom line — can also be a boon for diplomacy. 

“Our goal has been the expansion of the Abraham Accords, and the president’s been very, very clear and vocal about that,” said Helberg, a China hawk who is leading the Pax Silica initiative. “When people do business together, when people focus on shared goals, you inherently create, identify and focus on things that people agree on. It’s certainly my hope that this will pave the way for peace and economic integration of the region.” 

Helberg’s nomination to a senior role at the State Department marks the culmination of a political evolution that took him from being a major donor to former President Joe Biden in 2020 to giving more than $1 million to President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign. He told JI in 2024 that his shifting political identity was owed in part to what he viewed as the Democratic Party’s shift to the left, including on Israel. Helberg grew up in Paris, the grandson of Holocaust survivors on his father’s side and Tunisian Jews who left the country for France on his mother’s side. 

Helberg’s husband, Keith Rabois, is a venture capitalist who hosted a fundraiser featuring Vice President JD Vance in Florida last week.

On Helberg’s recent trip to the Middle East, he said he witnessed collaboration between Israel and the UAE that endured over the course of the war.

“There is nascent collaboration between the UAE and Israel on the tech side,” he said. “That has actually been a really interesting observation that I’ve seen in the Middle East … how pragmatic and apolitical people can be on the business side of the ledger, and very comfortable compartmentalizing politics.”

While Israel has in some ways become more isolated on the diplomatic stage since its response to the Oct. 7 attacks, Helberg said the war in Gaza revealed the strength of Israel’s tech ecosystem. The country’s defense capabilities have only contributed to that image, he noted. 

“Israel, obviously, is a country that has always punched way above its weight technologically. They are respected in all corners of the world for having an incredibly innovative technology ecosystem,” said Helberg, who previously worked at Palantir and Google. “Since Oct. 7 and the unfolding of the war, the world has really witnessed just how incredible Israel’s capabilities are, both for military technologies as well as for cybersecurity.”

Rep. Julia Letlow (R-LA), who announced a primary challenge to Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) this week, was part of a 2023 junket trip to Qatar funded by a pro-Doha business group. 

She was joined by Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX), who is mounting a Senate bid in Texas, on the Qatar trip. 

The February 2023 trip, funded by the U.S.-Qatar Business Council, included meetings with Qatari leaders, some of whom have been accused of backing terrorism. According to ethics paperwork submitted by the members, the group spent nearly $15,000 on Letlow’s travel and close to $18,000 on Crockett’s travel.

Rep. Lance Gooden (R-TX), who has spoken out in defense of Qatar amid criticism from some of his House colleagues since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks, also participated in the trip, as did former Rep. Scott Taylor (R-VA), now the president of the U.S.-Qatar Business Council.

Qatar’s relationship with and funding of Hamas has come under significant scrutiny in the U.S. since the Oct. 7 attacks. Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, with whom the group met, privately coordinated with Hamas leaders in the years leading up to Oct. 7 to provide covert financial support for Hamas’ terrorist activities against Israel, according to documents seized by Israel in Gaza.

The group also met with the CEO of Qatari bank Masraf Al Rayan, who was sued by American victims of Palestinian terrorism. The 2020 lawsuit accused the bank and others of funneling money to Palestinian terrorist groups. The suit was dismissed in early 2025, citing lack of personal jurisdiction.

The agenda submitted to the House Ethics Committee by the group also features a variety of other events focusing on promoting the U.S.-Qatar relationship, including meetings with various Qatari business and government leaders, as well as American universities operating campuses in Qatar.

An invitation to the members who participated in the trip describes it as an “opportunity to explore the potential expansion of business ties between American companies and those of Qatar. During this trip, you will be introduced to Qatar’s existing investment, economic, trade, and commercial ties to the United States and opportunities for further development.”

In spite of concerns about Qatari influence in Washington, both Letlow and Crockett have maintained pro-Israel records in Congress. Crockett, in particular, is seen by leaders in the Texas Jewish community as the candidate more supportive of Israel in the primary between herself and state Sen. James Talarico.

Other pro-Israel lawmakers have also visited Doha in recent years.

Neither Letlow nor Crockett responded to requests for comment.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Qatar’s prime minister and foreign affairs minister, said on Tuesday that President Donald Trump’s proposed Board of Peace represents the only viable path forward for Gaza, confirming that Doha has been invited to join the initiative.

“Yes, we were invited to the board,” Al Thani said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “We are happy to be a contributor to peace and stability in our region. There are a lot of challenges in the implementation, but we have no alternative paths to seek right now.”

Al Thani emphasized that any participating countries would need to “work hard” to ensure the board functions effectively and serves as a stabilizing force.

“President Trump has proposed this path to move forward. We have a lot of work to be done,” said Al Thani. “I think that the most important thing right now is to ensure that Gaza is stabilized and we ensure that the withdrawal of the Israeli forces happens as soon as possible, and ensure that the people can get their life back as soon as possible. That should be the key focus for the Board of Peace.”

Trump has invited a range of countries to join the board, including the U.K., Canada, France and Jordan, as well as China and Russia. As of Wednesday, confirmed participants included Israel, Kosovo, Azerbaijan, Argentina, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Morocco, Belarus, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.

Under Trump’s 20-point Gaza peace plan, the board was initially created to oversee post-Hamas governance in Gaza and supervise a committee of Palestinian technocrats. However, the group’s new charter does not mention Gaza or the United Nations. Critics have argued that the board’s expanded mandate, along with Trump’s ramped up criticism of the U.N., are signs the group could evolve into a larger international authority intended to rival or sideline existing institutions.

Asked at a press conference on Wednesday if he intends for the body to replace the U.N., Trump said it “might.” “Wish the United Nations could do more, wish we didn’t need a Board of Peace,” he said. 

Al Thani also addressed rising tensions with Iran, urging regional leaders to remain “cool-headed” and “resort to wisdom” amid the unrest inside the country in recent weeks. Earlier this month, Israel and regional partners watched closely as the Trump administration weighed — and ultimately held off on — military strikes in response to Tehran’s crackdown on protesters, which Trump had described as a red line.

While the president has not specified what steps the U.S. may take next, reports have indicated that Israel and Arab states, including Qatar, conveyed concerns about military action. Asked whether Doha had clashed with Washington over the issue, Al Thani suggested otherwise.

“We didn’t argue with the Americans,” he said. “What we offer, as a partner and as an ally of the United States, is honest advice that the best way forward is to find a diplomatic solution.”

Al Thani said Qatar and the U.S. remain in “continuous dialogue,” but reiterated Doha’s opposition to military escalation, even as a means of addressing Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

“We don’t want to see military escalation in our region,” said Al Thani. “We always believe that there is a room for diplomacy, and that’s been our approach in the State of Qatar, and we will always keep advocating for peaceful resolution. We need to understand that any escalation will have consequences.”

Qatar is the top country donating foreign funds to American universities, and Cornell University is its leading recipient, according to a new dashboard from the Department of Education that displays foreign gifts and contracts provided to U.S. educational institutions.

According to the database, $2.3 billion out of the $3 billion Cornell has received in foreign funding came from Qatar, which is a key financial supporter of Hamas. Qatar has provided $6.6 billion to universities overall, significantly more than the next leading countries, bolstering criticisms of the Gulf state’s potential influence over American higher education.

In a March interview with Jewish Insider, Cornell President Michael Kotlikoff defended the university’s decision to take funds from Qatar, saying that the “narrative that somehow Qatari funding coming to the university affects the university’s decisions or faculty courses could not be further from the truth.”      

“Virtually almost all of the money that the Qatar Foundation has listed as going to Cornell is spent in Doha on education in the medical school that Cornell helps Qataris manage,” Kotlikoff told JI. 

According to the new dashboard, American universities have received more than $60 billion in foreign gifts and contracts over the span of several decades. Schools are required to report foreign gifts and contracts totaling over $250,000 in a year to the Department of Education as laid out in the Higher Education Act of 1965. 

Following Qatar, the top countries funding U.S. schools include Germany, England, China, Canada and Saudi Arabia, with each giving around $4 billion. Harvard University has received the most foreign funding at about $4 billion from various countries, followed by Cornell.

Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), who visited Qatar, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia over the weekend, said that the Gulf countries have yet to commit personnel to be directly involved in the International Stabilization Force (ISF) in Gaza, without which the next phase of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas cannot proceed.

Gottheimer visited Qatar and Bahrain alongside Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) and Reps. Jimmy Panetta (D-CA), Jason Smith (R-MO) and Ronny Jackson (R-TX). Members of the delegation were photographed meeting with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, who also serves as the kingdom’s foreign affairs minister. 

“All the countries in the region who I’ve met with seem very eager to get to Phase 2. I think the question remains of which countries are willing to put boots on the ground and take the necessary steps to disarm Hamas,” Gottheimer said. “We’re all waiting for announcements on who that will be — that’s still the outstanding question … and what level of commitment.”

Building and staffing the ISF, he emphasized, is a “very important piece of the puzzle right now.”

Mullin briefly commented on the visit in a video posted to social media on Monday praising President Donald Trump for ordering the operation that deposed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro last week. 

“I just got back from the Middle East. A little tired, but it was a good trip,” Mullin said from the steps of the U.S. Capitol. “We have a lot of investments coming into the United States and we want to make sure that Oklahoma is part of that.”

Gottheimer continued on to Saudi Arabia and Israel without the rest of the group. He said that there was not much direct discussion during his meetings in Saudi Arabia about normalization with Israel, though he believes that the ceasefire deal is a necessary prerequisite to an agreement between Riyadh and Jerusalem.

“I was much more focused on … how do we actually get to Phase 2? What does that look like? How do you think that functions?” Gottheimer said.

Visiting Israel and meeting with members of the U.S.-led Civil MIlitary Coordination Center overseeing the ceasefire, Gotthiemer said he saw “a lot of very constructive plans,” a “ton of progress” in preparing the Israeli-controlled “yellow zone” in Gaza for a transition and rebuilding and that sufficient humanitarian aid is flowing into Gaza. But he emphasized that it’s still unclear which countries will commit personnel on the ground to maintain order and disarm Hamas.

Gottheimer dismissed narratives that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with whom he met on Monday in Jerusalem, is creating obstacles to moving forward with the ceasefire plan.

“I didn’t see that at all, both in talking to partners and in talking to the prime minister,” he said. “He was much more agreeable on the idea of getting to Phase 2, but the question of tactically how to disarm Hamas and who’s going to be on the ground to engage remains an elusive challenge.”

He said that partners, including Bahrain, are “eager to make it happen, but realize it’s challenging” because of the reluctance among Arab states to step forward.

In his conversation with Netanyahu, Gottheimer said that the prime minister highlighted that Iran’s “continued, aggressive ballistic missile posture … continues to be a significant issue.”

There has been increasing speculation in recent weeks that another round of conflict between Israel and Iran, and potentially the United States, could be on the horizon, with Iran making strides to rebuild its missile capacity.

According to a statement on the trip from Gottheimer’s office, he also discussed with Israeli officials Hezbollah’s failure to disarm, as required under the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire deal, its efforts to rearm and its continued threat to Israel.

Qatari Education Minister Lolwah Al-Khater publicly mourned the death of Huthayfa Samir Abdullah Al-Kahlout, a senior Hamas military spokesman who served as the public face of the group’s media strategy during the war in Gaza, drawing renewed scrutiny of Qatar’s ties to the militant group.

In a post on X on Monday, Al-Khater wrote, “It is time for the knight to dismount,” next to a Palestinian flag emoji, widely interpreted as referring to the killed military spokesperson. Hamas’ armed wing officially confirmed the death on Monday, months after he was killed in an Israeli strike in the Gaza Strip. 

“We announce with pride the martyrdom of the great leader,” a newly appointed and unidentified spokesman said in the video. “We have inherited his title.” 

Al-Khater has repeatedly released statements in support of Hamas figures. The Qatari education leader previously praised Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’ former political bureau leader who was killed in Tehran in July, as a “righteous servant who lived faithful to the cause.”

“He lived for his people,” Al-Khater posted on X. “He never engaged in any matter except that of his people and his country, and what served Palestine and Al-Aqsa.”

She also reportedly wrote a poem honoring Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who was regarded by Israel and the U.S. as the mastermind behind the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks and was killed in Gaza in May. 

Qatari officials have helped broker a temporary truce between Israel and Hamas in November 2023 and a broader ceasefire and hostage deal that took effect in January 2025. More recently, Qatari mediators have been working with Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and his adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner to lay the groundwork for phase two of Trump’s 20-point Gaza peace plan.

Israeli officials and critics have argued that Qatar is not a neutral party in negotiations with Hamas, pointing to sympathy for the terrorist organization among senior figures in Doha. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also voiced skepticism over Qatar obtaining any role in efforts to demilitarize Gaza and establish a postwar plan.

Doha has blamed Israel as “solely responsible for the ongoing escalation” following the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks and has continued to provide significant financial support to both Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. Natalie Ecanow, a senior research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, called Qatar a “financial patron of Hamas,” noting that in 2021 the Gulf state increased financial support to Gaza to $360 million. 

“Qatar has historically served as a haven for private funders of terror,” Ecanow wrote. “And despite taking steps to crack down on terror finance, Qatar hasn’t sufficiently addressed the problem. Qatar hasn’t convicted a single terror financier since 2018, but terror financiers evidently still roam about the emirate.”

In October 2023, the U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctioned a Hamas financier based in Qatar whom the Treasury said had “close ties to the Iranian regime” and “was involved in the transfer of tens of millions of dollars to Hamas.”

President Donald Trump’s recent executive order directing a review of Muslim Brotherhood chapters for potential terrorism designations is limited in scope, and leaves out scrutiny of Qatar and Turkey — a strategy that experts say reflects both legal realities and geopolitical constraints.

The order, which was signed on Nov. 24, directs Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to identify which branches of the Muslim Brotherhood — with a focus on chapters in Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt — should be designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations and which should be deemed Specially Designated Global Terrorists.

Rather than apply a terrorist designation to the entire Muslim Brotherhood as a whole, Trump’s executive order first looks at individual branches. This strategy is echoed in a Senate bill, sponsored by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), which requires an assessment of every branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in an effort to designate the organization for its involvement. 

The House version of the legislation was modified in committee last week and now more closely resembles the Trump executive order.

Michael Jacobson, a senior fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said the approach “makes sense,” adding that a “one-size-fits-all” designation would be unproductive. He also noted that it will allow the administration to more effectively pursue chapters of the organization.

“The bottom-up approach will allow the administration to proceed in a more strategic and calculated fashion,” said Jacobson. “Targeting individual chapters and entities could also open up additional avenues for investigation and action. Once individual branches are designated, the Treasury could then use its authorities to sanction those supporting these branches. I believe that this approach is also more likely to gain support from other governments.”

This same sentiment was echoed by Cruz, who called the “bottom-up” approach the “correct and sustainable strategy.”

“That strategy is built into both the president’s executive order, which was a bold and critical breakthrough in advancing American national security, and my bipartisan legislation,” Cruz told Jewish Insider. “It’s the consensus strategy, and it’s the right one.” 

David Adesnik, vice president of research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told JI that while a single designation done in “one fell swoop” might be appealing, it faces legal and factual challenges. 

“The administration was rightly concerned that a judge could overturn a designation of the entire organization if he or she assessed that it didn’t meet the legal thresholds. This would have serious consequences in several respects,” said Michael Jacobson, a senior fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “If a judge ruled against a Muslim Brotherhood ban, it would be interpreted by some as a signal that the MB is not a terrorist organization, end of story — also a message the administration was likely eager to avoid.”

“This is not a single unified organization,” said Adesnik. “There’s no headquarters, no address, no person who is the head. It’s very hard to make a terror designation if you’re not exactly sure who you’re designating.”

Jacobson said the administration also looked to avoid a blanket designation out of concern that any legal challenges that followed could hurt efforts to reign in the Muslim Brotherhood. 

“The administration was rightly concerned that a judge could overturn a designation of the entire organization if he or she assessed that it didn’t meet the legal thresholds. This would have serious consequences in several respects,” said Jacobson. “If a judge ruled against a Muslim Brotherhood ban, it would be interpreted by some as a signal that the MB is not a terrorist organization, end of story — also a message the administration was likely eager to avoid.”

Some critics of the executive order, including far-right influencer Laura Loomer, who is a confidant of the president, have expressed frustration over the administration’s decision not to name Qatar and Turkey in the order.

“The Muslim Brotherhood designation signed by President Trump today doesn’t have any teeth,” Loomer posted on X on Nov. 24. “This designation is probably the weakest designation of the Muslim Brotherhood we could have ever received, as it doesn’t even apply to Qatar and Turkey.”

Both Qatar and Turkey have strengthened ties with the United States during Trump’s second term, however the two countries are also significant supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood and have been known to provide sanctuary for their members. 

“Claiming to get tough on the Muslim Brotherhood without a serious strategy to clamp down on the support provided by the movement’s most important state sponsors in Qatar and Turkey is not a serious policy,” said John Hannah, a senior fellow at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America. “Out of consideration for America’s longstanding partnerships with both countries and President Trump’s particular affinity for their leaders, one hopes that there is a plan to bring real pressure to bear on both Doha and Ankara in private to cease and desist their wide-ranging support for MB affiliates across the Middle East and globally.”

But while Qatar and Turkey’s ties to the Muslim Brotherhood are problematic, experts said they were not included because they do not currently have chapters of the organization in their countries, which the executive order focuses on.

“If we’re targeting chapters of the Brotherhood, there are no Brotherhood chapters in those countries,” said Adesnik. “So the real question is, how do you deal with what are effectively state sponsors of the Brotherhood? And does that state sponsorship cross the line into terrorism or sponsorship of terrorism?”

The Senate bill also does not address how Turkey and Qatar would be targeted as state sponsors of the organization. 

However, experts and legislators remain wary of the threat posed by the two nations and have expressed that plans to root out the Muslim Brotherhood should account for Turkey and Qatar.

“Claiming to get tough on the Muslim Brotherhood without a serious strategy to clamp down on the support provided by the movement’s most important state sponsors in Qatar and Turkey is not a serious policy,” said John Hannah, a senior fellow at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America. “Out of consideration for America’s longstanding partnerships with both countries and President Trump’s particular affinity for their leaders, one hopes that there is a plan to bring real pressure to bear on both Doha and Ankara in private to cease and desist their wide-ranging support for MB affiliates across the Middle East and globally.”

With the current executive order, the White House is seeking to first designate branches in countries that experts said are involved in violence from within the country. This will also likely include entities that finance other Foreign Terrorist Organizations, according to Jacobson. 

In Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt, threats connected to the Muslim Brotherhood have become national issues of concern. 

“The Islamic Group [Muslim Brotherhood chapter in Lebanon] clearly built up the ability to carry out attacks against Israel and cooperated very openly with Hezbollah,” said David Adesnik, vice president of research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “Authorities there really aren’t doing anything about it, partly because they lack power and have other issues to address. So it’s a pretty fair point.” 

In April 2025, Jordanian authorities arrested 16 individuals and thwarted a plot that was to involve rocket and drone attacks inside the country. The suspects were linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, which is the government’s largest opposition group. Following the arrests, the Jordanian government banned the group entirely. 

Adesnik said that while Jordan has initiated a “thorough crackdown” to address the problem, it is notable that there was “clearly a branch that had migrated toward planning for terrorism.” 

In Lebanon, he called the Muslim Brotherhood a “persistent issue.”

“The Islamic Group [Muslim Brotherhood chapter in Lebanon] pretty openly built up a capability to carry out attacks against Israel and cooperated very clearly and openly with Hezbollah,” said Adesnik. “Authorities there really aren’t doing anything about it, in part because they don’t have a lot of power and they have a lot of other problems to deal with. So it’s a pretty reasonable case.” 

Adesnik called the administration’s targeting of Egypt the “thorniest case from a definitional perspective.” He noted that while Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi’s regime in Cairo has spent more than a decade cracking down on the Brotherhood “aggressively,” concerns still remain over the presence of branches such as Harakat Sawa’d Misr, also known as Hasm, which was already designated by the U.S. as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist Entity in 2018. 

“The question is just what’s left of the Brotherhood there?” said Adesnik. “Is it doing enough to merit a designation?”

FBI Director Kash Patel signed bilateral security agreements with Qatar on Tuesday, in a move that is drawing renewed scrutiny to potential conflicts of interest surrounding his past lobbying for the Gulf emirate, the details of which he has failed to disclose.

During a meeting in the Qatari capital of Doha, Patel signed two memorandums of understanding with his counterpart “to advance mechanisms of security cooperation and coordinate efforts in training, the exchange of information and capacity-building,” according to Qatari state media.

“This step underscores the depth of the strategic partnership between the State of Qatar and the friendly United States of America, and bolsters our joint efforts in securing the 2026 FIFA World Cup,” Sheikh Khalifa bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, the minister of interior and head of the country’s Internal Security Force, who met with Patel on Tuesday, said in a social media post.

Neither Patel’s visit to Doha nor the agreements with Qatar have been publicly announced by the FBI. 

The security pacts follow an executive order signed by President Donald Trump in September pledging security guarantees if Qatar comes under attack — even as the Gulf state has faced criticism for hosting Hamas leaders and ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Patel, whose brief tenure leading the FBI has been mired in ethics controversies, drew scrutiny during his confirmation over undisclosed consulting for the Qatari government — provoking accusations that he improperly avoided registering as a foreign lobbyist.

Patel, who has said he will keep his consulting firm, Trishul, dormant during his time at the FBI, has not clarified what his contracts with Qatar had entailed.

In an ethics disclosure, Patel stated that he had “provided consulting services for the Embassy of Qatar” as recently as November 2024, and would recuse himself from any government work related to his former client for a period of one year after the work had concluded — unless granted authorization to do otherwise.

While the one-year buffer expired last month, Patel received a waiver in March allowing him to work on Qatar matters weeks after he had been confirmed by the Senate. The document did not specify the nature of his engagement with his former client.

Patel is among several top Trump administration officials who previously lobbied for Qatar, but his work in particular has raised red flags because of unresolved questions stemming from his past engagement with the Gulf state — which he is now more actively courting in spite of continuing ethics concerns.

The FBI did not respond to a request for comment regarding Patel’s visit to Doha on Tuesday.

Tucker Carlson, Rob Malley and Bill Gates walk into a Gulf hotel. 

It’s not the beginning of a joke, but rather, part of the speaker lineup at the Doha Forum over the weekend in Qatar.

As we’ve written about frequently over the last year, Doha has gone to great efforts to establish itself as a critical cog in the wheel of a functioning global society. Nowhere were the fruits of that labor on display more than at the two-day Doha Forum, held at the glitzy Sheraton Grand Doha Hotel.

Alongside traditional conference-circuit speakers — among them former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Microsoft founder Gates, U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack, U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker and Heritage Foundation senior fellow Victoria Coates — were more controversial voices. 

Those voices include Carlson as well as Malley, the former Iran envoy who was suspended and had his clearance revoked for his alleged mishandling of classified documents; and Trita Parsi, the executive vice president of the Quincy Institute, which was a co-sponsor of the forum, who has in the past faced accusations of operating as an unregistered foreign agent for Iran.

The only public panel at the forum focused on Gaza was sponsored by Malley’s International Crisis Group, which came under fire after reports in 2023 that it had been infiltrated by an Iranian influence operation.

In Doha, Carlson, a last-minute addition to the forum’s lineup, sat in conversation with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, a 20-minute conversation that preceded a sit-down between Donald Trump Jr. and investor Omeed Malik.

When discussing efforts to rebuild Gaza, Carlson suggested that Qatar should refrain from helping “rebuild a region that has been destroyed by a country [Israel] that has also bombed” them. Carlson also mocked Americans and lawmakers who have called out Qatar as a “terror state” or terror “financier,” despite Doha’s well-documented involvement with the Muslim Brotherhood and harboring of Hamas. 

The interview with the Qatari prime minister provided Carlson with another prominent perch from which to spread falsehoods. In one instance, Carlson insisted that aside fromPresident Donald Trump, “no American president has ever sided with an Arab state over Israel.” Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman responded on X that U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia during the Reagan administration and the Suez crisis during the Eisenhower administration were among examples where the U.S. sided against Israel.

In response to Carlson promoting the statement on social media, Friedman, who served in Trump’s first administration, called it “demonstrably false,” and asked Carlson, “What is it about the facts that offends you so deeply?” 

But the platforming of extreme voices at the Doha Forum went beyond Carlson. Neil Patel, co-founder and CEO of Tucker Carlson Network, who spoke during a session on “Media Power and the Search for Truth,” received very little questioning on Carlson’s promotion and platforming of antisemitism. When asked about being “under attack” for bringing in “all sorts of voices” — a subtle nod to Carlson’s platforming of neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes — Patel refrained from mentioning Fuentes by name. Instead, he encouraged open discussion, adding that there needs to be a “free market of ideas.”

Such a “free market of ideas” has allowed, in an age of digital manipulation and engagement farming, antisemitism to permeate political discourse.

Patel shared the stage with Nika Soon-Shiong, the millennial activist and publisher of the far-left Drop Site News, which traffics in distorted claims and half-truths (one so severe that last week a Palestinian diplomat condemned its reporting as “propaganda”).

If the appearances of Carlson, Soon-Shiong, et al watered down the perceived seriousness of the conference, the decision by business executives and current and former government officials to attend gave Doha added legitimacy.

As one longtime attendee of the Forum wrote on X, “[N]ever has Qatar displayed its immense convening power more effectively than this year.”

In an era in which American political figures face blowback for appearing at conferences that also platform extremist voices — such as Rep. Ro Khanna’s (D-CA) appearance this fall at Arabcon, where other speakers downplayed the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks — more mainstream speakers at the Doha Forum faced no such condemnation, and legitimized the conference and its organizers in the process.

That lack of condemnation underscores the degree to which Qatar’s strategy of infiltrating virtually every element of Western society — from media to sports to academia to government — has rendered it a powerful and at times dangerous force, and one that forces for Western values and democracy are unwilling to challenge or confront.

Among the most high-profile speakers at this weekend’s Doha Forum in the Qatari capital are Tucker Carlson, his business partner Neil Patel and investor Omeed Malik — a lineup raising eyebrows given Carlson’s recent track record of credulously hosting antisemitic and Holocaust-denying guests on his right-wing podcast. 

The conference, which is partnered with a panoply of elite institutions from CNN to the Atlantic Council, will bring together Trump administration officials, ambassadors, politicians and philanthropists alongside figures who hold fringe or hostile views of Israel and U.S. Middle East policy.

The forum’s layout elevates voices aligned with Doha’s regional agenda while pairing them with Western political, philanthropic and corporate leaders — a mix that lends legitimacy to speakers with out-of-the-mainstream views.

Carlson — who launched the Tucker Carlson Network in 2023 with co-founder and CEO Patel after being fired from Fox News — has been one of the leading right-wing voices who is “elevating antisemitic ideas on the American right,” in the characterization of conservative Washington Post columnist Jason Willick. Earlier this year, Carlson came under fire for holding a friendly interview with neo-Nazi commentator Nick Fuentes.

His interview on the Doha Forum stage on Sunday will take place in conversation with the Qatari prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, an indication of his prominence at the confab.

Malik is an Iranian-American investor whose firm, 1789 Capital, was a major early backer of Carlson’s media venture. Malik is scheduled to speak alongside Donald Trump Jr., who is a partner of the company, after Carlson’s appearance.

Meanwhile, Patel will be speaking during a session called, “What Happens Now? Media Power and the Search for Truth in the Age of Distrust,” standing in stark contrast to accusations by Carlson’s critics that the podcaster often promotes unsubstantiated conspiracy theories. 

Beyond the Carlson orbit, the Doha Forum speaker list includes appearances by other leading anti-Israel voices including former Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, sanctioned U.N. special rapporteur Francesca Albanese and former Iran envoy Rob Malley, who had his security clearance suspended in 2023 amid allegations of mishandling classified information.

Those voices will be mixed with a more traditional cast of guests, including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates, U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack, U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker and Heritage Foundation senior fellow Victoria Coates.

The conference will feature several panels focused on Israel, including one titled “The Gaza Reckoning: Reassessing Global Responsibilities and Pathways to Peace.”

Qatar, whose ties to the Muslim Brotherhood have drawn scrutiny in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, is doubling down on a charm offensive focused on a handful of GOP lawmakers and conservative social media influencers, all while hosting two of the most established brands in American news. 

A group of House Republicans visited Qatar during the House’s Thanksgiving recess last week, including Reps. Laurel Lee (R-FL), Marlin Stutzman (R-IN), Abe Hamadeh (R-AZ), Ryan Zinke (R-MT) and Lance Gooden (R-TX). The trip occurred just before the House Foreign Affairs Committee is scheduled to vote on legislation that classifies the entire Muslim Brotherhood organization globally as a terrorist group.

A group of conservative social media influencers also visited Qatar over Thanksgiving, posting glowing dispatches lauding the country and its role in hosting a U.S. military base. 

Rob Smith, one of the invited guests, posted credulously about Qatar on his Instagram feed after the trip, “I wasn’t aware of a great deal of things about Qatar, only misperceptions and half-truths I’d read about online. When the opportunity was presented to me, with full authority and autonomy to ask the tough questions of the officials I’d be meeting with, I decided to risk any potential criticism and to travel and experience it for myself.”

Meanwhile, numerous prominent celebrities — including comedian Kevin Hart, celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay and tennis star Novak Djokovic — gathered in Doha over the weekend for the 2025 Formula One Qatar Grand Prix.

And this week, the country is hosting the Doha Forum, a conference co-sponsored by CNN. Those attending the conference include several Trump administration officials and ambassadors, politicians and philanthropists, alongside Israel-bashing officials such as former Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, sanctioned U.N. special rapporteur Francesca Albanese and former Iran envoy Rob Malley.

Others on the guest list include: Donald Trump Jr., U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack, U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker, Trump advisor Alex Bruesewitz, the Heritage Foundation’s Victoria Coates, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Bill Gates, the Quincy Institute’s Trita Parsi, CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour and other officials, leaders and analysts from around the world.

Also this week, The Wall Street Journal is hosting a technology conference in Doha, featuring business leaders and celebrities, hosted by various Journal reporters. As JI’s Matthew Kassel reports, the summit is raising ethical questions surrounding the paper’s deepening business ties with Qatar — even as the Journal’s conservative editorial page has slammed the Gulf monarchy as a financial and diplomatic sponsor of Hamas. 

Each of these events comes at a time when Qatar’s complicated public reputation in the United States is becoming a flashpoint, particularly inside the conservative movement.

The Trump administration announced in late November plans to designate branches of the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization and the House Foreign Affairs Committee is taking up legislation on Wednesday that aims to proscribe the entire group.

Though the White House’s executive order on the issue sidestepped any mention of Qatar, the country has been a major Muslim Brotherhood patron, and analysts have characterized the Qatari branch of the Muslim Brotherhood as one of the organization’s key terrorist arms.

The simmering battle in the conservative movement was on display in a heated social media exchange between Trump ally and far-right influencer Laura Loomer, a vocal critic of Qatar, and Zinke’s chief of staff, Heather Swift.

Loomer, in a series of posts blasting the Republicans who visited Qatar, took particular aim at Zinke, mocking his attire and claiming he was visiting to “beg [the Qataris] for money.” She also said that “Qatar is trying to control every member of Congress. This is very alarming.”

Swift shot back, “[Zinke] has given more of his life and blood to eradicating Islamic jihadis than this woman ever will. … Strongest possible record against Iran and for Israel. Perhaps being a member of the House Foreign [Affairs] committee may require speaking with foreign leaders from time to time so they know where the USA stands.”

Loomer also pressed Pentagon spokesperson Kingsley Wilson about the U.S.-Qatar relationship and Qatar’s ties to the Muslim Brotherhood on Tuesday. Wilson responded by saying that the “U.S. military has a long-standing partnership with Qatar, and we look forward to continuing that partnership.”

The Wall Street Journal kicked off its Tech Live conference in Qatar on Tuesday, underscoring a deepening partnership between the publication and the controversial Gulf state that has raised ethical questions among media watchers over possible conflicts of interest as well as an ideological incongruence with the traditionally conservative, pro-Israel bent of its editorial page.

The exclusive summit, making its debut in the Middle East, will continue to be held in Doha, the Qatari capital, for the next five years, according to an initial announcement from Dow Jones, which publishes the Journal. The event, gathering over 200 executives and other business leaders at the Waldorf Astoria “for three days of conversations, networking and curated experiences” focused on topics ranging from media to the cryptocurrency industry, is sponsored by the state-owned Qatar Airways, among a handful of other companies.

Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, who spoke at the event on Tuesday in an onstage discussion with Dow Jones’ CEO, Almar Latour, said in a social media post that the conference “represents a key platform to discuss technology’s role in business and advance Qatar’s digital standing.” 

Sheikh Jassim bin Mansour Al-Thani, the director of the Government Communications Office of the State of Qatar, also joined the Journal’s Tech Live event in Napa Valley, Calif., in early November.

“With the MENA region’s growth and increased role in tech — especially at the intersection of AI and the energy sector — we are delighted to be partnering with Qatar,” Latour said in an announcement last year touting the new relationship.

In addition to signing a multiyear agreement with Qatar to host its tech summit — whose attendees include Serena Williams, Alex Rodriguez and Washington, D.C. sports magnate Ted Leonsis — Dow Jones recently opened an office in Doha’s Media City as part of an effort to “strengthen its operations throughout the Middle East.”

The Journal’s advertising department, meanwhile, has run a series of online posts sponsored by Qatar and promoting investment in the Gulf state, though the publication notes in a disclaimer that “the news organization was not involved in the creation of” the paid content.

Still, the newspaper’s growing embrace of Qatar has drawn the attention of media critics who have aired strong reservations about partnering with a regime that has faced scrutiny over a long record of human rights abuses, press censorship and hosting Hamas leadership before and after the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel. 

Even as other media outlets have likewise joined forces with Qatar, the Journal‘s relationship stands out in particular because its conservative editorial page has frequently turned a skeptical or jaundiced eye toward the Gulf monarchy — which one contributor called “a theocratic monarchy that is Hamas’s main financial and diplomatic sponsor” in an August opinion piece.

In an October article casting doubt on an executive order signed by President Donald Trump vowing to protect Qatar if it comes under attack, the editorial board also reminded its readers that the country “is a benefactor of Hamas that took the terrorists’ side against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.”

“It is fair to say that Qatar plays both sides,” the board added. “This is useful at times, but it is far from the typical profile of a state receiving U.S. guarantees.”

Qatar has in recent years significantly expanded its partnerships with U.S. media companies including Bloomberg and CNN, the latter of which is sponsoring the Doha Forum that begins this weekend, after the network previously inked a deal with the Gulf monarchy to launch an office in Media City, which the emirate describes on its website as a “global hub for media companies” and other related businesses.

Sources have told Jewish Insider that the Media City deal includes an annual fee of several million dollars that Qatar will pay to CNN. The network has said that “anything related to CNN editorial content is fully controlled and funded by CNN and entirely independent,” noting the agreement “centers on the provision of facilities and technical support for” the new operation.

It is unclear if Qatar agreed to pay the Journal or Dow Jones to host the tech conference or open the office in Doha. Representatives for Dow Jones did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday, nor did the Qatari government. 

Qatar has also invested in conservative media, part of an expansive lobbying effort to burnish its image in the United States that otherwise includes funding higher education and ongoing outreach to federal lawmakers.

The Journal’s news reporters, for their part, had previously  extensively documented Qatar’s influence efforts in the United States.

Anna Wintour, the Vogue figurehead and fashion icon, mingled in Doha, Qatar, over the weekend alongside Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, the mother of the Qatari emir, who has drawn controversy for celebrating the slain Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar after he was killed by Israeli forces operating in Gaza last year.

“The name Yahya means the one who lives,” Moza wrote on social media in October 2024, mourning the man who orchestrated the Oct. 7 attacks. “They thought him dead but he lives. Like his namesake, Yahya bin Zakariya, he will live on and they will be gone.”

Wintour, Vogue’s global editorial director and chief content officer for Condé Nast, was pictured sitting next to the sheikha during the Fashion Trust Arabia awards ceremony at the National Museum of Qatar on Saturday.

Moza, who is among the most famous women leaders in the Arab world and seen as a Middle East style icon, has been a fierce critic of Israel following Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attacks — frequently using her social media platform to denounce the Jewish state and to spread anti-Israel content.

The sheikha has been described as “the public face of Qatar,” which has drawn criticism from American lawmakers for hosting Hamas leadership. 

Wintour, who recently relinquished her title as the U.S. editor of Vogue, was also in Doha on Sunday to co-host the inaugural Franca Fund Gala at the Qatar Museum of Islamic Art, which celebrated the legacy of the late Franca Sozzani, former longtime editor of Vogue Italia who died in 2016.

A spokesperson for Vogue did not respond to a request for comment on Monday.

As the international community looks to advance the ceasefire plan in Gaza, Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) emphasized the need for continued pressure from countries like Turkey and Qatar on Hamas to comply with the terms of the ceasefire requiring it to disarm.

But he also warned that there should be limits on the ways in which Turkey and Qatar are involved in the future of Gaza, arguing that they should have no role in certain sensitive areas, even as they remain involved in reconstruction work.

Lankford, in an interview with Jewish Insider this week, said that Hamas’ release of the final remaining deceased hostages will be an inflection point necessitating movement into the next phase of the ceasefire plan presented by the United States.

“The requirement for Hamas to disarm is still there. It has to be there, both for the people that live in Gaza that are Palestinian and for the security of the entire region,” Lankford said.

He said that ensuring that Hamas disarms, something it has thus far refused to do, will require  military, diplomatic and financial pressure, particularly from countries like Turkey and Qatar that have been Hamas patrons. 

“If the Turks want contracts to be able to rebuild in Gaza, which they do, then that’s not going to happen until Hamas is actually disarmed, so Turkey’s got to decide, ‘Do you want those contracts to be able to rebuild or not?’ If they do, then here’s what that requirement is going to be,” Lankford said.

He said that providing a higher level of security and freedom of movement on the Israeli-controlled side of Gaza will also help to increase pressure on Hamas. And he said that any further violations of the ceasefire agreement by Hamas should be met with “immediate, serious consequences.”

Turkey and Qatar’s roles in the future of Gaza should be limited to certain sectors, Lankford added, given the countries’ hostility to Israel and support for Hamas. He said he’s comfortable seeing Ankara assist with reconstruction, but it should not be involved in running hospitals, schools or mosques or in rebuilding the economy.

“We’re going to have to figure out what are roles that they can do and they cannot do,” Lankford said. “There are certain roles they just should not be a part of.”

He said he’s not yet able to name specific countries that he would be comfortable seeing taking on more sensitive tasks — though he noted Indonesia’s interest — and said it’s “going to take a multinational force.”

“It’s going to be a trusted force. It’s not going to be American forces in the middle of that. It needs to be a trusted force from the region as much as possible, but that’s going to have to be somebody that’s tenacious enough to say, ‘No, we’re going to actually bring some stability to this area,’” Lankford said. “And I don’t know who that is yet.”

He said that there are “plenty of Arab countries that don’t like the Muslim Brotherhood and don’t like all of its offshoots” — including Hamas — but the question will be whether they’re “willing to be able to put their sons on the line” to confront the terrorist groups in Gaza.

Asked about efforts to counter the Muslim Brotherhood at home — several of Lankford’s colleagues have introduced legislation to designate the group as a terrorist organization and have pushed for similar action by executive order from the White House — Lankford said that supporters of the effort have more work to do to raise awareness.

“I think the first issue for me is really to keep raising it, to be able to continue to raise awareness of it, because you’re not going to build momentum among 100 senators if it’s the first time they thought about it,” Lankford said. “So we’re going to have to build some of that momentum for a while.”

The Oklahoma senator, a co-chair of the Senate antisemitism task force, has also been outspoken about rising antisemitism on the “New Right” and was critical of the Heritage Foundation’s response to neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes’ recent appearance on Tucker Carlson’s podcast.

Asked about Carlson, Lankford said that he “can say whatever he wants to … but we also have a protected right to be able to speak back and to say we disagree on areas.”

“I think the worst case scenario is to just be able to leave it out there,” Lankford continued. He argued that providing counter-narratives to antisemitic talking points is crucial to stemming the tide of antisemitism on both sides of the aisle. 

“If you get loud voices that say it and repeat it, people that just see it and don’t see a counter-narrative just accept it,” Lankford said. “We’ve got to make sure a counter-narrative is out there so that people actually hear a different opinion on it.”

Lankford, a Southern Baptist minister, objected to Carlson’s comments condemning Christian Zionists.

“To say those that support Israel that are Christians are ‘heretics,’ and are ‘the worst’ — I guess worse than Hamas and Hezbollah,” Lankford said. “That’s a bit of a bizarre statement to make, and I think we have a responsibility to be able to speak out and say, ‘Hey, I don’t agree with that.’” 

“It seems that he is defining what Christianity is. And he has a right to be able to say whatever he wants to, but I also have a right to be able to live biblical Christianity as well, and to be able to see the scripture in the full context of what it says,” Lankford continued. “So I want to speak out on that as well.”

Asked about Vice President JD Vance’s exchange last week with a student who asserted that Jews are seeking to persecute Christians — a narrative that Vance did not address or dispute — Lankford said that leaders, including in the White House and the Trump administration, need to speak up “for the most basic issue of religious liberty.”

He said it’s important for people to be able to hold and live their own faiths and to also protect the ability of others to practice different faiths. “What’s interesting on that dialogue is, I’ve literally not met a Jewish person that wasn’t very protective of religious liberty,” Lankford added. “It’s literally the opposite of that question.”

Qatar’s prime minister acknowledged on Wednesday that Hamas violated the ceasefire with Israel the day prior by striking IDF troops in Gaza, calling the incident “disappointing and frustrating.”

Speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said that, though Tuesday’s violation was highlighted by the media, “this is something that is expected throughout the ceasefire.”

“I believe what happened yesterday was a violation, and then what we were expecting [was] that … there will be a response. But fortunately, I think the main parties, both of them, are acknowledging that the ceasefire should hold and they should stick to the agreement,” Al-Thani said. Israel did respond to Hamas’ attack with strikes in Gaza on Tuesday and said it was resuming its ceasefire commitments on Wednesday.

Pressed by moderator and MSNBC host Ayman Mohyeldin on who exactly committed the violation, Al-Thani admitted, “Well, look, if we start to describe the violations, it will be an open-ended question. But what happened yesterday, the attack on the Israeli soldiers, that’s basically a violation by the Palestinian party.” 

He said Qatar is “trying to contain” the violations and “mobilized right away after this and in full coordination with the United States. And we have seen that the U.S. also is committed to the deal.”

Al-Thani said the Qataris had also “heard some discussions that Hamas are trying to delay the [release of hostage] bodies, and we made it very clear for them that this is part of the commitment that we need to be fulfilled.”

On the second phase of the deal, still yet to be finalized, Al-Thani said Hamas has agreed to relinquish governance of Gaza but is less committal about disarmament. “I don’t see that the governance will be a challenge, because this is something that we’ve been very clear with Hamas and Hamas’ response was also very clear to us that they are willing to give up the governance. The weapon question, from their perspective, this is an obligation on all the factions, not Hamas only,” he said.

The Qatari official called the Israeli strike on Hamas operatives in Doha last month “a shock for the entire world,” which was “the first time that an Israeli strike killed someone from the GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council],” referring to the Qatari security officer killed in the strike who, according to Al-Thani, had served previously in the U.S. Embassy in Doha.

Al-Thani said he believes U.S. officials, including President Donald Trump, who have stated they had no forewarning of the attack and detailed a call between Trump and the emir of Qatar the day after, where Trump told him “that this might represent an opportunity for us to put an end to the war in Gaza. … Although we had halted all the communication with the Israelis at that time, we remained engaged with the U.S. in order to make sure that we can get to a solution.”

Majed al-Ansari, a Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman and advisor to the prime minister, praised Palestinian suicide bombings and rocket attacks on Israeli civilian centers in social media and blog posts prior to taking up his post in 2022.

Al-Ansari is one of the Qatari government’s most public faces, hosting regular press briefings and giving interviews about the Gulf state, including to Israeli media. 

In May 2021, when Palestinian Islamic Jihad launched 130 rockets at Israel, Al-Ansari posted his support on X, saying that “Palestine emerges to remind this nation of its glory and the greatness of its message.” Al-Ansari added the hashtag #Tel_Aviv_is_burning to his post.

During the ensuing 11 days of fighting between Israel and Palestinian terrorists in Gaza and the West Bank, and rioting by Israeli Arabs in mixed Jewish-Arab cities in Israel, Al-Ansari posted: “Jerusalem, the interior [of Israel], the West Bank, Gaza … rise with one voice against the occupier. This unity is what terrifies the enemy the most. Oh Allah, unite their word and guide their aim.” 

The posts were resurfaced by analyst Eitan Fischberger.

Al-Ansari also maintained a blog, which he linked to on his verified X account. 

In one blog post, Al-Ansari praised the Second Intifada — the 2000-2005 Palestinian terror campaign — against the “Zionist enemy” and its “martyrdom operations,” a euphemism for terrorist attacks. He credited the intifada with leading Israel to pull out of Gaza in 2005. 

In an overview of Palestinian terrorism against Israelis in recent decades, Al-Ansari argued that “the Israeli military losses were great, but the most important loss was Tel Aviv’s loss of a large part of its narrative and story of its victimhood in the West, following the spread of images of the brutal aggression throughout the world.” 

Al-Ansari encouraged “a celebration of the continued march toward victory in the conflict,” praising what he described as the Palestinians’ advancement from “resistance with stones and bare chests [to] the launching of 3,000 rockets in ten days toward the entity’s [Israel’s] cities.” 

In another blog post, in which Al-Ansari wrote about the Israeli Arab riots in May 2021, which included burning down Jewish-owned businesses and a synagogue, he falsely claimed that “the occupation forces were forced to withdraw” from Lod — a central Israeli city in which Ben Gurion Airport continued to operate normally and most neighborhoods continued to function peacefully. 

The blog and X posts were written when Al-Ansari was the head of the Qatar International Academy for Security Studies. The blog was deleted after Jewish Insider sent a request for comment about the matter to the Qatari Embassy, which the embassy did not respond to.

In earlier posts on an unverified Facebook account under Al-Ansari’s name, the Qatari spokesman repeatedly called President Donald Trump a racist.

In 2015, during Trump’s first presidential campaign, Al-Ansari wrote, “We call on the board of directors of Qatar Airways to cut ties with Trump and his racist empire.” Also that year, he lamented that the head of Qatar Airways “brags about his friendship with this racist.” 

Two clashing narratives have emerged about Israel’s strike on a meeting of senior Hamas terrorists in Doha, Qatar, in September, following the release of a preview of an interview with U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner on CBS’ “60 Minutes” program that aired on Sunday evening.

Both narratives posit that the strike hastened the arrival of President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan to free the hostages and end the war. Figures close to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the attack pushed an anxious Qatar, Hamas’ patron and host of its senior officials, to do more to get the terrorist organization across the finish line. 

Trump’s negotiators, however, presented a scenario in which the president, unhappy about the strike, pressured Israel to end the war.  

Of the Israeli strike on Doha, Witkoff said that he and Kushner, who in recent months has also played a key role in the administration’s Middle East efforts, “felt a little bit betrayed.”

Kushner added, “I think [Trump] felt like the Israelis were getting a little bit out of control in what they were doing, and it was time to be very strong and stop them from doing things he thought were not in their long-term interest.”

Witkoff said that Qatar, which served as a key mediator between Hamas and Israel for much of the negotiations, said that, following the strike, “we had lost the confidence of the Qataris, so Hamas went underground. It was very difficult to get to them … and it became very, very evident as to how important, how critical [Qatar’s] role was.” 

Jerusalem, however, had a different version of the events, as told by Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, Netanyahu’s closest confidante, in an Israel Hayom column by journalist Amit Segal.

Israelis involved in the negotiations viewed Qatar as a “spoiler,” such as when they talked Hamas out of accepting a deal proposed by Egypt earlier in the year, according to Segal. 

Dermer, Segal wrote, “links the strike to the agreement … The Qataris, it turns out, were convinced that by agreeing to host the negotiations, they had obtained immunity from Israeli strikes on their soil. From their perspective, the strike was a blatant, offensive breach of the commitment. … The Americans’ genius was to convert that negative energy into fuel to propel negotiations to their goal. ‘You want Israel to stop? Then let’s end the war.'”

Netanyahu’s office and the White House closely coordinated throughout subsequent talks to end the war, Segal reported. Then came an agreement backed by several Arab states calling for Hamas to disarm and without the immediate involvement of the Palestinian Authority.

Reactions in Israel to the “60 minutes” preview fell on predictable lines. Netanyahu’s critics said that the U.S. officials’ comments demonstrated that the prime minister did not want to enter the agreement, but instead was pushed into it by Trump.

Israeli Opposition Leader Yair Lapid argued that Witkoff and Kushner’s comments made clear that “after the failed attack on Doha, Trump thought that Netanyahu lost control and forced an agreement on Netanyahu that he didn’t want. … An American administration has never described an Israeli government like this.” 

Ha’aretz journalist Amir Tibon, who lived in one of the kibbutzim attacked by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, posted on X: “Witkoff and Kushner say in their own voices: Trump understood that Netanyahu was not on the right track and acted aggressively against him to reach a ceasefire and free the hostages.”

Nava Rozolyo, a prominent figure in the protests against Netanyahu years before the Gaza war began, wrote: “Thank you … for forcing Hamas and Netanyahu to reach an agreement on the return of all hostages and ending the war. Thank you for saving us from our own government and for saving lives.” 

On the Israeli right, many took issue with Witkoff and Kushner’s retelling of events.

Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs President Dan Diker posted on X that “the Israelis ‘getting out of control’ is what helped bring the hostage deal to the table, scaring the Qataris out of their minds.”  

Some highlighted Kushner and Witkoff’s business dealings in Qatar. Kushner’s investment company, Affinity Partners, manages billions of dollars in investments from Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund. Witkoff’s son sought Qatari investments in commercial real estate projects earlier this year, and in 2023, Qatar bought the Park Lane Hotel in Manhattan from Witkoff and his partners. 

Yishai Fleisher, spokesman for the Jewish community in Hebron and an informal advisor to Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who opposes the ceasefire deal, posted on X in response to the video: “Two American Jews, with no blood on the line in Israel (their wife and kids don’t drive on the roads with Jihadis), but lots of money on the line and business with Qatar, wag their finger at the Jewish State as they cut an awful deal that is certain to bring war.”

Other moments in the interview courted further controversy in Israel, such as when Witkoff described an Israeli cabinet meeting that he attended, in which Ben-Gvir talked about “all the death and all the carnage” from the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks and was “emotional.” In response, Witkoff described his son Andrew’s death from an overdose and told the Israeli cabinet minister to “let it go, you just can’t play the victim all the time.” 

Witkoff also brought up his son’s death in the interview in relation to his meeting with Hamas lead negotiator Khalil al-Haya, whose son was killed in the Doha strike.

“We expressed our condolences to him for the loss of his son, and I told him that I had lost my son and we are both members of a really bad club, parents who had buried children,” he said. 

Kushner said of Witkoff and the senior Hamas terrorist: “When Steve and him talked about their sons, it turned from a negotiation with a terrorist group to seeing two human beings kind of showing a vulnerability with each other.”

Kushner also said that he sought to relay a message to Israel’s leadership that “now that the war is over, if you want to integrate Israel with the broader Middle East, you have to find a way to help the Palestinian people thrive and do better.”

“How are you doing with that message?” Leslie Stahl asked.

Kushner smiled and replied: “We’re just getting started.”

This report was updated on Oct. 20, 2025, after the CBS “60 Minutes” interview aired in full.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, in a Pentagon meeting with Qatari Defense Minister Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al Thani on Friday, signed a deal to open a Qatari Air Force facility at the U.S. Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho. 

The deal is eliciting widespread shock and outrage from a broad ideological spectrum of political figures.

The latest deal follows the announcement of sweeping U.S. defensive guarantees to Qatar, similar to those the U.S. has made to its NATO allies, both signs of an increasingly close military alignment between the U.S. and Qatar — a key sponsor of Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.

The base is set to host Qatari F-15 jets and pilots for joint training operations, in order to “enhance our combined training, increase lethality, interoperability,” Hegseth said. He also praised Qatar for helping to mediate the ceasefire agreement in Gaza.

The deal has elicited criticism from voices as wide-ranging as Trump ally and far-right influencer Laura Loomer and Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin.

Loomer wrote a spree of X posts lambasting the deal, framing it as the vanguard of a Muslim Brotherhood invasion of Idaho and the United States, a threat to national security, a precursor to a potential terrorist attack and the harbinger of the downfall of Western civilization.

“Now that the GOP has decided to literally harbor Islamic terrorists on US soil, I don’t really care about fighting for Republicans as much as I did yesterday. I have lost hope for 2026 and 2028 to be totally honest,” Loomer said. “While we’re at it, why don’t we just give the CCP an air base and some gain of function labs on US soil? lol Might as well!”

“An economic bailout for Argentina. An air force base for Qatar. This guy is doing everything but putting America first,” Martin said, a sentiment echoed by the DNC’s vice chair, Malcolm Kenyatta.

Other progressive activists have suggested a connection between the deal and Qatar’s gift of a luxury jumbo jet to serve as Air Force One.

“This is a dangerous precedent. The Qataris are state sponsors of terrorism masquerading as American allies,” Jonathan Schanzer, the executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Jewish Insider. “One can only hope that the Qataris are forced to mend their ways before such a deal comes into effect. Otherwise, this will be viewed across the Middle East as rewarding bad behavior.”

Amid the backlash, Hegseth shared an “important clarification” on X.

“The U.S. military has a long-standing partnership w/ Qatar, including today’s announced cooperation w/ F-15QA aircraft,” Hegseth said. “However, to be clear, Qatar will not have their own base in the United States — nor anything like a base. We control the existing base, like we do with all partners.”

Some are defending the deal, including Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID), who called the agreement “fantastic news” that is “beneficial for training, enhances our partnership with America’s allies, and strengthens national security.” The Air Force facility will be located in Simpson’s Idaho district.

Former Pentagon advisor Dan Caldwell, an isolationist foreign policy voice who briefly served under Hegseth, called the “freak out around this … totally unwarranted,” adding, “this is actually a pretty common practice with countries that buy and operate a lot of U.S. military aircraft. Singapore has a similar facility and detachment for its F-15 training unit at this very same airbase.”

President Donald Trump heaped praise on the leaders of Qatar, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Indonesia on Thursday, lauding them and members of his administration as key parties responsible for getting Israel and Hamas to agree to the first phase of his peace plan for the region. 

“I want to express my tremendous gratitude to the leaders of Qatar, Egypt and Turkey for helping us reach this incredible day and for being there. They were there with us all the way. And of course, as you know, Saudi Arabia and Jordan and so many,” Trump said during a Cabinet meeting at the White House. “I will tell you, [Turkish] President [Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan was personally involved in dealing with Hamas and some of the others. He’s been great. They’ve all been really amazing. Indonesia has been amazing. Indonesia has been fantastic.”

“The whole world has come together for this, people that didn’t get along, people that didn’t like each other, neighboring countries that, frankly, didn’t like each other,” he continued.

The president confirmed in his remarks on Thursday that his team was working on organizing a Mideast trip for him to commemorate the deal, which would include stops in Egypt and Israel, where he has been invited to address the Knesset. 

He said he plans to depart from Washington on Sunday and is considering the timing of the release of the hostages in his plans. “They should be released on Monday or Tuesday. … That’ll be a day of joy. I’m gonna try and make a trip over,” Trump said. “We’re planning on leaving sometime Sunday,” he added later.

Regarding the U.S. officials involved in the deal, Trump credited Vice President JD Vance; White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles; Secretary of State Marco Rubio; Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth; Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff; Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and former advisor who spearheaded the Abraham Accords in the first Trump administration; and CIA Director John Ratcliffe with helping bring the agreement across the finish line. 

“All Americans should be proud of the role that our country has played in bringing this terrible conflict to an end,” Trump said. 

Israeli and Hamas negotiators signed off on the first phase of the deal in Egypt earlier in the day, which would see the release of all the remaining hostages in exchange for the release of Palestinian security prisoners. 

In brief remarks to reporters during the meeting, Rubio similarly attributed the administration’s success to its engagement with Arab and Muslim-majority nations.

“What really took a turn about a month ago, less than a couple weeks ago, is when we were at the United Nations, and [Trump] convened an historic meeting, not simply of Arab countries, but Muslim-majority countries from around the world … Indonesia was there, Pakistan was there, and created this coalition behind this plan. Then on that following Monday, you met with the prime minister of Israel here, and that plan was presented. And then, of course, our great negotiating team followed up on it in the interim,” Rubio said.

Asked about the potential for political turmoil in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition by far-right parties who said today they would oppose the deal in a Cabinet vote, Trump replied that the issue was not a concern and predicted that such an agreement could help Netanyahu.

“Bibi may go a little bit out of whack. Look, that’s politics. … I think he’s very popular right now. He’s much more popular today than he was five days ago, I can tell you that. Right now, maybe people shouldn’t run against him, five days ago it might not have been a bad idea,” Trump said. “This has been a very good thing. I don’t think he did it [agreed to a deal] for that reason [of political survival]. But I think just looking as an analyst would look at this … I think Bibi should be very popular right now.”

Trump said that, beyond bringing an end to the war in Gaza, the new agreement was “really [about achieving] peace in the Middle East.” He then described the war as a “big retribution” in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on the Jewish state.

“Remember, Oct. 7 was terrible, but also, from the Hamas standpoint, they probably lost 70,000 people. That’s big retribution. That’s big retribution. But at some point that whole thing has to stop, and we’re going to see to it,” he said.

Looking forward, Trump was noncommittal about how future phases of his 20-point peace plan  would be implemented or upheld, instead noting that Gaza would be rebuilt, the Abraham Accords would expand to include more countries and the hostages would be returned. He also declined to take a stance on supporting or opposing a two-state solution. 

“Gaza is going to be slowly redone. You have tremendous wealth in that part of the world by certain countries, and just a small part of that, what they make will do wonders for Gaza,” the president explained. “I think you’re going to see some tremendous countries stepping up and putting up a lot of money and taking care of things. There’s this tremendous spirit like I haven’t seen.”

“The first thing we’re doing is getting our hostages back. That’s what people wanted more than anything else. They wanted these hostages back that have lived in hell like nobody has ever even dreamt possible. And after that, we’ll see,” he later added when asked about ensuring all sides adhere to the deal. “But they’ve agreed to things, and I think it’s going to move along pretty well.”

Several senators said on Friday that the administration’s unilateral offer of defense guarantees to Qatar — similar to those the U.S. has made to protect its NATO allies — deserves scrutiny from Congress.

The administration on Monday quietly issued an executive order stating that the U.S. would offer defensive guarantees to Qatar, “shall regard any armed attack on the territory, sovereignty, or critical infrastructure of the State of Qatar as a threat to the peace and security of the United States” and “shall take all lawful and appropriate measures — including diplomatic, economic, and, if necessary, military — to defend the interests of the United States and of the State of Qatar and to restore peace and stability.”

Sen. Todd Young (R-IN), a top Republican voice in favor of reclaiming congressional war powers, said that the deal “certainly strikes me as unconventional and the sort of thing that the Foreign Relations Committee might want to hold a hearing on.”

“In the end, it’s the chairman’s prerogative, but it does strike me as worthy of attention and explication in a public setting,” Young said.

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA), another leading advocate on war powers issues and in opposition to the administration’s acceptance of a Qatari luxury jet for use as Air Force One, said that the move will carry the perception of corruption.

“I’m very troubled by it,” Kaine said. “It just looks like it was a trade for the jet. Maybe it’s not that, but that’s the way it looks. And why would you pollute something that maybe has a good rationale — but now it’s polluted with the way everybody looks at it.”

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), a leading Republican critic of U.S. support for Qatar, said that he planned to speak to the president about the order. “I haven’t talked to him [the president] about it. I don’t understand why. He hasn’t explained it to me, but I’ll ask him about it,” Scott told Jewish Insider.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said that the deal “will have to be reviewed carefully, depending on whether it serves our security interests and Israel’s.”

Multiple Republican senators emphasized that the deal does not carry the force of congressional ratification as a treaty.

“I don’t think you can do that by executive order,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said.

Asked about Congress granting Qatar those protections, Graham replied: “I don’t like its chances [of getting through Congress]. I appreciate trying to stand up for Qatar because they’re helpful, but they also have another side of the story. You can’t confer Article 5 protections by executive order, and I don’t think there’d be any appetite at all to do that through a treaty.”

Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-NE) framed the deal as part of Trump’s pressure campaign on Hamas to agree to his framework for peace in Gaza.

“The president is always thinking about negotiations, and certainly the president can have his policy,” Ricketts said. “However, it is not something that is a treaty, so it’s really, I think, meant as a negotiating thing to help get Qatar to get Hamas to surrender.”

Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) said he hadn’t reviewed the details of the agreement yet, but noted that any long-term foreign agreement would require congressional ratification to remain in effect.

“If we’re going to a national security agreement long term, that’s going to be lasting,” Congress should be consulted, Lankford said. “Things only last if they have the imprimatur of Congress actually put on it — whether it’s a trade agreement or a defense agreement. It’s got to be statute.”

Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) told JI he had “not heard anything about” the deal before noting, “It’s always up to the president to decide what he would like to suggest that he would like to do. Article 5 is part of a treaty right now, and if it is a treaty-type of an agreement, it would have to come before the Senate.”

Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) defended the president’s support for Qatar, telling JI, “Qatar is an important piece of the pie, a piece of the puzzle in the Middle East. We have to recognize that. We don’t always agree with everything they do, but we don’t agree with everything Israel does and we don’t agree with everything Jordan does, but they’re still close friends of ours. We know they want to be close to us and we want to, we can still use them as a strategic ally.”

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday pledging to guarantee Qatar’s “security and territorial integrity” against “external attack.” The security guarantee, similar to NATO’s Article 5 mutual defense clause, is unprecedented for the U.S. with an Arab country.

Signed just weeks after Israel’s attempted strike on Hamas leaders in Doha, the EO says the move comes “in light of the continuing threats to the State of Qatar posed by foreign aggression” and promises that the U.S. “shall regard any armed attack” on Qatari territory, sovereignty or critical infrastructure as a “threat to the peace and security of the United States.”

Qatar also recently faced an attack from Iran, when Tehran launched missiles at the U.S.’ Al Udeied Air Base during the Israel-Iran war in June.

The order was signed on Sept. 29, the day that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Trump in the White House and called Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani to apologize for the strike, though it was only publicized after Netanyahu’s departure. 

The order pledges that, should Qatar face any of the described threats, “the United States shall take all lawful and appropriate measures — including diplomatic, economic, and, if necessary, military — to defend the interests of the United States and of the State of Qatar.”

The U.S. does not have a similar security guarantee with Israel. Saudi Arabia has sought one from Washington as well, primarily through normalizing relations with Israel. 

With Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accepting President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan to end the war in Gaza at the White House on Monday, the ball is now in Hamas’ court.

Whether Hamas would agree to release the hostages first, before Israel makes any concessions other than stopping the fighting, remains to be seen. There is also newfound pressure on Qatar, a chief patron of Hamas, to convince the terror group to accept the deal.

The late Israeli elder statesman Abba Eban famously said, “The Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.” In readily accepting Trump’s plan, Netanyahu is counting on Hamas to do just that.

That’s not to say that Netanyahu opposes the plan. His calculus may be that he will be able to execute the parts he supports, while the aspects he finds less favorable are unlikely to materialize anyway — largely, he believes, due to the Palestinians’ own intransigence.

As Netanyahu noted in the press conference, the plan meets all of Israel’s war aims: Bringing back the hostages, dismantling Hamas — most of which Israel already did in the war — and making sure it no longer poses a threat to Israel, through demilitarization and deradicalization. Other elements of the plan that Israel has long said would be part of the “day after” for Gaza are a technocratic government with help from international partners, and the IDF retaining a buffer zone inside Gaza’s perimeter. Netanyahu also reportedly secured 11th-hour edits to the plan regarding the IDF’s withdrawal and Hamas’ disarmament prior to the press conference.

But the details are tricky. 

For example, point 17 of the plan: “In the event Hamas delays or rejects this proposal, the above, including the scaled-up aid operation, will proceed in the terror-free areas handed over from the IDF to the [International Stabilization Force].”

In other words, if Hamas rejects the plan, humanitarian aid “without interference” — likely including dual use items that could be exploited by terrorist organizations — would still be immediately and significantly scaled up and managed by the United Nations and Red Crescent, among others. Once an international force is put together, the IDF would still be expected to retreat from areas in which it has defeated Hamas. And a transitional, technocratic government overseen by Trump and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s “Board of Peace” would be put into place. 

All of that is meant to happen even if the hostages are not freed and Hamas refuses to lay down its arms.

Yet, Trump said that if Hamas rejects the plan: “You know, Bibi, you have the full backing to do what you have to do.” And Netanyahu made clear what that means to him — continuing the war: “Israel will finish the job by itself. This can be done the easy way or it can be done the hard way, but it will be done. We didn’t fight this horrible fight, sacrifice the finest of our young men, to have Hamas stay in Gaza.” 

Arab countries that would potentially take part in the “Board of Peace” and the International Stabilization Fund have said repeatedly that they would not participate in administering Gaza until the war ended, which makes it unclear if, as the plan says, all of that will really happen if Hamas rejects the deal and the war continues.

Then there’s the part of the plan that is most controversial in Netanyahu’s political base: the potential involvement of the Palestinian Authority in governing Gaza, and the creation of a pathway to Palestinian statehood.

“Gaza will have a peaceful administration that is run neither by Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority,” Netanyahu said in the press conference.

Yet the text of the plan says that the Gaza transitional government will only stay in place “until such time as the Palestinian Authority has completed its reform program, as outlined in various proposals, including President Trump’s peace plan in 2020 and the Saudi-French proposal, and can securely and effectively take back control of Gaza.”

The 2020 proposal includes things such as “a constitution … that provides for freedom of press, free and fair elections, respect for human rights for its citizens” and more, as well as “transparent, independent, and credit-worthy financial institutions” and ending incitement. 

Netanyahu said on Fox News’ “Sunday Briefing” that “if all of that is turned on its head, there’s a tremendous transformation … Good luck. Some people believe it happens. I don’t think it’s going to happen.”

The plan also says that the “credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood” would only happen “when the PA reform program is faithfully carried out.” Netanyahu appears to be calculating that Ramallah is unlikely to meet those conditions.

That being said, Netanyahu did sign a document that says unequivocally “we recognize [statehood] as the aspiration of the Palestinian people,” which is disturbing to some on the Israeli right, who argue that even acquiescence in principle is a problem.

While there is significant opposition to the plan from the right flank of Netanyahu’s governing coalition, it has been neutralized for now, in that most of the plan will not go to any kind of vote in the Cabinet. Any attempts to bring the government down over it would have to wait three weeks for the Knesset to come back from its recess, and even then they are likely to fail, with some of the opposition offering Netanyahu a “safety net.”

But as Netanyahu heads back to Israel having said “yes,” plenty of doubts remain as to whether this plan will actually be enacted. First, whether Hamas agrees, and then, new questions and challenges every step of the way.

During a meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday, Netanyahu apologized to Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, for killing a Qatari serviceman in an attempted strike on Hamas leadership in Doha and promised not to violate Qatari sovereignty again.

The strike, which reportedly failed to eliminate any members of Hamas’ top political leadership, caused a public rift between the U.S. and Israel. The Trump administration attempted to warn Qatar about the strike before it happened and Trump said he promised Qatar that such attacks would not be repeated in the future.

According to a readout from the White House, “Prime Minister Netanyahu expressed his deep regret that Israel’s missile strike against Hamas targets in Qatar unintentionally killed a Qatari serviceman” and that “in targeting Hamas leadership during hostage negotiations, Israel violated Qatari sovereignty and affirmed that Israel will not conduct such an attack again in the future.”

According to remarks released by the Israeli government, Netanyahu told Al Thani, “I want you to know that Israel regrets that one of your citizens was killed in our strike. I want to assure you that Israel was targeting Hamas, not Qataris. I also want to assure you that Israel has no plan to violate your sovereignty again in the future, and I have made that commitment to the president.”

Netanyahu also acknowledged Qatar’s “grievances against Israel” as well as Israel’s own issues with Qatar “from support for the Muslim Brotherhood to how Israel is portrayed on Al Jazeera to support for anti-Israel sentiment on college campuses.”

Trump, during the call, “expressed his desire to put Israeli-Qatar relations on a positive track after years of mutual grievances and miscommunications,” and the three leaders agreed to establish a trilateral mechanism “to enhance coordination, improve communication, resolve mutual grievances, and strengthen collective efforts to prevent threats,” per the White House release.

According to his remarks, Netanyahu said that the mechanism is intended to “address both our countries outstanding grievances.”

Netanyahu and Al Thani “underscored their shared commitment to working together constructively and clearing away misperceptions, while building on the longstanding ties both have with the United States,” according to the White House readout.

The three leaders discussed efforts to end the war in Gaza as well as “the need for greater understanding between their countries.”

Al Thani “emphasiz[ed] Qatar’s readiness to continue contributing meaningfully to regional security and stability.”

Israel and Qatar do not have formal relations and public high-level diplomatic engagements between their leaders are rare.

From the Israeli side, news of the apology has been met with frustration and scorn from Netanyahu’s political allies and opponents.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich compared the apology to U.K. Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement of Adolf Hitler during WWII. Netanyahu’s “groveling apology to a state that supports and funds terror is a disgrace,” Smotrich said on X.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir expressed continued support for the Qatar strike, calling it “important, just, and supremely moral.”

Orit Strock, a member of the Israeli Cabinet, asked, “Did the Emir of Qatar apologize to PM Netanyahu for Oct. 7?”

Yair Golan, chairman of opposition party The Democrats, called the apology “a humiliation” and said that, “In order to beat Hamas, we need to replace Bibi and Qatar.”

Israeli political analyst and author Amit Segal said, “The Qatari scum have not condemned the October 7 massacre to this day. Even if there is a diplomatic need for this, it is repulsive and disgusting.”

Haaretz reporter Amir Tibon and others expressed anger that Netanyahu had apologized to the Qataris before he apologized to Israeli victims of Oct. 7.

Nadav Pollack, a lecturer at Israel’s Reichman University, said that the apology and promise show that Qatar holds stronger influence in the White House than Israel.

Foundation for Defense of Democracies CEO Mark Dubowitz downplayed the significance of the apology.

“Apology or not, Qatar is on notice that Israel will eliminate Hamas terrorists where and when it chooses,” Dubowitz told Jewish Insider. “The overarching message is more important: Get your Muslim Brotherhood cousins to agree to a deal, and release the hostages, or next time we won’t miss.”

Rich Goldberg, a senior advisor at FDD and a former Trump administration official, responded similarly.

“If that’s the worst thing Israel has to do to save face while Qatar acquiesces to U.S. pressure to secure the release of all hostages, let it be the last insult endured,” Goldberg told JI. “There is a cold dark place in hell awaiting all Hamas sponsors, and I expect the Mossad will help them find that place at the right time in the future.”

Both Dubowitz and Goldberg have publicly maintained that the U.S. was likely aware of and approved of the Israeli strikes in Qatar, in spite of Trump’s own public condemnations and denials.

Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and former top Pentagon official in the Biden administration, told JI that the apology “was a useful diplomatic maneuver, likely pre-scripted, to ensure Qatar would do its part to deliver a yes from Hamas on release of all hostages and disarmament. Trump pressuring Netanyahu was necessary, but no less needed was his pressure on Qatar. The apology gave him that leverage.”

Michael Makovsky, the CEO of the Jewish Institute for National Security of America said that “Based on what we know, it’s understandable that Netanyahu felt compelled to apologize to the Qatari PM.  Pres Trump asked him to do it, and Trump has collaborated with Israel in the 12-Day War, and backed Israel on Gaza.”

“But it’s unfortunate, because Israel doesn’t owe Qatar an apology—Qatar owes Israel an apology for supporting Hamas for so many years, by hosting its leaders, funding its operations, offering verbal support, etc.,” Makovsky continued. “Qatar should also apologize for spreading anti-Israel (and anti-American) hate on its al-Jazeera news organization. The bigger question is why Pres. Trump is so favorable to Qatar.”

Dana Stroul, the research director for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and Shapiro’s predecessor at the Defense Department in the Biden administration, said that the statement echoes past engagements.

“It’s almost reverting to traditional US diplomacy of facilitating rapprochement between long-standing US partners,” Stroul said. “Recall then-President Obama brokering a phone call and an Israeli apology to Turkey in 2013 for its role in a 2010 Gaza flotilla incident. It also is a critical step in coalescing Arab support for providing meaningful support and resources to post war Gaza.”

She added that the administration “definitely believes it needs Qatar on its side.”
“When you read all of the various statements from the Trump administration about the peace and de-escalation agreements they are  brokering, Qatar is very frequently thanked in these statements for its mediation role,” she explained.

Good Thursday morning.

In today’s Daily Kickoff, we interview Shari Redstone about her mission to fight antisemitism after selling Paramount, and talk to diplomatic sources in Jerusalem about the Qatari and Egyptian officials poised to take over key roles at UNESCO. We highlight a letter by House Democrats warning Israel against unilaterally annexing territory in the West Bank or Gaza, and talk to a Syrian Jewish community leader about his opposition to leaving sanctions against Damascus on the table. We also report on a call by a bipartisan group of House lawmakers for President Donald Trump to “be very careful” in negotiations with Turkey today. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Reps. Jared Moskowitz, Maria Elvira Salazar and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by Jewish Insider Executive Editor Melissa Weiss, Israel Editor Tamara Zieve and U.S. Editor Danielle Cohen-Kanik, with an assist from Marc Rod. Have a tip? Email us here.

Q&A

Post-Paramount sale, Shari Redstone is ‘full speed ahead’ on addressing antisemitism

Shari Redstone, 71, has been busier than she had expected after selling Paramount, where she served as chair, to Skydance Media in a widely scrutinized merger this summer. The Jewish media mogul recently joined the Israeli entertainment studio Sipur as chair, and in leading the Redstone Family Foundation, she is involved in a range of projects fostering cultural ties between the Black and Jewish communities and combating the rise in antisemitism, among other initiatives. In an interview with Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel on Friday, Redstone explained how her current efforts underscore a renewed commitment to fighting antisemitism and supporting Israel in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, an event she cites as accelerating her decision to finally agree to offload Paramount in an $8 billion deal with Skydance, the Hollywood studio led by David Ellison.

Oct. 7 impact: “I was in Israel years and years ago. My kids studied there, and Israel was always important. But after Oct. 7, it was the first time I thought about what my life would be without Israel, and how in so many ways, we’ve taken for granted the existence of Israel and everything that they do, frankly, for peace in the Middle East. You know, to give Jews a place that they know they will always have a home, which has become even more important in the past several months. It took on a new energy for me, and a new desire to really be supportive of Israel in every way I can,” Redstone told JI. 

Read the full interview here.

SHARE

Share options

• 
  Facebook
• 
  Telegram
• 
  LinkedIn
• 
  WhatsApp
• 
  Reddit

Add JewishInsider on Google

EYE ON UNESCO

Concern mounts in Jerusalem as Qatar, Egypt set to take key roles in UNESCO

Israel is eyeing the upcoming United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization executive board meeting with concern, with Egypt and Qatar poised to take influential roles in the body. Qatar is set to take the body’s chairmanship, and former Egyptian Tourism and Antiquities Minister Khaled el-Enani is considered a leading candidate for the organization’s director general. The UNESCO Executive Board Meeting will begin on Wednesday in Paris and continue for two weeks, during which the new board chairperson and director general will be selected. The director general must receive a majority vote on Oct. 6, while the executive board chairmanship rotates between geographic blocs and the Middle East bloc agreed to put Qatar in the role, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.

Israel angle: With two Arab countries expected to assume UNESCO’s leading positions, some observers have expressed concern that Israel may again face disproportionate scrutiny and criticism — a pattern seen in other U.N. bodies where geopolitical tensions often surface. The potential new leadership of UNESCO is “bad for Israel and bad for America,” an Israeli diplomat told JI this week. Another Israeli diplomatic source said that it is an “unusual combination to have a director general and chairman of the executive board from Arab countries. It puts Israel at a disadvantage. … Israel is not a member of the executive board and has no influence on who will be chairman.”

Read the full story here.

SHARE

Share options

• 
  Facebook
• 
  Telegram
• 
  LinkedIn
• 
  WhatsApp
• 
  Reddit

Add JewishInsider on Google

WORDS OF WARNING

Majority of House Democrats warn Israel against West Bank, Gaza annexation

Most House Democrats, including all of the current and former top Democratic leaders, signed onto a letter on Thursday to Israeli leaders warning them against unilaterally annexing territory in the West Bank or Gaza, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. At a time when Democrats are increasingly divided over the U.S.-Israel relationship and its direction, the letter highlights a strong degree of unanimity within the party against annexation, among both Democrats who largely remain supportive of Israel and those who have become more critical over the war in Gaza.

What they said: “As long-standing supporters of the U.S.-Israel relationship, Israel’s security, and Israel’s future, we are deeply opposed to proposals for unilateral annexation of territory in the West Bank,” the 178 lawmakers, led by Reps. Brad Schneider (D-IL) and Jamie Raskin (D-MD), said. “Such a move would not only violate international law but undermine decades of bipartisan U.S. policy and threaten the progress of the Abraham Accords, which offer Israel and its neighbors the opportunity to build a more secure, cooperative, and prosperous regional future. Unilateral annexation of the West Bank would plunge the region, already reeling from tens of thousands of deaths in the horrific Gaza war, into further chaos and violence.”

Read the full story here.

SHARE

Share options

• 
  Facebook
• 
  Telegram
• 
  LinkedIn
• 
  WhatsApp
• 
  Reddit

Add JewishInsider on Google

DAMASCUS DEALINGS

Syrian Jewish community leader urges Senate to reject conditions on Syria sanctions relief

A debate is quietly simmering in Washington over the prospect of repealing congressionally mandated sanctions on Syria, an effort that has bipartisan support — but is not without its opponents, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. As part of the Senate’s consideration of the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, a provision is moving forward to fully repeal the Caesar Act, which placed strong sanctions on the Assad government in response to human rights violations. But other lawmakers are attempting to place conditions on the repeal of those authorities.

Community concerns: Some, like Rabbi Yosef Hamra, the nephew of the last chief rabbi of Syria, have argued that leaving the sanctions on the books in any capacity would cripple rebuilding efforts. But others say that the U.S. must maintain that tool as leverage to prevent future sectarian and human rights issues. Hamra, in a letter to congressional offices on behalf of the Jewish Heritage in Syria Foundation that was shared with JI, said, “Lifting the Caesar sanctions is essential to restore synagogues and cemeteries, safeguard irreplaceable Jewish heritage and re-establish a mutli-faith community in Syria after more than 30 years in exile. Simply put, this amendment would be devastating to the Jewish community in Syria.”

Read the full story here.

SHARE

Share options

• 
  Facebook
• 
  Telegram
• 
  LinkedIn
• 
  WhatsApp
• 
  Reddit

Add JewishInsider on Google

TALKING TURKEY

Bipartisan group of House lawmakers urge Trump to be ‘very careful’ in Erdogan talks

A bipartisan group of House members urged the administration to “be very careful” in negotiations with Turkey about its potential reentry into a program allowing it to acquire and potentially co-produce F-35 fighter jets, ahead of a White House meeting today between President Donald Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

Background: Trump said Friday that he would host Erdogan at the White House for trade and military talks, “including the large-scale purchase of Boeing aircraft, a major F-16 Deal, and a continuation of the F-35 talks, which we expect to conclude positively.” Lawmakers have been pressing for months for the administration to be cautious in allowing Turkey to acquire the advanced fighter jets, something it has been banned by law from doing since it purchased a Russian S-400 missile defense system. By law, Turkey must dispense with that system before it can be readmitted into the F-35 program, but some lawmakers have pushed for additional conditions, given various conflicts with Turkey, including its hostile posture toward Israel.

Read the full story here.

SHARE

Share options

• 
  Facebook
• 
  Telegram
• 
  LinkedIn
• 
  WhatsApp
• 
  Reddit

Add JewishInsider on Google

COLOMBIA CONCERNS

House members urge State Department to counter Bogota antisemitism

A bipartisan group of 18 House members is urging the State Department to pressure Colombia’s government to change course on what the lawmakers describe as a dangerous pattern of antisemitic rhetoric and policies by government officials, including the country’s president, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

Call to action: “As U.S.-Colombia relations continue to be strained by numerous issues, including the increasingly troubling antisemitic rhetoric and discriminatory policies from Colombian President Gustavo Petro, which are directly threatening the safety and well-being of Colombia’s Jewish community, we write to urge the administration to consider even stronger actions, including leveraging U.S. assistance to push for meaningful change in President Petro and his government,” the lawmakers, led by Reps. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) and Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL), said in a letter sent on Monday to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Read the full story here.

SHARE

Share options

• 
  Facebook
• 
  Telegram
• 
  LinkedIn
• 
  WhatsApp
• 
  Reddit

Add JewishInsider on Google

Pic of the Day

Oyster Bay (Long Island) Town Supervisor Joseph Saladino and members of the Town Board were joined on Sunday by Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, District Attorney Anne Donnelly, community leaders, clergy, students and residents to dedicate a parklet in Plainview in memory of Omer Neutra, who grew up in the community and was killed in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel while serving in the IDF.

Birthdays

Director and co-creator of the award-winning HBO series “Game of Thrones,” known professionally as David Benioff, David Friedman turns 55…

Member of the U.K.’s House of Lords, Baroness Vivien Helen Stern turns 84… Former member of Knesset, he also served as Israel’s ambassador to France and then the United Nations, Yehuda Lancry turns 78… Lakewood Ranch, Fla., resident, Dvora Millstone turns 77… Israeli television anchor and popular singer, Yardena Arazi turns 74… Founder of ALMA, she served as a member of Knesset for Yesh Atid from 2013-2015, Ruth Calderon turns 64… President and CEO of Israel Aerospace Industries, Boaz Levy turns 64… Founder, chairman and CEO of Salesforce, Marc Russell Benioff turns 61… Best-selling author and serial entrepreneur, Marissa Levin… Son and grandson of leading British rabbis, he is the senior rabbi at the Beverly Hills Synagogue, Pinchas Eliezer “Pini” Dunner turns 55… Former member of the Knesset for Likud, she has appeared on multiple Israeli reality television shows, Inbal Gavrieli turns 50… White House correspondent for NPR, Tamara Keith turns 46… Member of the California State Assembly where he serves as co-chair of the Legislative Jewish Caucus, Jesse Gabriel turns 44… VP of government relations at the ADL, Carmiel Arbit… Features writer at New York magazine and its culture magazine Vulture, Lila Shapiro… Actor and comedian, best known for his role as Gabe Lewis on the NBC sitcom “The Office,” Zach Woods turns 41… Videographer and virtual program producer for the U.S. State Department, Mitchell Israel Malasky… Assistant appellate federal defender at Federal Defenders of San Diego, Daniel Yadron… Former center and power forward for Maccabi Tel Aviv of the Israeli Basketball Premier League and the EuroLeague, Jacob Greer (Jake) Cohen turns 35… Asset manager for Capital Realty Group, Yanky Rodman… Senior director of Next Gen at Christians United for Israel, Destiny Albritton… Strategic director at Laurel Strategies, Adam Basciano…

Israel is eyeing the upcoming United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization executive board meeting with concern, with Egypt and Qatar poised to take influential roles in the body.

Qatar is set to take the body’s chairmanship, and former Egyptian Tourism and Antiquities Minister Khaled el-Enani is considered a leading candidate for the organization’s director-general.

UNESCO is focused on international cooperation in education, culture and science and communication. Its most prominent project is its list of World Heritage Sites that members pledge to safeguard and adhere to global norms for preservation. Its annual budget in recent years has been about $1.5 billion.

The Jewish state has historically faced challenges in UNESCO, which ratified multiple resolutions in the past decade declaring the Temple Mount, Western Wall and the Old City of Jerusalem to be endangered Muslim and Christian sites, while excluding the millenia-old Jewish connection. The “State of Palestine” has been a full member of UNESCO since 2011, and the organization recognizes five Palestinian heritage sites, including the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, a Jewish and Muslim holy site; UNESCO resolutions relating to Hebron have also left out its Jewish history. In 2009-2014, UNESCO approved 46 resolutions widely viewed as critical of Israel.

Yet, in recent years, with former French Culture Minister Audrey Azoulay at the helm of UNESCO — the first Jewish person to hold the position — the organization managed to lower the temperature over contentious issues in the Middle East, and she pushed for the advancement of Holocaust education and the fight against antisemitism. Azoulay will complete her second term in November; the departing chairperson of the UNESCO Executive Board is Vera Lacoeuilhe of Saint Lucia. 

The UNESCO Executive Board Meeting will begin on Wednesday in Paris and continue for two weeks, during which the new board chairperson and director general will be selected. The director general must receive a majority vote on Oct. 6, while the executive board chairmanship rotates between geographic blocs and the Middle East bloc agreed to put Qatar in the role.

With two Arab countries expected to assume UNESCO’s leading positions, some observers have expressed concern that Israel may again face disproportionate scrutiny and criticism — a pattern seen in other U.N. bodies where geopolitical tensions often rise to the surface.

The Trump administration left UNESCO earlier this year. The first Trump administration departed the organization in 2017, after which the Biden administration returned. Washington is left with little influence to help Israel or push back against decisions it may view as against its own interests.

“It’s an odd situation where we have announced we are leaving, so it matters far less to us,” former Trump administration official and Foundation for Defense of Democracies Senior Advisor Rich Goldberg told Jewish Insider. “In fact, it reinforces how broken the agency is and why we should be in opposition to it, not in the middle of it.”

The potential new leadership of UNESCO is “bad for Israel and bad for America,” an Israeli diplomat told JI this week.

An Israeli diplomatic source said that it is an “unusual combination to have a director general and chairman of the executive board from Arab countries. It puts Israel at a disadvantage. … Israel is not a member of the executive board and has no influence on who will be chairman.”

Still, Israel tried to advocate for friendlier candidates in the past year, though the diplomatic source called the effort “somewhat pointless, because they have an almost automatic majority. There’s a bloc of Muslim countries, and those who support Qatar.”

Qatari Ambassador to UNESCO Nasser bin Hamad Al Hanzab is a leading candidate to chair UNESCO’s Executive Board for the next two years, according to diplomatic sources.

Qatar is one of the largest donors to UNESCO, contributing millions of dollars in the last decade and hosting a regional office in Doha, whose expenses are covered by the Qatar Fund for Development. The Gulf state’s Sheikha Moza Bint Nasser is a UNESCO Special Envoy for Basic and Higher Education. 

Qatar is also one of the top donors to the U.N., broadly, increasing its contributions since 2020, including pledging over $1 billion to humanitarian agencies in 2018 and 2020.

“Qatar has the money and the influence,” the Israeli diplomatic source said. “It’s a game where the result is known in advance. There isn’t a lot that can be done.”

Goldberg said that “the Qataris have learned from the Chinese how to leverage international organizations for global legitimacy and national interests. We now must come to terms with a U.N. where both the [Chinese Communist Party] and the [Qatar-backed] Muslim Brotherhood seek control of U.N. bodies to advance their interests and undermine America’s.”

“They’ve poured billions into cultural and educational influence across the world,” he added. “This is a logical U.N. body for Qatar to co-opt.”

El-Enani is an archeologist by profession and a professor of Egyptology. During his tenure as Egypt’s minister of tourism and antiquities, Cairo put substantial effort and resources into refurbishing its ancient sites, such as Luxor. 

A diplomatic source said that Qatar is actively backing el-Enani, who played a role in strengthening the Gulf state’s ties with Egypt, after years of tensions between the countries due to Doha’s sponsorship of the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Jazeera, which supported the overthrow of the Egyptian government in 2011. Qatar is one of the largest sponsors of the Giza Pyramids UNESCO World Heritage Site project led by el-Enani when he was in government. El-Enani has been featured at events hosted by Qatari embassies around the world in recent years.

Journalists across the Middle East have also accused el-Enani and his campaign of corruption. Doha-based journalist Mohammed Al-Qadusi published a recording that he said was a conversation between Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abd-Ela’ati with Egyptian Ambassador to the Netherlands Emad Hana in which the latter suggested offering a gift to UNESCO executive board members to improve his chances of winning. Egyptian TV anchor Mohammed Naser said in an on-camera monologue that el-Enani represents a “corrupt regime” and had misused public funds, allowed for the destruction of archeological sites and lacked transparency when spending on large events. 

Coptic Christians have spoken out against el-Enani’s candidacy, saying that Egypt violated UNESCO’s rules for World Heritage Sites by declaring a historic monastery property of the state and noted Cairo’s systemic discrimination against the minority population, which makes up 12-15% of Egyptians. 

El-Enani is running against Firmin Edouard Matoko, a former senior UNESCO official from Congo, and Gabriela Ilian Ramos Patino of Mexico, a former senior official at UNESCO and the OECD.

The Israeli diplomatic source said that “who the director-general appoints to key roles, such as his deputies and the head of departments will be significant.”

He also said it is unclear where el-Enani will stand on Israel-related matters — the options likely being either sympathetic to the Palestinians or seeking to avoid controversy as UNESCO has done in recent years, by watering down Palestinian resolutions’ texts so that they do not attack or delegitimize Israel. 

But if the Palestinians propose resolutions that are hostile to Israel, “the automatic majority brings them success in almost everything. [Israel is] fighting defensively. … We aren’t abandoning this arena to the Palestinians. We make sure to emphasize with historic documents and archeological findings the Israeli connection to Jerusalem and Hebron,” he said.

In addition to advancing education, science and culture, UNESCO protects independent media and press freedom. Despite owning the Al Jazeera media empire, Qatar ranks 79th out of 180 in the World Press Freedom Index, and Egypt ranks 170th and is one of the world’s biggest jailers of journalists.

In the coming months, Israel plans to submit proposals to double its current number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, 17. The list of 18 new sites includes ancient synagogues in the Upper Galilee and the Carmel Nature Reserve.

Israel also submitted a report to UNESCO earlier this year about damage caused by Iranian missile attacks to Tel Aviv’s White City, a World Heritage Site due to its Bauhaus architecture.

In Washington, whether a public official or their spokesperson is speaking honestly is usually not fully known until much later. Take Israel’s attack on Qatar last week: the Trump administration claimed not to have known about it ahead of time, but Israeli officials told Axios that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had given President Donald Trump a heads-up.

When a president leaves office, his former staffers tend to get rather loose-lipped — an opportunity for them to rehabilitate their reputation and, perhaps, tell the truth about their views (or at least the narrative they’d like to put forward on their own terms, not those of their boss). 

The past few months have provided such an opportunity to the three architects of President Joe Biden’s Middle East policy team: Secretary of State Tony Blinken, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and Brett McGurk, Biden’s coordinator for the Middle East at the White House. All of them played a crucial role in shaping American policy toward Israel and Gaza after Oct. 7. Each has in recent months written op-eds and made lengthy appearances on podcasts and cable news to comment on developments in the Middle East. 

Looking at where Blinken, Sullivan and McGurk have positioned themselves publicly, without the constraints of government service, is a sign of the options available to Democrats right now, at a moment when the party’s future is up for grabs — with an ascendant anti-Israel wing that is exerting stronger influence than ever, though it remains in the minority. 

Sullivan, a measured foreign policy hand with a keen eye for politics, has in recent weeks begun saying that the U.S. should consider withholding weapons to Israel, a position he said he did not support one year ago. Whether Sullivan’s shift to the left represents a genuine change of heart or a response to shifting political winds within the Democratic Party, it’s a sharp departure from the way Biden governed. 

McGurk, meanwhile, has been more willing to give the Israelis leeway in their prosecution of the war in Gaza and actions elsewhere in the Middle East. McGurk, used to being the behind-the-scenes negotiator who traveled regularly to Doha, Jerusalem and Cairo after Oct. 7, is now a commentator on CNN. That’s where he said in June that he gives “extremely high marks” to Trump for the way he handled Israel’s 12-day war with Iran and Washington’s brief entry into that conflict — while Sullivan has said the U.S. strikes weren’t necessary. 

Helming the State Department, Blinken was Biden’s chief diplomat. And now, he finds himself in the middle of McGurk and Sullivan: navigating the party’s leftward pull while also sticking by his pro-Israel bona fides. He wrote in The New York Times in June that Trump shouldn’t have struck Iran — but now that Trump did so, “I very much hope it succeeded.” When many Democrats last month came out in support of European efforts to recognize a Palestinian state, a unilateral move that Israel opposes, Blinken wrote in The Wall Street Journal that he thinks it’s the right thing to do — but that France, Canada and the U.K. are “doing it too hastily,” and without needed conditions. 

None of these men are aligned with the party’s far-left wing that seeks to sanction and isolate Israel on the world stage. Even Sullivan, in his commentary saying the U.S. should withhold weapons to Israel, is quick to point out the horrible toll of the Oct. 7 attacks two years ago and to praise Israel for weakening other threats in the Middle East, like Iran and Hezbollah, its proxy in Lebanon. 

But keep an eye on the subtle yet shifting ways each of them approaches Israel and the Middle East to better understand the paths open to Democrats, as the party considers how to move forward and rebuild its battered brand in the era of Trump.  

In the aftermath of Israel’s strike aimed at Hamas leaders in Qatar, questions have emerged about how much the U.S. knew, the extent of President Donald Trump’s frustration with Israel’s actions, and what it means for the U.S.-Israel relationship.

But another important question is whether the strike marks a turning point for Qatar — and whether the Gulf nation may now be considering a shift in its own role and behavior. 

The fact that the Trump administration has not dwelled on the attack — even sending Secretary of State Marco Rubio to Israel for a warm visit days after the strike — may give Doha pause. While Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the strike “did not advance Israel or America’s goals,” in the next breath, she said that “eliminating Hamas, who have profited off the misery of those living in Gaza, is a worthy goal.” That goes against the Qataris’ preferred narrative, that the U.S. wants it to host terrorists because they’re the only conduit to Hamas, the Taliban and others.

With that in mind, Qatar could reconsider the business of harboring terrorists, because it has become too risky. Though the UAE was not in the terror-supporting business and has long opposed the Muslim Brotherhood, it didn’t prevent people like Hamas terrorist Mahmoud al-Mabhouh from visiting the UAE until the Mossad killed him in Dubai in 2010. The Emiratis publicly railed against Israel and the then-quiet relations between the countries were set back, but the UAE cracked down and banned such individuals associated with terror groups from entering their country.

However, Qatar does not seem to be taking recent events as a signal to change. Doha roundly condemned Israel, threatened to stop mediating hostage talks and convened an Arab summit to condemn Israel further. Senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad appeared on Al Jazeera yesterday, with the chyron stating that he was in Doha, and the wife of senior Hamas official Khalil al-Haya was spotted visiting the grave of her son, killed in the strike, with Qatari security. On Tuesday, the Qatari Defense Minister hosted his Taliban counterpart.

And while Qatar could respond to the strike by turning away from America, it does not seem to have done that, either. Doha publicly denied reports that they were reconsidering its relationship with Washington. After its initial statement, Qatar said it would continue mediating Gaza hostage and ceasefire talks, and shifted to blaming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, rather than Israel, broadly. Doha softened its language in Arabic to describe the hostages, moving from “prisoners” to “captives,” according to Ariel Admoni, a Qatar expert at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security (JISS).

Admoni said that Doha’s “two-faced strategy has survived. … They are trying to keep up their Islamist and American ties. They can do both, and it pays for them.”

While the U.S. did not stop the Israeli strike, “no one is suggesting that Qatar expel Hamas,” Admoni noted. “Qatar is getting the legitimacy to continue hosting Hamas. It doesn’t look like Qatari public gestures to Hamas anger America.” 

Rubio publicly praised Doha and asked it to continue playing a role in mediating between Hamas and Israel, and other administration figures have continued calling Qatar a great ally.

For the Doha strike to truly represent a crossroads for Qatar, at which it will have to choose between continuing to harbor terrorists or deepening its economic ties with the West, real pressure must be applied. Barring that, and with the Trump administration seemingly eager to stay in Doha’s good graces, Qatar has little incentive to change.

Asked on the Misgav Institute for National Security and Zionist Strategy’s “Mideast Horizons” podcast this week why the U.S. doesn’t put more pressure on Qatar, Richard Goldberg, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ senior advisor and a former Trump administration official, said that “despite bad actions, [Qatar] host[s] a major artery of the U.S. military in Al-Udeid Air Base … You could say, why do we have one of the most important bases right across the Persian Gulf from Iran and within missile range? Maybe we shouldn’t have critical assets right there … But the Pentagon doesn’t think that way. This is just how they do business and it would be too hard to think about something else — and [they say Qatar] are great partners for hosting us.”

Calling Qatar “a gas station with a television station,” Goldberg, who was the Trump administration’s National Energy Dominance Council’s senior counselor, noted that Qatari dominance in the natural gas market is also a factor in which there is “interdependence, but also a competition.” The fact that the U.S. is “a competitor with the Qataris [is] a dynamic that has not been explored enough by the Trump administration. The president wants to make America energy dominant,” he added.

Goldberg also noted that some members of the administration — who he did not name but include Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff — worked with Qatar before working for the Trump administration: “I don’t even think that they agree with the Qataris hosting Hamas or sponsoring Hamas, and I think they would probably, at some point, indict the Hamas people … but when you’re in the private sector and this isn’t your No. 1 thing,” you’re willing to take their money. South Carolina, home of hawkish Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), is “hugely economically reliant on Qatar. … There’s a reason they picked South Carolina” for investments.

These are all part of Qatar’s “very sophisticated” moves, he said, to build an “influence network … and how they become insulated,” even as they continue to host Hamas.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. is focused on moving forward from Israel’s strike on Qatar last week, refraining from doubling down on criticism during a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Monday.

“We are just focused on what happens next,” Rubio said, when asked about Tuesday’s strike aiming at Hamas’ leadership in Doha, Qatar’s capital. On Saturday, Rubio had echoed comments by President Donald Trump that the U.S. “is not happy” about the strike.

“Some fundamentals still remain that have to be addressed, regardless of what has occurred,” Rubio said at the press conference on Monday. “We still have 48 hostages. Hamas is holding not only 48 hostages but all of Gaza hostage … As long as they still exist, are still around, there will be no peace in this region.”

Rubio said the end of the war in Gaza, disarmament of Hamas and freeing the hostages are “pillars of what we hope will happen in the region.”

The secretary of state said that the U.S. not only wants Qatar to continue to play a role in those matters “but also in a better future for the people of Gaza, which cannot happen with Hamas intact. We are going to continue to encourage Qatar to play a constructive role in that regard.” Rubio is scheduled to visit Qatar on Tuesday after concluding his trip in Israel.

As to the chance of a negotiated deal to end the war, Rubio said that “the problem is Hamas is a terrorist group, a barbaric group, committed to destroying the Jewish state, so it probably won’t happen.”

“I don’t think there’s anyone who wouldn’t prefer a negotiated settlement,” he added. “That would be the ideal outcome we can see, one we worked on, but we need to be prepared for the reality that savage terrorists don’t often agree to disarm.”

Netanyahu reiterated that “Israel’s decision to act against Hamas’ terrorist leadership was a wholly independent decision by Israel … It was conducted by us and we assume full responsibility for it, because we believe terrorists should not be given a haven.”

As to those saying Israel violated Qatari sovereignty, Netanyahu said that the U.S. took similar action against the Taliban in Afghanistan and Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.

“You don’t have such sovereignty when you are effectively giving a base to terrorists, a place where they can ply their gruesome trade,” he said.

Netanyahu also took issue with a claim made by a reporter during the press conference that the Doha strike was a failure, because it remains unclear if any of Hamas’ leaders were killed. The prime minister said Israel is waiting for further reports on the matter.

“I’ll tell you the results,” he added. “We sent a message to the terrorists. You can run, you can hide, but we’ll get you. … I don’t accept the premise that the raid failed, because it had one central message. … If the terrorists think they enjoy immunity they’ll do it again and again, and if you deny that immunity, they’ll think twice.”

Netanyahu opened the press conference by paying tribute to the “powerful bond” between Israel and the U.S. and thanking Trump for helping target Iran’s nuclear facilities in June, as well as his efforts to free the hostages remaining in Gaza, 20 of whom are believed to still be alive.

Rubio said that Iran is a threat not only because of its pursuit of nuclear weapons, but because of its development of short and midrange missiles that can reach across the Middle East and into Europe.

“This is an unacceptable risk not just for Israel but for the U.S. and the world, which is why the president has continued with his campaign of maximum pressure on Iran until they change course,” Rubio said. “We are encouraged by our partners in Europe beginning the process of snapping back [sanctions] on Iran, who are clearly out of compliance [with the 2015 nuclear deal]. We 100% support that; that’s what needs to happen.” 

The secretary of state criticized countries that recently announced they would recognize a Palestinian state.

“The things these nations are doing in the U.N. are largely because of domestic politics. They’re largely symbolic. The only impact they have is to make Hamas feel emboldened … You know, there’s a negotiation going on and maybe you think you made some progress on getting hostages released and ending the war, and then these things come out and Hamas walks away … They see international support, they believe they’re getting what they want, and they walk away,” Rubio said.

Rubio also spoke about his plan to attend the inauguration of the Pilgrims Road on Monday evening. The site features the path on which Jewish pilgrims walked to the Second Temple in Jerusalem, which Rubio described as “perhaps one of the most important archeological sites on the planet, important to many in the U.S.”

The secretary of state arrived in Israel on Sunday, beginning his visit with prayers at the Western Wall with Netanyahu. He also met with Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer on Monday.

Israel’s first ambassador to the United Arab Emirates said on Thursday that he is “very, very worried” about the future of the Abraham Accords, as Israel’s ties in the Gulf are coming under strain following an Israeli attack on Hamas leaders in Qatar earlier this week.

“For the last week, I am almost not sleeping. I’m very, very worried,” Amir Hayek said at a webinar hosted by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy marking the five-year anniversary of the signing of the Accords, when Israel normalized ties with the UAE. 

UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed flew to Doha this week in a show of support for Qatar after the Israeli attack. Reports have indicated that Israel did not successfully hit the terror leaders it targeted, instead killing several lower-level Hamas officials. Other Gulf leaders, including Jordan’s Crown Prince Hussein and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, also planned visits to Doha, and Qatar will host an emergency summit with Arab leaders on Sunday. 

A barrage of criticism directed at Israel — including from President Donald Trump — has sparked fears that its goal of regional integration could now be even farther away. 

“I believe that Israel should look at our partners as partners, and talk to them, and not let this situation and the Abraham Accords collapse,” said Hayek, who was ambassador to the UAE from 2021 to 2024. “I think that it will be very hard to rebuild the Abraham Accords if we will pass a point of breaking them, even if we think that we can do it for a few months. No. No. We need to do everything to protect the Abraham Accords.”

Hayek did not specifically reference Israel’s actions in Qatar, nor did he mention Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision on Thursday to move forward with a controversial new settlement expansion plan, known as the E1 corridor, in the West Bank. But he suggested “internal Israeli politics” may be at play.

“We [Israel] didn’t start the war, but we need to know when to finish the war,” said Hayek. “Maybe it’s related to the internal Israeli politics. But we all need to be very, very wise in order to protect, I think, one of the most important things that we have in our region.” 

Hayek, a businessman who is now a fellow at the Atlantic Council, said he is still doing everything in his power to promote Israel’s ties with the UAE and with Bahrain.

“To be an ambassador, it’s not a lifetime job, but it’s a lifetime mission,” said Hayek. “I’m talking not only to the Emiratis, Bahrainis and other countries. I’m talking to my government as well, saying we need to do everything needed in order to keep those relations.”

Hayek maintains hope in the future of the Accords. But if their promise was already being tested by the war in Gaza, it has grown even more fraught this week.

“Hope is my middle name, and I think that I will need a lot of hope these days when we see some difficulties with the Abraham Accords,” said Hayek. “I hope that the Abraham Accords will stand … and we’ll go forward with our partners and friends in the Middle East.”