Rep. Greg Landsman (D-OH) called on Qatar last week to step up more forcefully to pressure Hamas and bring about a hostage-release and ceasefire deal in Gaza, including taking into custody the Hamas leaders who have long enjoyed safe haven in Doha.

Landsman, in a lengthy X thread about the conflict in Gaza, took aim at various parties, including Qatar, which he called a “huge barrier” to peace given its continued support for Hamas. He revealed that he had rejected an invitation from the Qatari government for one of his staff members to travel to the country.

“It’s time to call the question on everybody, including the Qataris. There are legitimate questions about whether or not they should be doing more, they could be doing more,” Landsman said in an interview with Jewish Insider. “[Hamas] just refuses to engage anymore.”

In light of that situation, Landsman argued that every potential lever to change Hamas’ calculus must be explored and pursued.

He said that Qatar, as “the entity that has the most influence” over Hamas at this point, “has to feel way more pressure from the international community to do everything in their power” to get to a deal. The status quo of Hamas leaders living lavish lives in Qatar “should absolutely be questioned,” Landsman said.

He said he’s heard from Israeli officials and others involved in the hostage talks that the Qataris are “not seen as a trusted partner in this effort to end the war.”

In a letter to the Qatari ambassador rejecting the invitation for his staffer to travel to the kingdom, Landsman offered bracing criticism of Qatar’s role in hostage talks.

“Qatar’s gross mishandling of the hostage crisis in Gaza and failure to sufficiently pressure Hamas into ending the war prevents me from allowing staff to visit your country,” Landsman said. “That you continue to tolerate this obstructionist behavior from your terrorist beneficiary is incomprehensible.” 

Calling the Hamas political leaders in Qatar who are representing the terrorist group in hostage talks “useless,” Landsman called on Qatar to detain the Hamas leaders until the hostages are released and other reforms are implemented in Gaza.

He called on Doha to end “future financial support for Hamas and Gaza” until the hostages are released and other reforms are implemented and to take steps to address antisemitic and pro-Hamas content on Al-Jazeera, the Qatari state-run media outlet.

He said he would be glad to send his staff on a trip to Qatar and to work with the country after it had taken the steps he outlined.

Landsman told JI that his conversations with Israeli leaders, on issues such as the need for additional humanitarian aid, produce change — albeit sometimes not as fast as or as comprehensively as he would hope. 

With Qatar, he said, “I have had so many conversations and nothing changes.” He indicated that his engagements with Qatar earlier in the war had been more productive, noting that he’d arranged to bring a delegation of hostage families to meet with the Qatari ambassador shortly after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks during which their family members were kidnapped.

Beyond squeezing Hamas’ leadership in Qatar, Landsman said he wants to see the country step up as not just a meditator and facilitator of dialogue, but as a more active partner in pursuing a two-state solution and regional peace.

He said that Qatar’s lobbying efforts in the United States, its outreach to lawmakers and their staff, its funding of U.S. colleges and universities and other efforts to assert its influence domestically show that the country “care[s] deeply about what we think.”

“That is why I sent the letter and why I’m pushing and doing it publicly,” Landsman said. “I’m sitting here as one member of Congress trying to do everything in my power to end this crisis. … They want the West to like them. They want us to see them as a partner, as an ally.”

In spite of his current criticisms, Landsman did not at this point embrace the idea of moving the U.S. airbase in Qatar elsewhere in the region, arguing that the U.S. should not give up on its relationship with Doha.

“What I am saying is there are expectations of partners, and our partnership will be so much stronger if [Qatar’s] relationship with this terrorist entity ends,” he explained. “That relationship has potential, but it should go in the direction that makes the most sense for our national security and peace and stability in the region, and that means resolving their Hamas issue.”

Landsman also called for shifts in Israel’s strategy in Gaza, saying that the humanitarian crisis is real and that he has spoken directly to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the need to increase humanitarian aid.

He said Israel should be doing more to create humanitarian safe zones for civilians and to separate Hamas from the rest of the population of Gaza. And he argued that by sending in an “avalanche” of aid, Israel would diminish the impact of Hamas’ diversion of aid shipments.

He said Israel should also pull back on its large-scale campaign in Gaza and focus on targeted operations to find and liberate the hostages. 

Asked about the impact of fellow Democratic lawmakers and the international community blaming Israel for the continuation of the war, Landsman said that there is a place for pressure on Israel to adjust its strategy, “but don’t abandon our ally. This is one of the most important allies we have.”

He also emphasized that Hamas has shown no interest in or willingness to agree to a new hostage deal and that international attacks on Israel will embolden it further.

“If they continue to see people just hammering away at Israel — which they believe is critical for them to achieve their goal, which of course is to destroy the State of Israel — they will continue to [fight],” Landsman said.

Landsman characterized the recent Arab League statement condemning the Oct. 7 attack and calling for Hamas to release the hostages as an important public step in pressuring Hamas.

He said the statement’s public rejection of Hamas mirrors what he has heard privately from Arab leaders for months. “I think this is going to put more pressure on Qatar to figure out a much better path forward with their unique issues with Hamas,” Landsman said.

Ceasefire and hostage-release talks have been ongoing in Doha, Qatar, for the last week. But one of the most consequential meetings in the negotiations could be happening tonight in Washington, when President Donald Trump hosts Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani for dinner at the White House.

This continues a new tradition for Trump of hosting prominent Gulf royals who aren’t the heads of state of their respective countries for dinner at the White House. In March, Trump hosted a dinner in the White House’s State Dining Room for Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the United Arab Emirates’ national security advisor and chairman of several sovereign wealth funds. 

Qatari officials have been in the U.S. all week. Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani was rumored to have met with Trump on the sidelines of the FIFA finals in New Jersey on Sunday, after being spotted in New York over the weekend. 

White House Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, whose trip to Doha last week was postponed over stalled talks, told reporters over the weekend that he planned to meet with Qatari negotiators on the sidelines of the match. And Trump shared a suite with senior Qatari sports officials at the match, including Nasser bin Ghanim Al-Khelaifi, the president of the Paris Saint-Germain team who played in New Jersey on Sunday and chairman of beIN Sports, previously known as Al Jazeera Sport. (In a weekend interview at the FIFA match, Trump even noted Qatar’s “big presence.”)

Qatar also loomed large in Washington this week, where legislators on the House Education and the Workforce Committee pressed university leaders from Georgetown, CUNY and the University of California, Berkeley about their foreign funding sources during a hearing about antisemitism in higher education. Former Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA), one of Qatar’s top lobbyists in Washington, was seen sitting right behind Georgetown University interim President Robert Groves as Groves testified on Tuesday. The school has received over $1 billion from Qatar, and has a campus in Doha.

Qatar’s be-everywhere, invest-in-everything strategy has allowed Doha to gain footholds across the global economy and in diplomatic circles. And since the start of the war, it has sought to highlight its role as a facilitator of ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas, the latter of which Doha supports financially and diplomatically.

With Iran weakened following last month’s war, Qatar remains the Hamas sponsor with the most leverage on the terror group. Despite pledges last year to expel senior Hamas officials to Turkey, many of those officials remain in Qatar.

Earlier this week, Trump threatened steep tariffs on Russia if Moscow doesn’t reach a peace agreement with Ukraine before the end of August. But the Qatari royal family, with endless wealth and more favored global standing, does not face the same fiscal and geopolitical challenges and limitations as Russian President Vladimir Putin. It’s unclear what leverage Trump could use to push Qatar to exert pressure on Hamas as he seeks a resolution to the war.

Doha has the power to push Hamas to accept a ceasefire. Whether tonight’s dinner will exact a change in Qatar’s approach to Hamas remains to be seen. The sit-down between Trump and the Qatari prime minister could change the tide in the 21-month war, or it could serve as yet another missed opportunity in a war full of stalemates and diplomatic posturing — with fresh casualties mounting on both sides and 50 hostages still languishing in captivity.

A breakthrough in negotiations between Israel and Hamas for a temporary ceasefire and hostage-release deal is likely to take longer than expected, a senior Israeli official in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s delegation to Washington told reporters on Monday, after Netanyahu’s dinner with President Donald Trump.

“We hoped that [a deal] would take a few days, but it may take more time,” the official said.

The negotiations in Doha, Qatar, are “fully coordinated” with the Trump administration, and Netanyahu and Trump may meet again “if necessary” while the prime minister is in Washington this week, the official said. Netanyahu is expected to return to Israel on Thursday afternoon, but in the past, he has extended his visits.

Israel and Hamas have been in negotiations mediated by the U.S. and Qatar for a 60-day ceasefire, in which Hamas would gradually free half of the 50 remaining hostages, approximately 20 of whom are thought to be alive, in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. In addition, Israel would withdraw from parts of the Gaza Strip, while keeping troops in the area’s perimeter and along key corridors.

Hamas responded to the temporary ceasefire proposal over the weekend, asking for many changes, the senior Israeli official said, to the extent that  “Hamas’ answer was essentially no.”

Hamas previously rejected a similar proposal when Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff presented it earlier this year, but now, the official said, “the gaps are small enough for there to be talks.”

A second official on the delegation said the current proposal presents Israel with “80-90% of what it wanted to get.”  

In addition to a continued presence on the Philadelphi Corridor, along the Gaza-Egypt border, where Israel has insisted on maintaining control since it reached the area in May 2024, the senior official said that Israel is demanding to keep troops along the Morag Corridor, slightly north of Philadelphi, which separates the southern Gazan cities of Rafah and Khan Younis.

A deal to end the Gaza war is not on the table because “Hamas is not responsive to the conditions that would allow a comprehensive agreement,” such as demilitarization for Gaza and exile for remaining Hamas leaders, the senior official explained. Without those conditions, “Hamas could do [the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks] again.” 

“The conversation in the [news] studios that we can finish the war now is delusional. [Hamas] would see that as a major victory that could allow Iran to recover and Hezbollah to recover. I believe that with military and diplomatic pressure, we can bring back all of the hostages. Our pressure is neutralizing Hamas’ ability to control [Gaza],” the official said.

Israel’s vision for Gaza after the war is that “there is no more Hamas; Hamas is dismantled. Another force takes over the territory, the leaders are exiled and Hamas lays down its weapons … I need Gaza demilitarized, and I mean it.”

The senior official did not rule out the possibility that forces affiliated with the Palestinian Authority could be part of the other force, noting that there may be Fatah members in the existing militias that are pushing back against Hamas in Gaza.

“There needs to be another system that administers life [in Gaza]. I’m not certain that it won’t be [Israel], maybe it will be for some time and then we’ll pass it to someone else,” the senior Israeli official said.

The senior Israeli official addressed a plan, previously proposed by Trump, in which the population of Gaza is relocated outside of the Strip, saying that after the meeting between the president and Netanyahu, the official is convinced that the president was serious.

“The plan is alive,” he said. “What is needed is operational coordination, not just in the goal but how to achieve it, and that is what we discussed. The will is there.”

When it comes to Iran, the senior Israeli official said that Jerusalem and Washington are now working “to preserve our achievements against Iran, to prevent uranium enrichment and ballistic missile [production].”

According to the official, there has never been a time in which the governments of Israel and the U.S. have been more coordinated, and that the sides trust each other.

Israel “didn’t ask for and didn’t receive a green light from Trump to attack Iran. There is a different relationship now,” the official said. “We agree on things … You also don’t need to get approval. He understands that we have existential needs.” 

A second Israeli official said Netanyahu and Trump’s administrations “had diplomatic coordination before the attack, military coordination during the attack, and now diplomatic coordination again.”