This article originally appeared in Israel Hayom on September 16, 2025.
The recent Israeli strike on a Doha villa where leaders of Hamas’ political wing had met failed to achieve all of its objectives, but it demonstrates the State of Israel’s determination to pursue Islamist terrorists to the bitter end, wherever they may be: in Gaza, Doha, Istanbul, or Paris. Similar to the hunt for the Nazis after World War II or after the 1972 Munich massacre of 11 Israeli athletes. No country in the world can lecture us or stop our fight against Islamist terrorism. We are following exactly the American and European policies following the spectacular attack of September 11, 2001, in New York.
Unlike most countries on the planet, we have been fighting Arab terrorism for over a century in order to live in peace and absolute security. Our struggle is therefore existential.
In this context, the UN Security Council’s condemnation of Israel is unfair and hypocritical. We particularly deplore the American position in this matter. An operation 1,800 km from our borders requires meticulous planning and very precise intelligence. But how dare the Americans, our best allies, who warned before this operation, also inform the Qataris of the Israeli attack? And yet, it exclusively targeted Hamas leaders, those who glorify the barbaric massacre of October 7, 2023.
Hasn’t Doha become a sanctuary for Islamist terrorism? Why does the free world, led by America, let this happen? Money certainly has no smell, but Qatari money is filthy, stinking of nauseating corruption.
We deeply regret that our government and Israeli businessmen and communications strategists played the Qatari card and also enabled this dangerous double game. It is unimaginable to allow Qatar to transfer hundreds of millions of dollars to Hamas in order to continue the armed resistance against the Jewish state.
Qatar is a tiny Arab emirate that has been pursuing a complex and ambiguous policy for several decades, but it is not considered an enemy, and therefore, we have had trade relations with the Qataris, as we do with the other Persian Gulf emirates. After the Oslo Accords were signed in 1993, we even opened an interest office in Doha. Since then, contacts have continued with the Mossad as part of indirect talks between Israel and Hamas on the release of the hostages.
Ambitious, proud, and pretentious, the emirs of Qatar believe they can conquer the world, buy villas, palaces, and football teams, thanks to their natural resources, and fill their pockets with money. These newly rich exploit a majority of poor foreign workers, flouting all basic humanitarian and union rules. They know no bounds and often cross red lines.
Cunning and unscrupulous, they offer their mediation to resolve ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and even in the Ukrainian crisis, ready to negotiate the release of hostages, while harboring Palestinian terrorist leaders and supporting the Shiite Ayatollahs in Tehran.
Therefore, President Trump must demand that Qatar expel all Hamas members from its territory and prevent any escalation in the region. Normalization within the framework of the Abraham Accords and the resolution of Gaza cannot be advanced as long as Hamas has a strong presence in Doha and sabotages any attempt at rapprochement between the Arab world and Israel.
Qatar is home to the largest American base in the Middle East and has just signed a huge investment agreement with President Trump, but this is not an excuse, especially when the emirs financially support universities in America and propagate an agenda of their own, as well as pro-Palestinian and anti-Semitic networks.
Two days after the attack on Hamas leaders in Doha, President Trump hosted a lavish dinner for Qatari Prime Minister Mohamed bin Al-Thani, just as the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly adopted, to the dismay of the United States, the famous “New York Declaration” supporting a future Palestinian state.
This eight-page document states that “Hamas must cease its authority over the Gaza Strip.” A non-binding and absurd statement that makes no mention of the Palestinian population of the West Bank, the population that fiercely opposes Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority and supports Hamas, a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood of which Qatar is an active member.
In 1996, the Emir of Qatar launched Al Jazeera, a television channel with state-of-the-art studios and a clear political agenda, which was influenced by the Muslim Brotherhood. The reports broadcast, in Arabic and live, are not always controlled and are often truncated. We saw this particularly during the Second Intifada in September 2000, during the Second Iraq War led by the United States in 2003, during the Arab Spring unleashed in Tunisia in 2011, then in Egypt, Syria and Libya and especially since October 7, 2023 with the connivance of Hamas “journalists and photographers.”
Al Jazeera has been a key player in shaping public opinion, acting as a mouthpiece for the Muslim Brotherhood and against Arab regimes. Its specific goal is to sow discord, create scandals, and unrest in the Arab world, and, above all, to incite hatred of Israel. They are responsible for the fall of Mubarak, Ben Ali, and Gaddafi, and for the rise of fanatical Islamist movements, in collusion with Shiite Iran. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Morocco, Mauritania, and the Emirates have often closed Al Jazeera’s studios and severed diplomatic relations in 2017.
This news channel is atypical and cannot be qualified by international television standards. It broadcasts in several languages but does not always respect journalistic ethics and ethics. And yet, the tiny Gulf emirate and its propaganda channel, Al Jazeera, remain untouchable and the focus of the West to this day.
During the World Cup games in Doha, November-December 2022, the tiny emirate tried to improve its image with cash…
Today, Qatar is playing the victim and convening an Arab-Muslim summit of Arab leaders in Doha, with the participation of Shiite Iran and Sunni Turkey. The goal is to create a common front, sanction Israel, and isolate it in the international arena. This is a real reward for Hamas and an encouragement for new attacks against the Jewish state.
Is President Trump aware of this dangerous turning point in the Middle East, he who rejects the creation of a Palestinian state and wants normalization with Saudi Arabia within the framework of the Abraham Accords?
In this context, the visit of Secretary of State Marco Rubio to Jerusalem is important to clarify the American position and consolidate the strategic alliance between the two countries.
Therefore, we should reject Qatari mediation for the release of the hostages and prefer Egypt, the closest neighbor of Israel and the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Finally, it was time for the West, America first and foremost, to judge the emirs according to their true measure of influence, by putting them back in their rightful place in the region.
