Qatari virtues and vices are very much in the eye of the beholder.
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When Donald Trump recently completed the first visit to Qatar by a sitting US president, he not only generated impressive financial deals worth $1.2 trillion, he also boosted a public relations counterattack that Qatar’s emir hopes will help dampen a long-standing campaign aimed at sullying the Gulf state’s reputation.
The anti-Qatar campaign, largely inspired by Israel, portrays Qatar as a state governed by closeted Islamists who speak out of both sides of their mouth, propagate antisemitic tropes, fund violent armed groups like Hamas and Islamists such as the Muslim Brotherhood, and bribe their way into the good graces of successive US administrations.
At times, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) supported the ongoing campaign as part of the UAE’s visceral opposition to virtually any form of political Islam. Qatar’s long-standing relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood, and relations with Islamist groups like Hamas, have cast a shadow over its relations with the UAE.
The campaign, often relying on mis- and disinformation, ignores the fact that Qatar’s relationships are shaped by geography, culture, and its concept of soft power as a pillar of its defense and security policy.
Further complicating the situation, Qatar is sandwiched between two regional giants, Saudi Arabia and Iran. The three share one of the world’s largest gas fields, which makes each both a partner and a potential threat.
Qatar, encouraged by the United States, has long seen mediation of conflicts, like those in Gaza and Afghanistan, as a way to ensure good relations with everyone.
Qatar’s relationship with Saudi Arabia is particularly complex because it is the only state besides the kingdom that historically adheres to Wahhabism — an austere, puritan strand of Islam.
Although Saudi Arabia engaged in a power-sharing agreement between the ruling Al Saud family and the clergy, Qatar’s ethos was significantly more secular, as it ensured from the outset that it did not have a clergy of any repute. Since coming to office in 2015, however, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman has sought to weaken Wahhabism’s influence by emphasizing Saudi nationalism and positioning himself as the kingdom’s sole political and religious arbitrator.
Qatar, encouraged by the United States, has long seen mediation of conflicts, like those in Gaza and Afghanistan, as a way to ensure good relations with everyone.
Successive US administrations have in fact supported Qatar’s hosting of groups like Hamas and the Taliban. The advantage to Washington is that Qatar is ideally positioned to serve as a back channel leading to direct talks with problematic groups. Qatar enabled the first Trump administration’s negotiated end to the Afghan war, as well as this year’s recent hostage release negotiations with Hamas.
The UAE and Saudi Arabia, notwithstanding the US’s posture, accused Qatar of engaging in terrorism and imposed an unsuccessful diplomatic and economic boycott, which they lifted in 2021.
Israel’s current anti-Qatar campaign seeks to counter the Gulf state’s successful effort in the past eight years to repair its tarnished image and position itself as a reliable US ally.
That may be easier said than done. Trump initially backed the Saudi-UAE boycott, deriding Qatar as “a funder of terrorism at a very high level.” But those days are long gone. In Qatar this week, Trump described Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani as a “great gentleman” and a “friend of mine.” Going further, Trump asked the Qatari emir to “help me with the Iran situation,” a reference to US negotiations with Iran aimed at curbing the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program and preventing it from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
Even so, media headlines continue to reflect the anti-Qatar campaign’s impact. A few examples tell the story: “How Qatar Bought America”; “How Qatar Spent Billions to Gain Influence in the US”; “More Than Just a Plane: Gift to Trump highlights Qatar’s multi-billion US influence campaign”; and “How Qatar Bought Its Way Into America’s Power Circles.”
The campaign takes on added significance in the context of Trump’s three-nation Gulf tour, highlighting differences between the United States and Israel.
The differences over policy — including Iran, Yemen, Syria, and Turkey — coupled with the elevation of US relations with the Gulf states, suggest that Israel may in the future be competing with Gulf states at an unprecedented level for Washington’s favor. Tellingly, Trump did not include Israel in his Middle East visit.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged the potential writing on the wall by noting that “we will have to wean ourselves off of American security aid, just as we weaned ourselves off of American economic aid.”
That does not mean it will be smooth sailing for Qatar.
Shooting itself in the foot, Qatar fueled the anti-Qatar campaign by reportedly agreeing to gift Trump an aging $400 million luxury Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet. The plane is one of several bigger aircraft that Qatar’s ruling Al Thani family, owners of one of the world’s largest private fleets, has wanted to offload for years. Indeed, the plane earmarked for Trump has been on the market since 2020.
Qatar would have done itself a favor by gifting the plane to the United States government rather than to Trump personally. And Qatari officials have since suggested the aircraft was offered to the US, not to Trump.
To calm the storm the gift sparked in the United States, Qatar’s Washington embassy spokesman Ali Al-Ansari suggested that the deal has yet to be finalized. He said it involved “the possible transfer of an aircraft for temporary use as Air Force One,” rather than a gift.
By taking advantage of Trump’s lax approach to conflict-of-interest principles — and his neglect of US constitutional and other legal principles that govern the acceptance of gifts by the president and US officials across the board — Qatar gave credence to allegations that it does not shy away from bribery and buying influence.
“Nothing says ‘America First’ like Air Force One, brought to you by Qatar. It’s not just bribery, it’s premium foreign influence with extra legroom,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY).
“If Qatar wants a long-term relationship with all branches of the United States government, you are about to commit a grievous error that is likely to be a permanent stain on your ethical record, and you should reconsider it,” added Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine (VA).
Qatar gifted the plane on the back of Trump’s family and associates’ long-standing business ties to Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, which have produced multiple lucrative real estate and cryptocurrency deals since Trump took office in January.
Critics charged that reporting on Qatar, particularly around the time of Trump’s visit, amounted to a hatchet job designed to blacken the Gulf state’s reputation, even though Qatar’s efforts to shape its image and garner influence are no different from those of other Gulf states.
Like Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and multiple other countries spend tens of millions of dollars on lobbying in the United States and other countries. The Gulf states seek to garner favor in multiple ways, including hiring lobbying firms and donating millions of dollars to university programs and think tanks.
The anti-Qatar campaign, despite its inaccurate spins, has had some success. It has turned Qatar into a state that, like Iran, evokes strong emotions. Few have a neutral attitude. You either praise or condemn Qatar.
Singling out a widely quoted story in The Free Press, Georgetown professor and Qatar expert Gerd Nonneman quipped, “This Free Press (talk about a misnomer!) piece is a transparent anti-Qatar hatchet job (drawing on the usual FDD company’s talking points) masquerading as investigative journalism.” Nonneman was referring to the Washington-based Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, which often seems to act as a pro-Israel lobby group rather than a think tank.
The Free Press said it had “reviewed thousands of lobbying, real estate, and corporate filings. We interviewed dozens of American, European, and Middle Eastern diplomats and defense officials. We analyzed secret intelligence briefings and previously undisclosed government documents.”
Rather than questioning The Free Press’s reporting, critics focused on the article’s failure to emphasize that Saudi Arabia and the UAE invested as much, if not more than Qatar, in lobbying.
The critics noted that Qatari lobbying is no more or less nefarious than that of other Gulf states that benefit from Washington’s revolving doors, which allow former government officials to use their experience and networks to influence policy and decision-making.
Multiple Trump administration officials — including Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and FBI Director Kash Patel — worked for lobbying firms hired by Qatar before entering government.
The anti-Qatar campaign seeks to roll back Qatari inroads in Washington; undermine the Gulf state’s prominent role as a mediator in conflicts across the globe, particularly in Gaza alongside the United States and Egypt; and distract attention from Netanyahu’s past soliciting of Qatari funds to keep Hamas in power, albeit on a short leash, and ensure relative stability in the Gaza Strip.
Ignoring his past dealings with Qatar, Netanyahu has repeatedly accused Qatar of funding Hamas and favoring the group in its efforts to end the Gaza war. The Israeli prime minister also neglected to mention that Qatar was hosting Hamas in Doha at the request of the United States, which wanted to maintain a backchannel to the group.
“The time has come for Qatar to stop playing both sides with its double talk and decide if it’s on the side of civilization or if it’s on the side of Hamas barbarism,” Netanyahu said last month.
Qatar has blamed both Israel and Hamas for the stalemate in the Gaza ceasefire talks.
Speaking to Fox News this week, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani lamented that “we cannot reach a deal when we have a fundamental difference between the two parties. One party wants just to retrieve the hostages and continue the war, and the other party wants to end the war and doesn’t think about the hostages.”
Similarly, Netanyahu ignored the fact that Qatar mediated secret talks in recent months between Israeli and Syrian security officials that potentially changed Israeli perceptions of Syria’s new leaders and eased Trump’s lifting of sanctions and meeting with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa while in Saudi Arabia. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said earlier this week that Israel wanted good relations with the new regime in Syria, weeks after asserting that the Syrian president and his associates “were jihadists and remain jihadists, even if some of them have donned suits.”
The anti-Qatar campaign, despite its inaccurate spins, has had some success. It has turned Qatar into a state that, like Iran, evokes strong emotions. Few have a neutral attitude. You either praise or condemn Qatar.
For much of the 2010s, the campaign benefited from human rights groups’ and the media’s focus on workers and LGBTQ rights in Qatar during the 12-year build-up to the 2022 World Cup.
Even so, the campaign has not been helped by Israel’s recent Qatargate scandal, involving investigations of some of Netanyahu’s close aides and a reserve lieutenant general for having helped the Gulf state counter the anti-Qatar campaign. Israeli authorities arrested two Netanyahu aides in April for unlawful ties to a country that supports Hamas.
Meanwhile, as Trump left Qatar for the UAE, the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) — founded by Yigal Carmon, a former adviser to Israel’s West Bank and Gaza Occupation Authority and to Prime Ministers Yitzhak Shamir and Yitzhak Rabin — dug up a two-month-old series of derogatory and mocking commentaries in the Qatari press and on Al Jazeera Arabic, taking Trump to task for his support of Israel.
Although critical of Netanyahu’s engagement with Qatar, Carmon and MEMRI have contributed to the anti-Qatar campaign with a stream of selective translations of Qatari media, analysis, and quotes from Qataris and Qatar-backed Muslim scholars, many of whom are linked to the Muslim Brotherhood.
So has the Philadelphia-based, pro-Israel Middle East Forum. The Forum asserted, in a report entitled “America for Sale,” that Qatar was waging an “aggressive $40 billion campaign to control US institutions, posing a dire threat to national security… Doha’s unchecked influence extends into energy, AI, real estate, and education, undermining America’s core values.”
The report urged US policymakers to classify Qatar “as a foreign adversary, akin to Iran or North Korea. Halting this infiltration is crucial to preserving American interests and dismantling Qatar’s ‘soft power’ tactics.”
James M. Dorsey is an adjunct senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s Rajaratnam School of International Studies, and the author of the syndicated column and podcast The Turbulent World with James M. Dorsey.
