They visit our country and plot to attack it,’ wails emir, as Abdullah warns ‘Greater Israel’ would involve ‘blatant violation of the sovereignty’ of Israel’s neighbors; Indonesian leader says Israel’s security must be respected
Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani said Tuesday that Israel had chosen war over the return of its remaining 48 hostages, and that its “treacherous” September 9 attack on the Hamas leadership in Doha was an attempt to derail the Qatari-mediated Gaza hostage-ceasefire talks.
In his address to the UN General Assembly in New York, al-Thani accused Israel of genocide in Gaza and said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sees the Gaza war as “an opportunity to expand settlements.”
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and the leaders of Jordan and Turkey also condemned Israel over its conduct in Gaza, with Jordan’s King Abdullah devoting almost his entire address to a denunciation of the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which he said was not a partner for peace and whose “Greater Israel” calls threatened the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Israel’s neighbors.
In sharp contrast, the president of Indonesia — the world’s most populous Muslim nation, which has no formal relations with Israel — said the world must respect Israel’s right to security and ended his speech with the Hebrew benediction “Shalom.”
Some of al-Thani’s criticism of Netanyahu was echoed by hostage families, who vowed to follow Netanyahu this week to the General Assembly, where the prime minister is set to speak on Friday, in protest of the new IDF operation to take over Gaza City.
Hostage families have said the operation, whose ground phase was launched last week, places their loved ones’ lives in acute danger. They have also assailed the strike on Doha for scuttling the hostage-ceasefire negotiation, which has stalled since then.
Addressing the strike, Qatar’s emir slammed the violation of the Gulf state’s sovereignty and reiterated his denunciation of Israel’s “rogue act … of state terrorism,” accusing Israel of a policy of political assassinations.
“They visit our country and plot to attack it,” al-Thani said of Israel, which has frequently sent negotiators to Doha. “They negotiate with delegations and plot to assassinate the members of the negotiation teams. It is difficult to cooperate with such a mentality that does not respect the most minimal standards of cooperation. It is impossible.”
“They consider negotiations the continuation of war by other means and a way to delude the Israeli public opinion,” he went on. “If the release of Israeli hostages is [contingent on] the end of war, the government of Israel is abandoning the notion of releasing the hostages,” said al-Thani.
The Israeli government’s “goal is to destroy Gaza so that it is unlivable and where no one can study or receive treatment,” he said. Israel is, in other words, aiming to “end the viability of the Gaza Strip, to displace its population.”
Referring to Netanyahu, al-Thani said: “The Israeli leader wants to continue war. He believes in what is called Greater Israel.”
Al-Thani said Netanyahu “believes that war is an opportunity to expand settlements and to change the status quo in the holy sites” on the Temple Mount, a flash point that was the site of the two Jewish temples of antiquity and is now the site of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third-holiest site. “He also plots for attacks in the West Bank,” said the Qatari emir.
“Israel is not a democratic country surrounded by enemies, but in fact it is an enemy to its surrounding neighbors,” al-Thani said.
Amid a wave, applauded by al-Thani and decried by Israel, of recognitions of Palestinian statehood by Western nations, the emir noted that Netanyahu has vowed to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state. The emir also accused Israel of genocide, a charge Israel has bitterly rejected.
Israel is “engaged in a genocide, and its leader is proud of preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state, and he promises that such a state will never be established, and he takes pride in preventing peace with the Palestinians, and that he will prevent such peace in the future,” said al-Thani, accusing Israel of stonewalling on peace with its Arab neighbors.
“Israel is surrounded by states either who have signed a peace agreement with it, or are committed to the Arab Peace Initiative. But Israel does not make do with truces and settlements. It desires to impose its will on its surrounding Arab neighbors,” he said. “Everyone who opposes its will is either antisemitic or a terrorist. Even Israel’s allies realize this fact and reject it.”
He said Qatar would continue to engage in diplomacy even when its enemies “find it easier to use weapons,” and denounced what he said were disinformation campaigns against his country, which Israel has repeatedly accused of support for terrorism, due to its funding of Al Jazeera and its hosting of Hamas leaders.
Qatar, with Netanyahu’s approval, had for years delivered millions of dollars in cash to Gaza on a monthly basis until the terror group stormed southern Israel on October 7, 2023, to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, sparking the war in Gaza.
The money was intended for government salaries in the Hamas-run Strip, and has been seized upon by Netanyahu’s critics to blame him for the Hamas onslaught.
Current and former top aides to Netanyahu are also under investigation for alleged criminal ties to Qatar.
Hostage families to follow PM to General Assembly
Netanyahu is expected to depart for the UN on Wednesday night, after the end of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which began Monday night.
Hostage families and hundreds of supporters have rallied outside his Jerusalem residence throughout the holiday, holding meals and prayers there.
In a statement outside Netanyahu’s residence on Tuesday, Einav Zangauker, mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, said hostage families will follow the premier on his upcoming trip.
“We will also go to the US while he is staying there,” Zangauker said, referring to Netanyahu’s trip, which is also set to include a meeting with US President Donald Trump next week.
“A week ago, Netanyahu gave instructions to occupy Gaza City, blow up the living hostages and make the dead disappear forever,” Zangauker said, adding that the families of hostages could not remain at home while their loved ones were in danger.
“For a week, we shouted the cry of our children from the tunnels. But instead of leaving the house and reaching out, Netanyahu sealed his heart and closed his windows,” said Zangauker. Attempts to silence the families have failed, she added.
Erdogan: Netanyahu uninterested in peace or hostages
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also slammed Israel’s war against Hamas as a “genocide” during his speech at the UN General Assembly, showing images of the destruction in Gaza during his address.
“A genocide is continuing in Gaza; even as we meet here, innocent people are dying,” said Erdogan. “We cannot possibly talk about the presence of two sides in Gaza, because in Gaza, on one side, there is a regular army with the most modern, most lethal weapons, and on the other hand, there are innocent civilians, innocent children. This is not a fight against terrorism. This is an occupation, deportation, exile, genocide, and destruction of life.”
He also condemned Israel’s actions in the West Bank, “where Hamas is not in power,” as well as the strike in Doha and “attacks on Syria, on Iran, Yemen and Lebanon.”
“Netanyahu is obviously not interested in forging peace or releasing the hostages. Not only Israel’s neighbors, but all countries in the Middle East are subject to the Israeli government’s reckless threats,” he said.
Israel’s actions threaten “the values that emerged after the Second World War” and were responsible for the shelving of “fundamental human rights” around the world, said Erdogan.
Jordan: Gaza war ‘one of the darkest moments’ in UN history
Jordan’s King Abdullah II, in a relentless denunciation of Netanyahu and Israel’s leadership, said in his speech that the war in Gaza was “one of the darkest moments in this institution’s history.”
“How long will we be satisfied with condemnation after condemnation without concrete action? When it comes to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, it seems that what unfolds in the halls of power is theory; the struggles and suffering on the ground are reality,” he said, commending nations for supporting a deal that “ensures the release of all hostages, unhindered humanitarian aid and support for the Palestinian people as they rebuild.”
Abdullah also said interim deals between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization, which dominates the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, have “served as a distraction, as Israel grabbed more land, expanded illegal settlements, demolished homes, and displaced entire neighborhoods.
“Muslim and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem have been vandalized and desecrated by those under government protection,” charged the king, whose country holds a custodianship over Christian and Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount.
“And throughout all these years, Israeli families too have not been able to live in true security because military action cannot bring the safety they need. Nowhere is that more evident than in Gaza,” he said.
“More than 60,000 Palestinians killed, 50,000 children injured or killed, miles of burnt-out rubble. Neighborhoods, hospitals, schools, farms, even mosques and churches in ruins, widespread starvation. And what we are seeing is only a glimpse because never in our modern history has the lenses of international media been obstructed like this from capturing the reality on the ground,” said Abdullah.
The figures he cited come from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry and cannot be independently verified. They do not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Israel says it has killed some 22,000 gunmen as of August as well as about 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 onslaught.
Like the Qatari emir, Abdullah accused Israel of flouting the status quo at the Temple Mount, and referred to Greater Israel, a concept that has been used to describe a Jewish state spanning all or some of Jordan, the West Bank, Gaza, Golan Heights and Sinai Peninsula.
“The current Israeli government’s provocative call for a so-called Greater Israel can only be realized through the blatant violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of its neighbors. And there is nothing great about that,” he said. “I can’t help but wonder if a similar outrageous call were made by an Arab leader, would it be met with the same global apathy?”
“The international community must stop entertaining the illusion that this government is a willing partner for peace. Far from it. Its actions on the ground are dismantling the very foundations on which peace could stand and intentionally burying the very idea of a Palestinian state,” said Abdullah.
“Its hostile rhetoric calling for the targeting of Al-Aqsa Mosque will incite a religious war that would reach far beyond the region and lead to an all-out clash that no nation will be able to escape,” he added.
Since first receiving the national security portfolio in 2022, far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has continuously asserted that his policy is to allow Jewish prayer atop the Temple Mount, flouting the status quo, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has insisted remains in place.
Guterres: Gaza horrors approaching ‘monstrous’ 3rd year
Opening the General Assembly earlier Tuesday, Guterres, the UN chief, said “the horrors are approaching a third monstrous year” in Gaza, where he accused Israel of carrying out disproportionate “collective punishment.”
“They are the result of decisions that defy basic humanity,” he said, citing “a scale of death and destruction beyond any other conflict” in his nearly nine years as secretary-general.
Guterres reiterated his condemnation of the October 7 massacre and hostage-taking, but said “nothing can justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people and the systematic destruction of Gaza.”
Guterres called for the full and immediate implementation of international law, a permanent ceasefire, the release of all hostages and humanitarian access. “And we must not relent in the only viable answer to sustainable Middle East peace: a two-state solution,” he said.
Indonesia’s Subianto calls for ‘Shalom’
In contrast to the wave of condemnatory rhetoric, Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto told the UN that his country “will immediately recognize that State of Israel” once Israel recognizes a Palestinian state.
“We must also recognize, we must also respect, and we must also guarantee the safety and security of Israel. Only then we can have real peace,” Subianto said in his speech, which he ended with the word “Shalom,” Hebrew for peace.
Though Indonesia has no formal relations with Israel, it has coordinated with Israel on airdropping aid in Gaza and was last year said to be mulling normalizing relations with Israel as part of a bid to join the OECD.
Subianto had reiterated on Monday at a UN summit on the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that Indonesia would be prepared to send troops to a post-war peacekeeping mission in Gaza.
He doubled down on the offer at the General Assembly on Tuesday, saying Indonesia wants a peace that shows “might cannot make right.”
“We believe in the UN. We will continue to serve where peace needs guardians — not with just words, but with boots on the ground,” he said.
“If and when the UN Security Council and this great assembly decide, Indonesia is prepared to deploy 20,000 or even more of our sons and daughters to help secure peace in Gaza,” he states.
He said Indonesia was also willing to send peacekeepers elsewhere, including in Ukraine, Sudan, or Libya.
