Israel Attacked Terrorists in Qatar — and the Media Attacked Israel
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by Rinat Harash
Vehicles stop at a red traffic light, a day after an Israeli attack on Hamas leaders, in Doha, Qatar, Sept. 10, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa
On Tuesday, September 9, Israel targeted those who sought its destruction and planned the barbaric October 7, 2023 massacre.
Israel launched the daring attack on the Hamas leadership in their Qatari safe haven, after their ongoing refusal to agree to a Gaza ceasefire deal and in the aftermath of a deadly terror attack in Jerusalem, which Hamas claimed responsibility for.
But the media still shilled for Hamas by making Israel look like a rogue state attacking a key diplomatic player and destroying any chance for peace.
News outlets used three methods to achieve this goal:
- Direct accusations
- Subtle differentiation between a “legitimate” Hamas political wing and its military one
- The glorification of Qatar as a business hub rather than a terrorist hub
The Independent and The Washington Post shamelessly employed headlines that portrayed Israel as the regional bully and an aggressor randomly attacking other Middle East countries in a bid for regional domination.
Let’s be clear, @washingtonpost: The only country that Israel has attacked, in self-defense, is the one that has pledged to annihilate it – the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Israel has not waged war against states; it has specifically targeted the terrorists operating within them. https://t.co/S2xExYa1Ko pic.twitter.com/W5XXzuQU4u
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) September 10, 2025
Sky News even blamed Israel for a previous attack on Qatar, although the Iranian regime carried it out:
Does anyone else apart from @SkyNews remember the first time Israel launched a strike on Qatar?
No, neither do we.
Sky News, delete this nonsense. pic.twitter.com/Iy3qtjV5XP
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) September 9, 2025
After we publicly highlighted it, Sky quietly rectified its faux pas with no acknowledgment of the correction.
Meanwhile, the Economist was worried that attacking the very terrorists who ordered the mass murder of Jews on Oct. 7 was “a bridge too far” and that Israel had “crossed a line:”
Why, @TheEconomist, is it only Israel attacking terrorists that is a “bridge too far?”
Why is it only Israel that has “crossed a line?”
Did Hamas not cross a line on Oct. 7, or does The Economist draw the line when it comes to one country only? pic.twitter.com/YSZ6nhKpZW
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) September 10, 2025
And the BBC’s security correspondent called Israel’s surprising act of self defense “a campaign of score settling:”
TWISTED: Trust @BBCNews‘s security correspondent to express the “fear” that Israel would take out a bunch of terrorist leaders.
And to portray the wholly understandable & legitimate Israeli response to Oct. 7 as “a campaign of ‘score settling’.” pic.twitter.com/3Des2ftClC
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) September 10, 2025
NPR and The Wall Street Journal took the subtle approach of creating a false dichotomy between Hamas’ military and political wings — although the entire group is internationally designated as a terror organization.
Reminder to @WSJ: Hamas has a history of attacking Israeli civilians.
All funded and planned by Hamas’ so-called “political leaders,” i.e. terrorists. pic.twitter.com/P6CANgkrIP
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) September 9, 2025
No, @NPR, Israel actually said that it targeted the Hamas leadership.
Because Hamas is a terrorist organization, and its “political office” is no different from its military infrastructure.
Terrorists who wear suits and live in luxury in Doha are still terrorists. pic.twitter.com/s9jaGmgAt7
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) September 9, 2025
This naive approach depicted the targeted Hamas leaders as legitimate officials simply because they carried pens and wore suits instead of AK-47s and green headbands.
They may not have got their hands dirty but this does not absolve them from orchestrating numerous bloody terror attacks, including the slaughter and kidnapping of thousands of people in Israel on October 7, 2023.
9/
Hamas’s Doha cabal ran it all: money, propaganda, deal-blocking, strategy. The same men filmed celebrating Oct 7 as Israelis were slaughtered. These weren’t “politicians.” They were terrorists. And Israel just targeted them. pic.twitter.com/vRCnppA3Sk— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) September 9, 2025
Finally, many outlets decried the violation of Qatar’s sovereignty, painting it as a peace-seeking state focused on business and regional cooperation, rather than a patron of terrorists.
The New York Times went as far as calling Qatar “a safe haven for business and tourism in a volatile region,” while it was, in fact, a safe haven for the region’s top jihadists.
Until a short time ago, Qatar was also a safe haven for terrorists.
But @nytimes just can’t see it. pic.twitter.com/rZNYx37PCg
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) September 9, 2025
How can this media distortion be explained? Why is a facade of legitimacy conferred upon terrorists in suits?
There are only two possible answers: Either the media believe the facade the terrorists want to sell, or they are carrying out an anti-Israel agenda.
Both options are detrimental to professional journalism, as well as to basic human ethics.
The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
