Coalition and opposition ministers slammed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for apologizing to the Qatari prime minister for Israel’s assassination attempt of Hamas leadership in Doha earlier this month while meeting with US President Donald Trump in Washington on Monday.
During the meeting, Netanyahu called Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and apologized to him while also committing to not attack Qatar again.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir stated, “The strike on senior Hamas officials, the masterminds of the October 7 massacre, in the enemy state of Qatar was an important, just, and profoundly moral strike.
“It is very good that it happened. Whoever sends monsters to burn babies, rape women, and abduct elderly women must know that there is no place in the world that is safe for them,” Ben-Gvir added.
“It is time to tell the world the truth: Qatar is a state that supports terror, funds terror, and incites terror. No amount of money will wash the terror from its hands.”
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said, “A groveling apology to a state that supports and funds terror is a disgrace.”
His statement comes after he had laid out “redlines” to Netanyahu ahead of the meeting with Trump.
An 'unbelieveable' apology
Yisrael Beytenu head Avigdor Liberman commented, “It is unbelievable that Netanyahu apologized to Qatar, which, to this day, has not condemned the October 7 massacre, yet he has never apologized to the people of Israel for the fact that during his tenure, thousands of Israelis were murdered, raped, and abducted.”
"Netanyahu should not apologize to the citizens of Qatar, but to the citizens of Israel," Opposition leader Yair Lapid wrote in his own post to X/Twitter following Nentayahu's apology. "For October 7, for the political devastation, for the attempt to promote the draft evasion law during wartime, for the establishment of the most extreme and destructive government in the state's history."
The Democrats head Yair Golan also slammed Netanyahu for not apologizing for the events of October 7. “Netanyahu is weak and compromised. He was, and remains, a full collaborator with Hamas and Qatar,” he added.
“And for that he will never be forgiven – not this Yom Kippur and not in a hundred Yom Kippurs,” Golan also stated.
During the call, Netanyahu told the Qatari prime minister, “I want you to know that Israel regrets that one of your citizens was killed in our strike,” the Prime Minister’s Office shared.
“I want to assure you that Israel was targeting Hamas, not Qataris.”
Netanyahu added, “I also want to assure you that Israel has no plan to violate your sovereignty again in the future, and I have made that commitment to the president.”