Qatar Named, Turkey Spared

October 5, 2026
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How Two U.S. Ambassadors Shield Israel’s Chief Adversary in the Information War

Turkey is waging a sustained, state-run information campaign against Israel, and the two U.S. ambassadors on either side of the conflict are shielding it. On Sept. 24, Benjamin Netanyahu told the U.N. General Assembly that Turkey was the latest country to become a “superspreader of antisemitic lies.” On Oct. 1, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee listed the sources of anti-Israel propaganda and named Qatar, Russia and China. This analysis by the Dor Moriah Analytical Center, an Israeli think tank, draws on its September 2026 expert survey.

The Eighth Front

On September 24, Netanyahu addressed the U.N. General Assembly. He called the information war Israel’s “eighth front,” accused Qatar of funding American universities and singled out Turkey. “The latest country to become a superspreader of antisemitic lies is Turkey,” he said. He called Erdoğan a tyrant who hosts Hamas leaders.[1]

The Turkish state is running its campaign against Israel on several tracks at once. On April 11, Turkey’s Foreign Ministry answered a Netanyahu post on X with a comparison to Hitler.[2] On July 14, Istanbul’s 11th High Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and another Israeli, Afek Moskovitch, in a 35-defendant case over the interception of the Sumud flotilla.[3] On August 21, Justice Minister Akın Gürlek announced a request for an Interpol red notice.[3] On September 30, the National Security Council, chaired by Erdoğan, accused Israel of violating Syria’s territorial integrity and sovereignty and called on the international community to take concrete steps against Israel.[4] On October 1, the Defense Ministry used its weekly briefing to say that visits to the Temple Mount by Israeli groups were inflaming regional tensions, and called for “deterrent measures” against Israel.[5]

According to the Dor Moriah expert survey “Turkey’s Information Campaign Against Israel” (September 2026, 11 experts), Turkey’s campaign is systematic.[6] Nine of the 11 experts said it runs through standing state institutions. Only the volume of public statements tracks events. The past week bears this out. On September 30, the National Security Council spoke after a session chaired by Erdoğan, and on October 1 the Defense Ministry spoke at its weekly briefing, both through routine channels, while the Defense Ministry’s trigger was the Temple Mount visits during Sukkot.[5] Five state bodies make up the front Netanyahu called the eighth: the Foreign Ministry, the Istanbul court, the Justice Ministry, the National Security Council and the Defense Ministry.

Nations Like Qatar

On September 30, Yeni Şafak, a daily owned by the Albayrak media group, ran a column by Taha Kılınç aimed squarely at Huckabee.[7] It answered a September 24 interview in which Huckabee told NewsNation that ignorance of the Bible was one of the reasons Americans are turning away from Israel.[8] The Turkish headline, “Kutsal Kitabı bilmiyorlar,” throws the ambassador’s line back at him, and the paper’s English edition ran the piece as “They think it’s a genocide because they don’t know the Bible,” according to its website.[7] Kılınç described political Zionism, from Herzl to Golda Meir, as a godless movement that used religious texts to win followers in the Middle East. “Mike Huckabee is continuing the same exploitation today,” he wrote. He called Jewish scripture muharref, or corrupted, and urged Muslims to rely on their own sources.

The next day, October 1, the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM), a U.S.-based coalition of organizations fighting antisemitism, published a statement by Huckabee.[9] He called the “propaganda machine” one of the biggest challenges facing Israel. “Billions of dollars have been poured into America, including from nations like Qatar, all to divide America and turn Americans against Israel,” he said. In a longer version of the video, published by JNS on October 2, Huckabee added “all of the bots and social media influencing that has gone on from Russia, from China” to the Qatari-funded campus programs, according to JNS.[10] Qatar’s ambassador to the United States, Meshal bin Hamad Al Thani, replied that Huckabee was promoting the interests of Israel’s leadership and pointed to Qatar’s status as a major non-NATO ally of the United States.[10]

The CAM statement repeats the argument Huckabee made to Leland Vittert on NewsNation, where he named three reasons Americans are souring on Israel, namely disinformation and foreign propaganda, hatred of those who believe God has set the rules for life, and ignorance of the Bible.[8] Al Jazeera, reporting on the interview on September 26, cited Pew Research Center data.[11] In a Pew survey of 3,507 U.S. adults conducted March 23–29, 2026, 60% held an unfavorable view of Israel, up from 53% a year earlier and 42% in 2022.[12]

On August 31, speaking by video to the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) conference in Las Vegas, Huckabee attacked the “cold, brutal cash” that the Muslim Brotherhood, Qatar and “other countries” pour into Middle East studies at American universities.[13] Turkey is absent from the sources Huckabee named in the August 31 speech (Jewish Insider), the September 24 interview (The Hill) and the October 1 statement (CAM, with the longer version in JNS on October 2).

Both Qatar and Turkey have gone after Huckabee personally. On February 22, after Huckabee told Tucker Carlson it “would be fine if they took it all,” referring to the land between the Nile and the Euphrates, the foreign ministers of 14 states, joined by the OIC, the Arab League and the GCC, condemned him in a joint statement, with both Turkey and Qatar among the signatories.[14] The Turkish press is still attacking the ambassador, but Qatar remains the only one of the two on his list of propaganda sources.

Baiting the Turks

Tom Barrack, the U.S. ambassador to Turkey and special envoy for Syria, has taken Ankara’s side in the Israeli-Turkish dispute. On August 18, Israel carried out eight strikes on the Abu al-Duhur air base in Syria’s Idlib province, saying it was preventing a Turkish deployment there.[15] The same day, Barrack wrote on X that the strikes “constitute an unnecessary escalation that does not advance regional stability.”[16] In an interview with Mario Nawfal released August 21, he floated a “theory” that the Israelis were “baiting the Turks” and called the move aggressive and said it would play well with voters.[17] In the same interview he said that “they still occupy the Golan against the UN resolutions.”[18]

Accounts of what happened at the base diverge. Defense Minister Israel Katz said the IDF had repeatedly recommended the strike based on clear intelligence about Turkish intentions.[19] Barrack, in the Nawfal interview, said U.S. intelligence found no Turkish troop movement toward the base.[17] Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani told Axios that the base was being restored for the Syrian Air Force.[20] On August 23, in a statement to the AP, Barrack described his Golan remarks as an account of the territory’s historical status and said U.S. policy on the Golan, set by Trump in 2019, was unchanged.[21]

Nobody Tells Me What We Should Be Selling

Both positions track Trump’s own decisions on Turkey date for date. Since October 13, 2025, Turkey has served alongside the United States, Egypt and Qatar as a guarantor of the Gaza ceasefire.[22] On June 24, 2026, the State Department notified Congress of a sale, worth more than $700 million, of about 80 F110 engines for Turkey’s KAAN fighter.[23] On July 6, on the eve of the NATO summit in Ankara, Netanyahu told Fox News that Turkey should get neither F-35s nor the engines.[24] At the summit, Trump promised Erdoğan he would lift sanctions and consider an F-35 sale,[25] and on July 27 aboard Air Force One he told reporters, “Nobody tells me what we should be selling and not.”[26] On August 7, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan signed the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement, and on August 16 Trump welcomed it and wrote that “it shows how the Middle East is coming together.”[27] Israel struck Abu al-Duhur two days later.

For now, there is no decision on the F-35. On July 22, the State Department told Congress that the law bars any F-35 transfer to Turkey as long as it retains Russian S-400s.[28] On September 24, Erdoğan said Trump had shown a “positive willingness” to bring Turkey back into the program and that Ankara now expects “concrete steps.”[29]

The two ambassadors are shielding Ankara, each on his own turf. Huckabee in Jerusalem leaves Turkey off his list of anti-Israel propaganda sources, even though five Turkish state bodies run its campaign openly and under their own names. Barrack in Ankara disputes Israeli intelligence, calls an Israeli strike an escalation and describes Washington’s task as “restraint and engagement.”[16]

They Want Netanyahu to Lose

In August, a Netanyahu campaign billboard on Tel Aviv’s main highway showed Erdoğan, the leaders of Iran and Hezbollah, and New York’s mayor under the slogan “They want Netanyahu to lose. Don’t let them win,” CNN reported. Days later, Israel struck Abu al-Duhur.[30] The Knesset election is set for October 27.[17]

Ankara cast the strike as election politics. The Turkish government called the Israeli account untenable and accused Netanyahu of pursuing expansionist and destabilizing policies ahead of the vote.[30] On August 21, it said Israel’s campaign had come to be dominated by “irresponsible security-driven populism” and that casting Turkey as a new threat was part of the same political strategy.[31] In an interview released the same day, Barrack suggested the strike was an election move.[17]

In July, Axios reported that Trump was angered by Netanyahu’s public opposition to an F-35 sale to Turkey, and the Israeli prime minister failed to secure another White House meeting.[25] The Hill reported that the two leaders’ relationship had been badly damaged during the Iran war.[24]

Ankara is likely not the only party with a stake in a Netanyahu defeat. Trump’s own ambassador repeated the Turkish argument that the Abu al-Duhur strike was election-driven, and inside Israel’s campaign that argument works against Netanyahu.

Dor Moriah Analytical Center

Sources
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