JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party on Sunday rejected remarks by White House adviser Jared Kushner that the United States used Israel’s diplomatic isolation after a 2025 strike in Doha to push Jerusalem into a hostage-and-ceasefire agreement with Hamas.
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In a Hebrew-language statement that did not name Kushner, Likud said the combination of Israeli military action and pressure from President Donald Trump is what forced Hamas to yield.
“The prime minister’s decision to send the IDF into Gaza City and to strike the Hamas leadership in Qatar, together with the intense pressure exerted by President Trump, are what led Hamas to drop its demands and agree to release all the hostages remaining in Gaza,” the party said.
Netanyahu has previously attributed the October 2025 deal to that mix of battlefield pressure and U.S. diplomacy.
Kushner, speaking remotely Sunday at a security conference, offered a different account of last year’s Sept. 9 strike on Hamas officials meeting in the Qatari capital. He called the operation “a terrible thing,” said it failed as a military strike, and argued that the resulting “global isolation” gave Washington leverage.
“We used that dynamic in order to push them into a deal that now, today, they are quite happy with,” Kushner said, adding that Israeli officials were “a little uncomfortable” with the terms at the time. He also said the outcome ultimately benefited Israel and Gazans.
The strike killed a Qatari security officer and several lower-ranking Hamas members. Senior Hamas leaders survived. Washington later pressed Netanyahu to express regret to Qatar. A ceasefire and hostage-release arrangement followed in October 2025.
Israeli officials speaking to other outlets have similarly rejected Kushner’s framing, saying the Doha operation signaled that Hamas leaders had no sanctuary and helped produce concessions. The public disagreement comes as Jerusalem and Washington continue to differ over Gaza’s postwar arrangements and implementation of Trump’s plan for the territory.
Likud is also preparing for Israel’s Oct. 27 election.
Jared Kushner is not exactly on our side, to say the least.
If history ever taught us anything, never trust a “court jew”.
That Kushner guy , maybe he’s smart ( although he was born with a silver spoon, both his parents and in low have al lot of money) and also good looking, but he would be the last person I trust especially when it comes to Qatar, he has too much personal interest there.