Rabbi Pini Dunner, a community rabbi in Beverly Hills and President of the IRON Initiative, spoke with Arutz Sheva - Israel National News about his initiative to counter anti-Israel and antisemitic protests in the US.
"We want to make sure that wherever there are people speaking out against Israel, there will be people speaking out for Israel and for the Jewish community, so that antisemites and those who are pro-Palestinian, pro-Hamas, are not going to be able to get away with just being able to protest without having a countervoice," Rabbi Dunner began.
He explained how "the IRON Initiative is essentially a group of people that can appear at short notice ... and we make sure that they are aware of somewhere where there's going to be an anti-Israel protest, an antisemitic protest, and they appear. Sometimes it's a dozen, sometimes it's fifty, but they will make their voice heard. There's Israeli flags waving, and there's people to speak to the media so that there is a voice for Israel and for the Jewish community."
"Jews are not naturally protesters, certainly not in the United States," he said. "We know that a lot of money has been invested in creating this very negative view of Israel, particularly in college campuses. That's how all these unbelievable encampments just sprung up out of nowhere."
"We have not invested the same amount of money, effort, and energy in creating a pro-Israel voice on campus. We go about our business, whatever it is," he added. "We're not trained in it. It's not natural for the Jewish community in the United States and around the world to protest about anything, and the protests that they do are usually very peaceful and very anodyne. We've got to up the game, up the ante, and make sure that our voices are heard loud and clear."
Rabbi Dunner stated that the real battle for hearts and minds is in the real world and not on social media, where people who never seek out information about Israel will not be led to either pro or anti-Israel content by the algorithms. "I'm always telling people, if we really want to make our voice heard, don't post on X ... If you really want to make your vocie heard,to people who know nothing about what's going on, you've got to be physically there. You've got to make sure your physical presence is noticed. It's much, much more important."
In Rabbi Dunner's opinion, Qatar is even more dangerous than Iran and is "the biggest threat to Western civilization today. Iran, everybody knows, is a villain. When discussing Iran, everybody has heard of Iran. They know it's an Islamic Republic. They know they want to make a nuclear bomb. They've got some sensitivity to the fact that Iran is behind terror. People who know nothing about the Middle East know that Iran is a bad country in the same way that they know that Russia is an enemy of the West."
In contrast, "Qatar is seen as a friend of the West. They're certainly not seen as radical Islamists, they're not seen as people who are funding terrorism."
"They have hundreds of billions of dollars invested in the Western world," he said. "They own British Airways. They own the Plaza Hotel in New York. They own Harrods. They own Sainsbury's. They own 20% of the London Stock Exchange. They own hotels all over the United States. They are seriously invested in colleges. I heard this some time ago that an adviser to the Emir of Qatar told a Jewish friend of his: 'You guys are idiots. All you want is the name of your grandfather or your wife on a building. We're not interested in names. You'll never see the Al Thani name on any building in any university. We buy professors, we buy chairs in a university or departments in a university.'"
"They've invested so much money and they're sucking everyone into Doha, into Qatar, where they indoctrinate them," he said.
When asked about recent controversies in Israel related to Qatar, such as 'Qatar Gate,' he stated, "Qatar Gate is very interesting. The Israeli media is focused, almost obsessed, with Bibi Netanyahu. It's become such an obsession that every story is always about Bibi Netanyahu. It doesn't matter what happens - the price of milk goes up - it's about Bibi Netanyahu. That's all it's about."
"The Qatar Gate story, as much as it's about Bibi, he really is a bit of a sideshow. He's a supporting actor. The real villain in this story is Qatar, because they have infiltrated into the highest levels of the intelligence, of the administration. They've managed to use their money - and I'm sure that the people involved didn't even realize, maybe some semi-realized or were willfully blind or in denial - but they have been bought off by Qatar," he said.
He further stated that Qatar is "not neutral" despite the country's protestations of innocence and impartiality. "These are the people who funded Hamas: $30 million a month in cash delivered to Hamas coffers in Gaza month after month, billions of dollars in funding. They hosted Hamas leadership. People say, 'with Israel's permission.' That's an excuse - by the way, that's what the Qataris say, 'with Israel's permission.' That was an excuse before October 7th. After October 7th, Qatar has no excuse, because clearly, if you're funding an organization, and that's what they do, unless you completely disassociate yourself from them, you become implicated."
"It's a terrible mistake" for Israel to continue to treat Qatar as if it has a productive role to play in the hostage talks with Hamas. "If there would have been pressure on Qatar from the United States and Israel starting the week of October 7th - on October 7th, Qatar issued a statement criticizing Israel, not criticizing Hamas. In fact, they barely mentioned Palestinians in that context at all. They talked about Israel's 'aggression' and 'atrocities' in the statement."
"They have never, on any occasion, expressed any sympathy for the hostages who are caught up in Gaza, not once. Their sympathies lie exclusively with Hamas. Al Jazeera is a Hamas propaganda machine. And if Israel and the United States would have gone after them with the iron fist that we mentioned earlier, then the hostages would have long been home. It's as simple as that," he declared.
According to him, rather than being treated as an honest broker, Qatar should be treated "as if they're Hamas. They're representatives of Hamas." He blamed Qatar's investments in officials in Israel and Washington for this failure to recognize the threat.
"Israelis need to hear that: Qatar hates Israel. There's a reason why they agreed to host Hamas," he noted. "They did it because they hate Israel. These are Muslim Brotherhood ideologues who want to sow chaos in the world and create a Muslim Caliphate."
He believes the Israeli government is "not sensitive to it because they're in this state of denial." Qatar's government officials may superficially look like those of the UAE, which made peace with Israel five years ago, but "these people have no sympathy with Israel, they have no Israel in the hostages coming home. On the contrary, they have an interest in perpetuating the war that erupted after October 7th because they're on the Palestinians' side."
"The people within the [Israeli] government may have been in denial, or may have been blinded by the money that they were given and they think that Qatar are friends of Israel or their friends, or however it works. The bottom line is, stop focusing on Bibi and idiots around him who may have been sucked in to Qatar. Qatar is the danger, Qatar is the grave danger to the State of Israel," Rabbi Dunner concluded.