The Trump administration and Israel are at odds at whether or not to include Turkey and Qatar in Gaza’s new technocratic government, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opposing Turkey and Qatar’s inclusion on the Board of Peace. Bibi’s hunch looks right, as Turkey and Qatar’s statements and behavior indicate that these Islamist countries will only perpetuate Hamas’ Forever War against the Jews.
First, Turkey is not fit to be a custodial of Gaza given that it is a financial hub for Hamas, allowing the terror organization to funnel millions of dollars to its leadership and terrorists with the assistance of Iran. According to recent intelligence shared by the IDF:
Hamas has constructed a sophisticated financial platform led by money changers-primarily Gazan expatriates living in Turkey-who have exploited Turkish banking and commercial infrastructure to fund terrorism. Israel assesses that these operatives managed large-scale economic activities, including the reception of Iranian capital, its laundering and storage, and the subsequent transfer of funds into Gaza and other Hamas-aligned nodes across the region.
The IDF intel further names three individuals specifically involved in this financial scheme.
Additionally, frequent anti-Israel, pro-jihad statements by Turkish President Erdogan should disqualify Turkey as being a custodian in Gaza. At a prayer service following the end of Ramadan last year, President Erdogan prayed: “May Allah, for the sake of his name…destroy and devastate Zionist Israel," and he also prayed for “mercy upon the martyrs" of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and wished a “speedy recovery" for Hamas’ and Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s terrorists. Mere weeks following Hamas’ October 7 terror attack on Israel, Erdogan stated that “Hamas is not a terrorist organization, it is a liberation group, 'mujahideen' waging a battle to protect its lands and people."
Rather than be a good-faith custodian of Gaza, Erdogan appears to aspire to conquer both Israel and Gaza. Erdogan has been on the record siding with Iran against Israel, and hinted at Turkish territorial designs on Israel (given the Ottoman Empire’s 400 year occupation of the Holy Land), stating in June 2025: “We are following very closely Israel’s terror attacks on Iran…the victorious army of the Ottoman Empire had a principle: If you desire peace, be prepared for war."
In a March 2025 event celebrating the Ottoman victory in Gallipoli, Erdogan commemorated the “martyrs" of that victory, who came from the “spiritual geography" of Turkey, which according to him includes “…from Syria to Gaza, from Aleppo to Tabriz, from Mosul to Jerusalem." In 2024, Erdogan suggested that Turkey could invade Israel on behalf of the Palestinian Arabs.
Meanwhile, Erdogan gaslights Israel, baselessly accusing Israel of having territorial designs on Turkey. For example, in 2024, Erdogan stated in 2024 that “After Lebanon, the next place Israel will set its sights on, let me say it openly, will be our homeland. [Israeli Prime Minister] Netanyahu is including Anatolia [Turkey’s main territory in Asia] in his dreams. To those who say, ‘Turkey should remain neutral,’ and to those who call Hamas a terrorist organization, I say this: What we are facing is not a state, but a bloodthirsty gang of murderers."
Additionally, several commentators have pointed to an increasingly aggressive top-down campaign in Turkey to poison Turkish media against Jews, “Zionists" and Israel.
Qatar would also make a miserable custodian for Gaza as it, like Turkey, provides material assistance to terrorists. Qatar hosts several individuals and entities classified as Specialty Designated Global Terrorists by the US Department of Treasury, including those with ties to al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas and Iran. Qatar, through its state-run charity Qatar Charity, provides water projects in Somalia, most of which are in areas run by Al-Shabaab.
Qatar, like Turkey, calls for the destruction of Israel and Jews. In October 2025, a member of Qatar’s state-run International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS) posted on the IUMS website a that on the future anniversary of the October 7 attack in 2027, “the Al Aqsa Mosque will be liberated…Allah bless Ahmad Yassin," referencing a prediction by the late Hamas arch-terrorist Sheikh Ahmad Yassin that Israel would cease to exist in 2027. Another recent article on the IUMS website posted by another IUMS member calls Jews “enemies of liberty and world peace," and predicted that by 2033, Jews “will be nothing but history that future generations will talk about."
Qatar’s press, like Turkey’s, glorifies terrorists. Qatar’s state run al-Araby TV that broadcasts in Gaza features a correspondent who upon taking the job, stated that as a youth he dreamed of “becoming an engineer like Yayha Ayyash" [an arch-terrorist responsible for constructing explosive devices that killed over 100 Israelis in the 1990s.] He also praised various terrorists in previous writings over the years.
Qatar, like Turkey, also continues to heap praise on the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel. An Islamic scholar who is a member of IUMS, and based in Turkey, called Hamas’ October 7 attack against Israel “a momentous day of Allah’s intervention," and that regarding the attack, “we have a right to be happy and proud."
Qatar, like Turkey, also otherwise propagates libels against Jews. The Qatari state run daily Al-Sharq stated that “Zionists" seek to destroy the family unit and world domination generally, citing the historic canard the Protocols of the Elders of Zion as proof.
And adding to the likelihood of a toxic custodianship of Gaza is Qatar’s animus to both Jews and Christians alike (given that Christians will likely sit on the Board of Peace alongside Muslims). In October 2025, an imam in Qatar’s state-run Waaf Ministry, writing in the state-run Al-Sharq daily publication, stated that Islam’s struggle with Jews and Christians was existential, and that “Islam is a religion that neither compromises nor reconciles." Additionally, there are no synagogues in Qatar, and churches are restricted to one compound in Doha and cannot display any crosses or other religious symbols.
While Hamas continues to violate the ceasefire with Israel and refuse to give up its war against the Jewish State, the Trump administration and its allies should not allow Turkey or Qatar to sit on Gaza’s new technocratic government. Doing otherwise would only allow Hamas and its genocidal terrorism and rhetoric to continue to be rooted in the land.