Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s Likud party issued a sharp response Sunday night to Jared Kushner after President Donald Trump’s senior adviser described Israel’s September 2025 strike against Hamas leaders in Qatar as a “terrible” and unsuccessful operation that left Israel globally isolated.

Speaking remotely at a security conference in Ukraine, Kushner argued that the Trump administration ultimately used the diplomatic fallout from the Doha strike to help force through the October 2025 hostage and ceasefire agreement.

“Israel did the strike in Doha, which was a terrible thing. It was unsuccessful as a military operation and that led to Israel being globally isolated and we used that dynamic in order to push them into a deal that now, today, they are quite happy with,” Kushner said. “But ultimately it turned out to be great for them and great for the people of Gaza.”

Likud strongly rejected Kushner’s characterization, arguing that the opposite was true: Israel’s willingness to strike Hamas leaders even on Qatari soil helped convince the terror group that nowhere was safe and contributed directly to its decision to make concessions.

“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,” Likud said.

The unusual public disagreement comes amid continuing differences between Jerusalem and Washington over the future of Gaza and the implementation of President Trump’s postwar plan.

Kushner has recently been unusually outspoken regarding Israeli decision-making. Just days ago, he said that Israel’s upcoming elections were making the government “a little irrational” on certain issues surrounding Gaza.

“I think we agree with the Israelis on the end state for Gaza,” Kushner said. “They just have crazy elections, and that makes them a little irrational in certain regards.”

Despite those tensions, Kushner has also backed a key Israeli demand: Hamas must be disarmed before Gaza is rebuilt. Following lengthy talks with Netanyahu last month, the sides agreed that reconstruction would not proceed before Hamas’s weapons and military infrastructure are dismantled.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)