Qatar, Turkey and Mamdani answer Netanyahu's UN speech, 33 days before Israel votes

Update, 25 September, 03:08 Israel time

Qatar has issued a further response to Netanyahu's speech. A Ynet alert reported that Qatar said the prime minister was seeking to deflect attention away from his own political responsibility. The alert, in Hebrew, attributes the line to Qatar without naming the official or body that made it, and does not say whether it is separate from the post on X by deputy ambassador Hamad al-Maftuh or part of the same reply. The full Ynet item was not available in the report.

On Mamdani, The Times of Israel reported that the New York mayor accused Netanyahu of trying to 'sanitize his genocide'. That matches the wording The Jerusalem Post used, rather than the Haaretz version, which spoke of whitewashing the genocide of Palestinians. The Times of Israel item as received gives only its headline and adds no further detail of the mayor's statement or of what Netanyahu said about him.

There is still no official Israeli government reply to Qatar, Turkey or Mamdani in the reporting so far.

The story as first reported

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's address to the United Nations General Assembly drew sharp responses from the targets he named in it: Qatar, Turkey and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. The Times of Israel reported that a senior Qatari diplomat rejected Netanyahu's accusations over Hamas and university funding, while Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post reported that Mamdani accused the prime minister of lying to cover what he called genocide.

At home, the speech landed in the middle of an election campaign. Ynet reported, with 33 days left before Israelis vote, that members of the governing coalition praised the address while opposition leaders attacked it, largely over what it said, and did not say, about Qatar.

What Netanyahu said about Qatar, and Qatar's answer

According to The Times of Israel, Netanyahu told the assembly that Qatar had sought to "brainwash young minds to hate Israel" through large-scale funding of American universities, and described it as the host of "the Hamas butchers of October 7", a reference to the Hamas-led attack on Israel on that date.

Qatar's deputy ambassador to the United States, Hamad al-Maftuh, answered in a post on X. He wrote that addressing "a half-empty room" said a good deal about support for the message, and that blaming Qatar did not change the facts. On the universities, he said Qatari funding has mainly gone to running the campuses American institutions operate in Education City, in the Qatari capital Doha, and that those universities keep academic responsibility for their programmes. Qatar, he said, does not decide what happens on their campuses in the United States.

Axios correspondent Barak Ravid noted on X that al-Maftuh accompanied his response with the photograph of a call in which Netanyahu apologised to Qatar a year earlier. Ravid described that apology as one that President Donald Trump had forced on the Israeli leader.

Mamdani and the arrest warrant

Mamdani, the mayor of New York, was attacked by name in the speech. Haaretz reported that the mayor charged Netanyahu with telling "baseless lies" whose purpose, he said, was to whitewash what he called the genocide of Palestinians. The Jerusalem Post rendered the phrase in its headline as lies meant to sanitize "his genocide"; the two outlets' versions of the wording differ slightly.

Ynet's alert carried another line from the mayor: that no lie would change the fact that Netanyahu faces an international arrest warrant over war crimes. The reports do not detail what Netanyahu said about Mamdani.

Turkey

Ynet reported that Turkey called Netanyahu's remarks against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan insolent. The Hebrew word used is the one behind the English borrowing chutzpah, meaning brazen or impudent. The report does not name the Turkish official who made the statement or quote what Netanyahu said about Erdogan.

Coalition praise, opposition criticism

Israel's coalition is the group of parties that holds a majority in the Knesset, the country's parliament, and forms the government. According to Ynet, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said Netanyahu had presented Israel's truth, and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir called it an important speech against the world's lies. A coalition message quoted in a Ynet alert said the prime minister had presented the truth "in the house of lies" of the UN.

The opposition focused on Qatar. Former prime minister Naftali Bennett said that refusing to call Qatar an enemy harms national security, Ynet reported. Yair Golan, who leads the Democrats party, mocked the charge that Qatar lies, suggesting the speech had not been cleared with Urich, a name he used without further explanation in the report. Ynet also pointed to the silence of Gadi Eisenkot, and its headline cited criticism that the speech harmed those murdered in the massacre, without the summary saying who made that charge.

Support from American media

Fox News host Mark Levin praised the speech, News.co.il reported, calling Netanyahu a hero and unique in history, and saying he had led the country for a total of 14 years. Levin referred to the Israeli election on 27 October in his remarks.

What the reports do not say

• None of the material gives the full text of Netanyahu's remarks about Turkey, Erdogan or Mamdani.
• The Turkish response is not attributed to a named official or ministry.
• No report gives an official Israeli government reply to Qatar, Turkey or Mamdani.
• The claim of a half-empty hall comes from the Qatari diplomat; no report independently describes attendance.
• The reports do not explain who Golan meant by Urich, or why Eisenkot stayed silent.