Under fire from Iran, Qatar’s media blames war on ‘white supremacy’

Qatar’s Al Jazeera network pushing staunchly anti-war messaging even after Iran strikes the Gulf Arab state, drawing threats of retaliation from Doha.

By David Rosenberg, World Israel News

Qatar’s state media outlet Al Jazeera is promoting staunchly anti-war messaging critical of the United States, a new study has found, despite Doha’s close ties with Washington and public hostility toward Iran following a wave of missile and drone attacks.

Since the beginning of Operation Epic Fury on February 28, Iran has repeatedly targeted Qatar, which houses the largest US military base in the Middle East, the Al Udeid Air Base.

While the initial attacks on Qatar were concentrated on military targets, Iran has also attacked civilian infrastructure, including Hamad International Airport, several industrial zones and gas production facilities, and even the capital, Doha, with multiple ballistic missiles and suicide drones intercepted over the city.

Even as Doha has publicly castigated Iran and aligned itself with the United States, the state-owned media giant Al Jazeera has used its English-language digital arm, AJ+, to sharply criticize the American campaign against Iran, including the use of anti-American tropes.

An analysis of Al Jazeera‘s war coverage conducted by the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI), which was published on Thursday morning, found that the overwhelming majority of the Qatari media outlet’s online English content regarding the war has been very hostile toward the joint US-Israeli air campaign.

The study examined dozens of opinion columns, articles, and videos in English, published both before and after the outbreak of the war, between January 28 and March 8, 2026.

“The findings reveal a clear and consistent pattern: Criticism of the war is extremely harsh and largely ignores the role played by Gulf states — including Qatar itself — in hosting and defending American military bases,” the JPPI wrote.

Prior to the war, 77.8% of Al Jazeera‘s English publications regarding a possible Iran conflict were classified as being “very negative” toward American military intervention, with 89% showing negative sentiment toward American strikes on Iran.

Following the start of the conflict on February 28, the proportion of anti-war content has increased to 91.2% of Al Jazeera‘s English coverage.

On AJ+, a whopping 95.2% of content was described as being “very negative” toward the US air campaign, and frequently included criticism of President Donald Trump himself.

Some materials produced by the media giant suggested that the war was pushed by the Trump administration in order to distract from domestic controversies, such as the Jeffrey Epstein affair.

Other content portrayed the Iran war as being part of a larger pattern of “white supremacy and capitalism.”

Lt. Col. (res.) Or Hurwitz, a JPPI senior fellow and a former senior Israeli military intelligence officer, argued that Al Jazeera‘s approach to the war with Iran reflected Doha’s long-standing efforts to “dance at two weddings” by balancing its relations with both the West and with radical Islam – including the Islamic Republic.

“Qatar has experienced firsthand the Iranian threat during the current war,” said Hurwitz. “Its longstanding strategy of attempting to ‘live alongside tigers’—pursuing reconciliation while maintaining strategic relationships with terrorist organizations and extremist actors—has not protected it.”

“Qatar is an actor driven primarily by survival in a complex regional environment rather than by ideology. The current war may therefore create a unique window of opportunity for a strategic shift in Qatari policy after the conflict.”

“Such a shift could include a harder stance toward Iran and Sunni terrorist organizations, a reassessment of Al Jazeera’s editorial guidelines, and perhaps even gradual changes in Qatar’s posture toward Israel. The path forward is uncertain and complex, but the possibility for change now exists—particularly if it is supported by American engagement and strategic assistance.”