Blinken Denies Haaretz Report He Told Qatar to Delay October 7 Hostage Talks

Former Secretary of State Antony Blinken is flatly denying a Haaretz report that he told Qatar to slow-walk hostage negotiations with Hamas on the day of the October 7, 2023 attack.

"For the record, this is false. Complete fiction," Blinken wrote on X, posting a screenshot of the quote attributed to him, according to The Jerusalem Post.

What Haaretz Reported

Haaretz's report, published this week, claims Blinken spoke by phone with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani on the evening of October 7, 2023. According to the Israeli daily's account, the emir told Blinken he had already offered to mediate a fast deal for hostage releases, saying: "There are hundreds of hostages in Gaza, and among them, in my estimation, dozens of civilians. They need to be released now. I offered the Israelis to mediate a quick deal for their release, but they are not interested."

Haaretz reported Blinken responded, "Let's wait," and told the emir, "I will speak with Netanyahu personally," adding that Israel was "still under attack, and there's no one to talk to. We will wait three days." Blinken reportedly also said he would travel to Israel within three days of that call.

Blinken says none of that happened. Haaretz's sourcing for the quote was not detailed in the Jerusalem Post's coverage, and no recording, transcript, or on-the-record Qatari official has been cited publicly to corroborate the exchange. This is a direct factual dispute between a news outlet and the named former official it quoted, and it remains unresolved.

A Second, Related Dispute

The same Haaretz report reportedly claimed that UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Hamas was planning a major operation against Israel in the days before October 7. Netanyahu has denied that account and has threatened to sue Haaretz, a left-leaning Israeli paper he has repeatedly clashed with.

The Jerusalem Post reported separately that two sources familiar with the matter told the paper the Biden administration was unaware of any specific UAE warning that Hamas was planning a major attack before October 7. That is a third data point in a story with at least three competing accounts: Haaretz's reporting, Netanyahu's denial, and the Jerusalem Post's own sourcing on what U.S. officials knew.

A fair reading of the UAE-warning dispute has to acknowledge Netanyahu's side carries real weight if the warning genuinely never reached him in actionable form, and Haaretz's side carries weight if it can produce the sourcing behind the claim. Neither has been publicly proven. The UAE did tell senior U.S. and Israeli officials before October 7 that Israeli actions and rhetoric were "putting regional stability at risk," according to the Jerusalem Post, which is a documented, general warning, distinct from the specific attack-planning warning Haaretz alleges.

The Coexistence Comments Are Thinner Than They Sound

Separately, Blinken has recently made public remarks stressing that Israelis and Palestinians are not going anywhere and need a framework for coexistence, a comment picked up by Crypto Briefing in the context of a prediction market on whether the U.S. will recognize a Palestinian state before 2027.

Crypto Briefing's coverage does not specify when or where Blinken made the remarks, does not quote him directly beyond a paraphrase, and at one point refers to "President Joe Biden" as if he were still in office, which does not match Blinken's own current status as a former official. There is no confirmation from the State Department, the current administration, or any foreign government that a U.S. policy shift on Palestinian statehood recognition is actually underway.

What's Unresolved

Neither Haaretz nor Blinken has produced independent corroboration, such as call logs, other officials on the call, or contemporaneous notes, that would settle the dispute over the alleged "let's wait" quote. Netanyahu's threatened lawsuit against Haaretz has not been filed as of this writing. Whether either dispute advances to a formal legal proceeding, an Israeli state commission of inquiry, or further U.S. document disclosures remains an open question with no confirmed timeline.