On May 16, 2025, UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer joined a live panel on Fox News moderated by Kevin Corke. The discussion centered on President Trump’s visit to the Middle East and the latest developments in the region.
Kevin Corke, Fox News:
Hillel Neuer, thank you so much for joining us, bon matin, and we appreciate you spending time with us today. This is an interesting time. I do want to ask you, though, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t, about this idea that you heard Mahek mention and David as well, what about the folks in the less – to use an American expression – less tony areas of the region, speaking specifically to the downtrodden, those who have been through it over in Gaza, for example. What could the US do in terms of encouraging the ‘haves’ to do more for the ‘have-nots’ in the region? How might that happen? Because when I see these big numbers, Hillel, it sounds great for the US, but I often do wonder, what else can we do to ensure that some of the growth and development can also reach those most in need in the region?
Hillel Neuer:
Look, President Trump’s visit to the region is, of course, prioritizing America first. He went there to drum up billions of dollars of investments, of deals to buy planes, and many other things. And that’s President Trump’s priority, he’s looking out for America. Now you ask about the downtrodden, and the truth is that some of these countries in the Gulf that are, you know, have billions of dollars of oil wealth, they are trying to move to the future. If we look at the UAE, the UAE is a model for the downtrodden, because they’re showing the Arab world that they don’t have to be obsessed with ancient resentments and trying to destroy Israel, and a very backward-looking, anti-Western view in the name of their religion. Rather, they can look towards the future. And if you look at Abu Dhabi, where the President is right now, and Dubai, these are Arab cities that are extraordinary. They have developed in ways that really are a model for the Arab world. They’re looking to the future for peace, tolerance, as was indicated on the program, there is in Abu Dhabi a center for the Abrahamic religions – Islam, Christianity, and Judaism – that does not exist in many of the countries in the region.
At the same time, other countries that President Trump has visited are doing the opposite. If we look at Qatar, let’s not forget that Qatar is the major bankroller of the Muslim Brotherhood. Qatar hosts Al Jazeera, a billion dollar, multi-billion dollar agency, that has spread for decades, the most anti-Western, anti-Israel, antisemitic incitement on a regular basis. We talk about Gaza. You mentioned Gaza and the downtrodden. Al Jazeera is basically an arm of Hamas. They have, for the past year and a half since Hamas invaded Israel, slaughtered 1,200 people in a single day, Al Jazeera has acted as Hamas’s main propaganda channel. That’s why even the Palestinian Authority, which is a rival to Hamas, had banned Al Jazeera, and other countries in the region had done the same. So Qatar is the bankroller of that. Qatar bankrolls Hamas. They’ve given them tens of millions of dollars. The heads of the Hamas terrorist organization are housed in Doha, in Qatar’s capital. So if we talk about the downtrodden, really, if we’re looking at President Trump’s visit, we see two different Arab models. I would throw in Saudi Arabia as well. Saudi Arabia was, not so long ago in the recent past, part of the problem. They were bankrolling a terrorist and a Wahabist, extremist view of Islam, very anti-Western.
Kevin Corke, Fox News:
Exactly, that’s what I was going to get to. I was going to say, you have to remember now, you and I don’t have to go very far back to point to Saudi Arabia as sort of the suggestion, certainly could be made going back to 2001 and probably likely very much before then. To your point, I think things can change on the ground. Over time, and some of that, I think if I were to pick up on what you’re saying is it may be economically driven. It may be because they’re attempting to move beyond petro-economy, but some of it may be the changing times. And I think you point out so well the examples of not just Abu Dhabi, but also Dubai, they’re magnificent, having been to the region and been to both places, I’m gobsmacked at the growth and the development, even from the first time I went 15 years ago to just a few years ago, it’s just quite remarkable. We’re going to continue, Hillel, don’t go anywhere.
Kevin Corke, Fox News:
Back into the conversation, Hillel, I thought it was very apropos that David mentioned the idea that certainly when you’re having conversations the way the President is during a trip like this, leaders will try to impress upon you some of their own interests, be they direct interest or sometimes regional interests. In the case of the folks in Gaza, getting humanitarian aid into those who have either been displaced or remain under assault, thanks in large part to what’s happening by the terror group around them. I’m just curious, do you think that’s what’s happening here? Is that part of the reason why you think the President may have mentioned that during his remarks just a second ago?
Hillel Neuer:
Well, I think David is probably right. He probably did hear that talking point, perhaps in Qatar, which, of course, adopts the Hamas narrative. Let’s recall that the ceasefire that just ended on March 1st was a period in which Israel flooded the entire region with food aid, including 400,000 tons of aid, and not just any aid. This was a high-quality food aid, including fruits, vegetables, chicken, fish, beef, and according to the World Food Program, that’s enough to last everyone in Gaza for eight months. This is 25,000 trucks. The problem in Gaza is Hamas terrorists control the place, and given that Iran has basically been blocked from funding Hamas because of Israel’s successes during the war, the main source of Hamas’s funding is the aid. They seize it, they use it—either to sell it or to put pressure on Israel. Until Hamas is removed from power, we’re never going to help the Palestinians in Gaza. That’s why thousands of them actually have been demonstrating at certain points, before they were crushed, to say we need an end to Hamas. So, you know, I just arrived in Israel yesterday. The Houthis fired a missile at Israel just as I landed. That’s Iran. There was a pregnant woman who was about to give birth. She was murdered in a terrorist attack just two days ago. And you know again, these are terrorists, funded, trained, armed, directed by Iran. I hope the President’s meeting with allies like the Emirates and the Saudis will send a signal to Iran. They only understand maximum pressure. They’re not negotiating to make peace, only to buy time.
Kevin Corke, Fox News:
Hillel, before I move to Lisa, I just want to follow up on something that I think you can probably offer some perspective on this uniquely: why do you think, and this has been a criticism, why do you think many of the powers in the region don’t take more displaced Palestinians? I’m just curious because we can give money, you can send aid trucks and vessels and what have you. They can easily be absconded by Hamas and other terror groups. They basically eat a lot of the food. They take a lot of the material. It’s almost bits and pieces that gets down to the level of the people, and yet, some of the criticism, frankly, Hillel, has been the powers in the region don’t take enough refugees. Is that an unfair criticism? Do you think?
Hillel Neuer:
No, I think it’s an entirely fair criticism. I would say, indeed, you can observe an inverse proportion from the countries who make inflammatory statements claiming that there’s horrific war crimes against the Palestinians. Those are the last ones to take in a single one. You know, if you contrast it with Europe, countries like Poland spoke out very passionately about the plight of the Ukrainians, and they took in millions of their neighboring Ukrainians, as did other countries in the region. And we see that in other parts of the world. Egypt is on the border with Gaza. They’re condemning Israel every day, claiming to care for the Palestinians. They wouldn’t take one. And indeed, the King of Jordan had said shortly after October 7, because we care for the Palestinian cause, neither Jordan nor Egypt will allow one Palestinian to leave Gaza. The truth is that those who claim to care for Palestinians, the Arab states in the region, particularly some of the neighboring states, they only use the Palestinian issue as a weapon. They’re weaponizing human beings as a tool against Israel. So they maximize the plight, so to speak, of the Palestinians only as a way to demonize Israel. That’s very sad. President Trump was right when he said that Gaza could be a Riviera. I’ve been to Gaza. It has beautiful white sands. It’s a beautiful beach. It’s right next to Tel Aviv. They could have Tel Aviv 2.0, they could have the French Riviera 2.0. The only reason it’s not is because Hamas, a murderous death cult, is in control of the region. They don’t build to the sky, like where President Trump is now in Abu Dhabi, but they build hundreds of miles of terror tunnels deep into the ground because they’re driving their people towards an Islamist death cult and terrorism. Until they’re removed from power, we’re never going to see any help, and as you said, none of the Arab states who claimed to care for the Palestinians offered any refuge for them. Egypt has a massive wall with barbed wire, multiple walls, to prevent a single Palestinian entering Egypt. They don’t care a whit for them. And it’s sad.
Kevin Corke, Fox News:
That is sad indeed. And a lot of people, frankly, Hillel, don’t talk about it. And I’m not sure if it’s because they’re unaware, or if people are just sort of blithely content to talk about these issues and never really put pen to paper, or in this case, open their doors when they claim to support them.
Kevin Corke, Fox News:
Back into our chat here. You have a unique perspective, Hillel, I know that you’ve actually been to the UAE, and I wanted to get your perspective as you watch this before the President makes his way back to Washington. What do you think this trip means for the UAE, not just economically, but reputationally?
Hillel Neuer:
Well, the UAE is a critical player in the Abraham Accords process, that’s for sure, and I mentioned before, they represent a model for the Arab people in the region. It is the most forward-looking and successful, prosperous Arab country. They have embraced peace with Israel. The only way to succeed for any people is to put aside radicalism and, you know, hatred against America, the West, Israel – that’s only a recipe for disaster, and we see failed states all across the region, whether it’s Libya, Syria, Yemen, the list goes on and on. Even a country like Egypt, which is not a failed state, is horribly poor, and the only countries that are successful are perhaps the countries that President Trump is visiting. Obviously, they’re oil-rich countries, but the UAE is a model, and I think President Trump is very right to spend a lot of time there to prop them up, and we need them to be a beacon for other countries to follow, because the other model is being led by Iran. They’re the ones, as was mentioned, they are funding Hezbollah that destroyed Lebanon, Houthis that destroyed Yemen and is attacking Western shipping for at least the past year, Hamas in Gaza, which plunged the whole region into war, Israel has been facing a seven-front war, and the enemy of peace in the region is Iran, and I hope that President Trump’s strengthening of the moderate countries, certainly Saudi Arabia and the Emirates, will hopefully expand the Abraham Accords. We didn’t see Saudi Arabia make the move yet. Some have called on the United States to put more pressure on Saudi Arabia before agreeing to very large defense approvals of major arms being sent to Saudi Arabia, to tie that to their commitment to join the Abraham Accords. Clearly, were Saudi Arabia to join the Abraham Accords – this is the country, of course, that is home to Mecca, the holy city for Muslims around the world – that would be extremely significant. So I say that’s the big prize.
We heard some rhetoric or commitments or hints from the Syrian leader. Of course, he was a terrorist not so long ago, and his control on the ground is limited, so we really don’t know what that means, but we welcome that kind of language. That’s a good indication. But we need to see the proof in the pudding if we want to see the Abraham Accords expand. We hope Saudi Arabia certainly will take the plunge, and hopefully in the future, in the near future, Syria and Lebanon, we’re seeing some positive moves that because Israel decimated Hezbollah with that incredible beeper operation exploding these devices in the hands of the most senior terrorists, Lebanon now is moving forward to try to limit the power of Hezbollah. So there is some hope in the region, now that Iran and its proxies have been weakened, we need to increase maximum pressure—it’s the only thing that the Islamic radicals in Iran understand.
Kevin Corke, Fox News:
Boy, what a terrific recitation of what really can happen if, again, various leadership pockets will simply turn away from the violence.
Hillel Neuer:
“The UAE is a model for the downtrodden, because they’re showing the Arab world that they don’t have to be obsessed with ancient resentments and trying to destroy Israel.”
David Tafuri:
“I think it’s a little bit naive for Hillel to say that the UAE is a model for the rest of the Middle East, because the UAE is nothing like many other parts of the Middle East. The UAE has a very small population, very homogenous, very rich in resources. That’s very different from Iraq, for instance, which is multicultural, multi-sectarian, multi-ethnic. It has big divisions. It does have a lot of oil. It’s very different from Egypt, for instance, also is not as energy-rich as those countries, it has a very massive population, many poor, destitute people. Lebanon also not rich in natural resources.”
Kevin Corke, Fox News:
I heard David make some criticisms of your perspective. I wanted to give you another minute, 30 seconds or so to just reply, if you wanted to?
Hillel Neuer:
Sure, David says that it’s about, you know, poverty and stuff like that—absolutely wrong. You know, Saudi Arabia is one of the wealthiest countries. The Prince MBS says that they did support terrorism. Everyone knows that. Now they’re not. Same with Iran, under the Shah, was making progress. Under the Islamic radical regime, they’re not. It’s about worldview. As long as there’s a radical, Islamist worldview, the population will never progress. Lebanon, under a Christian-led country in the 60s was a pearl of the Middle East. When it was taken over by Hezbollah, it was destroyed. So it’s not about being poor. The question is, why are you poor? And if you adopt a worldview that embraces Islamic radicalism, the whole Middle East will be plunged into war and poverty. Those countries, like UAE, like Saudi Arabia today, that are part of a moderate coalition, are giving their people a chance. Gaza can be a great success. All of the elements are naturally there, beautiful beachfront property. If you have an Islamist death cult, they’re going to just keep drilling terror tunnels. It’s about the worldview. It’s about your beliefs. It’s about what you teach your children. Countries that teach their children that they can disrespect women, give them zero equality, oppress them, oppress minorities, they’re going to send their countries into a fate of doom. That’s what we’re seeing, and we have to understand it’s about beliefs, values, worldview. That’s the kind of society you’re going to have.
Hillel Neuer:
I think President Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia and the Emirates is terrific. He needs to push Saudi Arabia stronger to join the Abraham Accords. On Qatar, we need more caution. They’ve pumped billions of dollars into the universities, think tanks in Washington, buying influence, as was mentioned. They fund Hamas. We need to be very concerned about Qatar. They play a pernicious role.
