Friend or Foe? Perceptions of Qatar in the Israeli Online General and Sports Press

Abstract

The current paper is looking into the way in which Qatar’s investment in sport, both directly and indirectly, is being perceived by the Israeli press. In order to accomplish the task set above, a content analysis of Qatar’s media coverage in the Israeli online press was conducted. Our analysis includes 1199 articles appearing in the mainstream online Israeli press and the findings point out to an interesting trend; there are significant differences between sport related stories, which present a political context and those who do not deal with politics which are significantly more supportive of Qatar.

Keywords:

• Qatar
• Israel
• soft power
• intercultural relations

Notes

1. At the same time, however, one need to be familiar with the controversy surrounding Qatar’s bid for the 2022 World Cup: According to British Telegraph, Jack Warner, the former vice-president of Fifa, appears to have been personally paid $1.2 million from a company controlled by a former Qatari football official shortly after the decision to award the country the tournament. According to CNN (2014), Qatar shocked the world by winning the right to host the 2022 finals, defeating bids by the United States, Australia, Japan and South Korea, despite the country’s small size, a technical report from FIFA calling its bid “high risk” and summer temperatures that can exceed 50 °C (122°F).

2. In response to a sharp increase in the number and frequency of rocket attacks into Israel prior to and following the expiration of Hamas’ agreed period of “calm” on December 19 2008, the Israeli Air Force launched Operation Cast Lead, consisting initially of airstrikes on December 27 against Hamas security installations, personnel, and other facilities in the Gaza Strip, followed on January 3 by ground operations. Hostilities between Israeli forces and Hamas fighters continued through January 18, and the Israeli withdrawal of troops was completed on January 21 2009.

3. Articles in which Qatar was presented in a negative manner include accusations that Qatar used bribery in order to win the bid and host different events (such as the World Cup), or that the state sponsor terror organizations (like Hamas). Positive new stories about Qatar portray the country as a financial success, or present it alongside other western countries.

4. It might worth mention that none of the Israeli coverage of Qatar was very positive.