Qatar is a more dangerous threat to Israel than Iran
The months leading up to October 7th saw the eyes of the Israeli military intently gazing north. Fighter jets streaked into Syria nearly every night, intelligence information was being constantly gathered, and every weapons smuggling path from Iranian merchants to Hezbollah associates was being monitored as much as possible. The very thought that Hamas was the more dangerous opponent was rarely if ever considered; Hamas had infamously prefaced its massacre with offers to release longtime hostages Hisham al-Sayed and Avera Mengistu intended for Israel to let its guard down.
Nearly a year later, the entirety of the country was on edge. Iran was readying its launchers after a strike on the IRGC headquarters in Damascus, and a showdown decades in the making slowly became inevitable. For years Iran had developed missiles with ever-increasing payloads and poured money into their nuclear program, and it was for that reason that a high degree of attention had been dedicated towards stopping the Ayatollah’s regime. Qatar, somewhat like Hamas, was not perceived as a major threat to Israel before the war, but after Israel’s near-total obliteration of Iran’s drone and missile waves was followed by a flood of encampments across Qatari-funded American Ivy League college campuses, it became clear that the prioritization of Israel’s focus had to be reshuffled.
The core issue of the argument that Qatar is a dangerous adversary of Israel is the billions of USD donated to high-ranking American universities. A culture is defined by their education system; A culture is constructed not by citizenship but by leather-bound volumes and mechanical pencils, by an educator with a microphone and an audience. Once a community is radicalized by education, any attempt at deradicalization through education will be interpreted by its indoctrinates as an immediate threat – Charlie Kirk was tragically murdered at a Utah college campus not because he posed a physical threat, but rather because he was an ideological one; he dared to confront political opponents with reason rather than force and focused on the contents of his words rather than their volume. The assassination bore every trademark of the jihadist and far-left position of eliminating everyone who they disagree with and poses a threat to them, especially those who dare to introduce American youth to the marketplace of ideas.
Qatari sponsorship of Ivy League institutions is almost certainly connected towards the construction of the encampments (How Qatar Fuels Campus Extremism in the United States – Middle East Forum), which is a critical point of distinction between Qatar’s leaders and those of the Saudis and Emiratis, who on face value are also trying to integrate slightly closer towards the Western world. The sponsorship of Death to America rallies on American soil makes it clear that one of these Gulf States is not like the others.
Qatar has been the main beneficiary of this war. Its leaders have manufactured an artificial image of themselves as the picture-perfect go-between, from sponsoring Hamas’s attack on Israel to being the host for hostage negotiations, from being home to the largest American military base in the Middle East to being warned by Iran before it attacked the aforementioned base. Home to nearly three million people but only 300,000 citizens- the largest demographic in Qatar is Indian workers – the lack of military might and spacious territory is made up with oil money and a deep understanding of how the Western left operates. If they offer themselves as a neutral stabilizing force, then the optimistic liberalist inherently assumes they are telling the truth.
The untenable view that Qatar is a neutral country concerning the Israel-Hamas conflict was permanently shattered this past week after an Israeli air strike on a conference on Hamas officials, implying that Israel’s generals and politicians have come to the conclusion that the status quo attitude from years past concerning Qatar is no longer relevant. This was in a long time coming – if Israel can target Nasrallah, who opposed the official government of Lebanon yet sheltered in Beirut, all the more so Israel has every right to target Hamas leaders who are given room and board by Qatar. Recent reports from several diplomatic sources based out of the Persian Gulf say that Qatari leaders has been pressuring the UAE to take down their Israeli embassy, effectively breaking away from the Abraham accords. Furious statements against Israel were to be expected and were arguably justified, but pressuring another country to break off what is essentially a peace treaty with Israel is on an entirely different level.
Even if this country led by the Muslim Brotherhood does want peace, the facts remain that its actions are in accordance with an intelligent enemy of Israel who refrains from calling for the physical destruction of the Jewish State only because it assumes it would fail to do so. Simply put, if Qatar wants to separate themselves from Hamas, then their course of action ought to be one of dissociation from Hamas, meaning a public expulsion of remaining Hamas leaders. But if they want to throw their hat into the ring of terrorism, then Israel must combat their efforts by any non-violent means, whether that be by raising awareness of Qatari influence on the Western world or even fighting fire with fire and funding foreign think tanks, universities, and similar institutions. Even though Qatar has yet to directly attack Israel militarily, the harm that it has done to Israel is undeniably intentional, and every interaction with the government must be approached with that in mind. From the perspective of the seven-front military war, Israel’s accomplishments have been very impressive, but it is the fight for public relations – in which Qatar is a key player – where Israel must look to gain ground.
Prime Minister Netanyahu must emphasize that Qatari money is being used to influence the Western world, but considering the degree to which he and his supporters have attempted to deflect the accusations against his longtime aides Eli Feldstein and Jonatan Urich of accepting bribes from Qatar, this is sadly not a realistic occurrence. Although there is no need for further bombing runs assuming the Hamas leadership flees Doha, Qatar knows how to effectively weaken Israel using the weapons of public opinion and dissonance, and will continue to attack Israel in every non-violent way at its disposal unless Israel confronts it head-on.
