There always comes a time when King Donald feels he is being taken for a ride. He does not like it. For his protégé Benjamin Netanyahu, that moment came on September 9. On that day, Israeli fighter jets targeted Qatar and bombed the building where leaders of the Palestinian group Hamas were meeting while hiding in the emirate. Until then, the Israeli prime minister had been able to act freely in the occupied Palestinian territories and in other parts of the region, with the White House's silent approval. The strikes on Qatar were a big mistake. It might have been the starting point for the Gaza peace plan – and for the first positive breakthrough on Thursday, October 9.
It was one thing for Qatar to host talks that led to the release of several dozen Israelis taken hostage by Hamas on October 7, 2023. All parties, including Israel, had requested that Qatar host these talks. The wealthy emirate was the key to keeping the negotiations going. The Israeli raid, which seemed to have missed its intended targets, probably had one purpose: To ruin the negotiation by "bombing the negotiators," as the New York Times wrote on October 6 in an article on the beginnings of the Gaza plan. But Qatar is important to Washington in a different way. Israel had attacked a "friend of the United States," as the White House said, that is home to the largest American military base in the Middle East. The Al Thani family, who rule this country, do business with the Trump family and with the family of the US special envoy to the region, Steve Witkoff.
To make matters worse, the US was only informed at the last minute about the September 9 raid: Trump felt challenged by Netanyahu. As if the Israeli prime minister could count on the Republican president's endless forgiveness. That day, Trump understood that he would not be able to achieve anything in Gaza without the support of the Arab nations and Netanyahu. The plan was a sign that the US was starting to play the role of an "honest" and important mediator in the Middle East, at least for now.
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