Given Washington’s curious ties with Doha, the Israeli strike — with U.S. approval — is a significant development.
I am with Phil and Jim on the Israeli strike against Hamas leadership in Doha, Qatar, the Muslim Brotherhood’s (now former) safe haven. Hamas is the Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestinian branch.
The importance of this development cannot be overstated, especially if reports are true that the Israelis gave notice to the Trump administration, which alerted the Qatari government but did not thwart the attack.
Qatar has long been a principal aider and abettor of Sunni Islamic jihadists and an ally of the Shiite jihadist regime in Iran. It is the home of al-Jazeera, which propagates the sharia supremacist worldview. It was the longtime home of Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi, who was, until his death at 96 in 2022, the most influential Sunni sharia jurisprudent in the world — the inspirational beacon of Hamas and the host of a weekly al-Jazeera program, Sharia and Life, that routinely drew an audience of millions.
Hamas is not the only jihadist terrorist organization to enjoy Qatari hospitality. The Obama administration encouraged the Afghan Taliban to open a political office in Qatar to facilitate negotiations, even as the Taliban waged jihad against the American-backed government in Kabul (which the Taliban ultimately ousted in 2021, as the U.S., under Biden, haphazardly withdrew).
The United States maintains a military base — the Al Udeid Air Base — in southwest Qatar, serving as U.S. Central Command’s forward headquarters. (Al Udeid is the base that Iran ineffectually targeted in face-saving strikes after American forces bombed its nuclear program earlier this year.) The Biden administration designated Qatar a “major non-NATO ally,” notwithstanding its open and notorious material support to Hamas, which has been a designated foreign terrorist organization for nearly 30 years (since the designation process began). It is a serious felony offense under U.S. counterterrorism law to provide material support to a designated terrorist organization.
President Trump has visited Qatar, enthusiastically lauded the its regime, and in May accepted the regime’s gift of a $400 million plane (known as the “palace in the sky”), which is slated to become the new Air Force One.
The curious American ties to Doha have, to put it mildly, complicated Israel’s ability to target Hamas leadership, even after it celebrated the October 7 atrocities there. After Monday’s mass murder attack, in which jihadists opened fire on Israeli civilians in Jerusalem, killing at least six, and in light of Hamas’s continuing intransigence as the Trump administration has pushed for a cease-fire, it appears things have changed. While the Netanyahu government took full responsibility for the strike against Hamas in Doha, describing it as “a wholly independent Israeli operation,” unidentified Israeli officials told the Jerusalem Post that U.S. officials knew about and did not object to the attack.