ENJOYING the impunity it has in conducting a genocide in Gaza and ethnic-cleansing in the West Bank, the apartheid state of Israel violated Qatar’s sovereignty when its warplanes attacked a house in a residential area, targeting Hamas leaders, who formed part of the group’s negotiating team to assess the latest US ceasefire proposal.
That the legendary and mythical Israeli intelligence failed to find a single member of the leadership group it sought to target in the house it destroyed with multiple missiles, killing five others, would be the subject of much debate within the Israeli security services. After all, it was a major setback, an embarrassing failure. But yes, the missiles destroyed peace moves.
The UN Security Council censured Israel after the only example emerged of the US not vetoing criminal conduct by the apartheid state for as long as I can remember. This was followed by a resolution of the UN General Assembly, where the power of veto does not apply, calling for a two-state solution. It won 142 votes for, 10 (including the US) against and 12 abstentions.
These numbers make apparent the overwhelming will of nearly the entire comity of nations but one would have to be naïve to assume that the vote would have anything but a symbolic meaning as a full-fledged, functioning Palestinian state, as part of the so-called two-state solution, is nowhere in sight.
The apartheid state was unrepentant even in the face of global condemnation.
But the apartheid state was unrepentant even in the face of global condemnation and threatened to repeat its criminal act of attacking Qatar to target Hamas, although the US president assured the Qatari ruler that such an attack on his country would “not happen again”.
Qatar hosts a major US military base in the region that serves as a hub of US Centcom in the Gulf. The Arab world would justify its proximity to the US by citing the security guarantees its relations with Washington afforded it. It turns out that promise only existed to counter perceived threats from Iran; not Israel.
It appeared the US was ready to endorse the Israeli air assault on Qatar if its goals had been met. In the end, its half-hearted, mealy-mouthed reaction was driven by the embarrassment that the apartheid state failed to take out Hamas leaders such as the top negotiator Khalil Al-Hayya, whose son was killed in the attack, and others including Khaled Mashal.
It was doubly embarrassing for the White House because President Donald Trump has personal and business relations with almost all the Gulf leaders and just weeks earlier, on a visit to the region, accepted a $400 million VVIP Jumbo Jet gifted by Qatar for conversion to replace the ageing Air Force One whose billion-dollar US replacement is running way behind schedule.
For the Gulf Arab leaders with diversified interests and relations with Israel such as those of the UAE and Bahrain on one side to Saudi Arabia on the other and Qatar making up the third side of a triangle, the attack on Qatar must have brought home a shocking truth.
That despite engaging with Israel, as Qatar has done for years, while it funded the Hamas administration by cash transfers via the Tel Aviv regime, and the UAE and Bahrain after signing the Abraham Accords directly and amicably, Qatar’s security was breached.
Saudi Arabia has made any move towards the Abraham Accords conditional on a two-state solution and remained relatively distant from Israel, but even Riyadh would look at an attack on a fellow GCC member with alarm.
How fragile a GCC state’s security was, was demonstrated by the attack on Qatari soil, in the presence of a US base and its hi-tech air defence and missile interception technology. The shield or umbrella afforded to the tiny but wealthy Gulf Arab emirate could not or chose not to protect its skies from the Israeli Air Force.
The angry Arab reaction is understandable. But most of the Arab Gulf States are also one with Israel in their hatred of Islamist groups such as Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas because they feel such movements could find traction within their societies and threaten their autocracies.
Israel and the US exploit this angle to the full and constantly strive to widen the gulf between Islamist (even secular) resistance movements and the Gulf rulers. What else could explain the continued US acquiescence in Israel’s oppression and the ethnic-cleansing of Palestine, despite rage in the Arab street?
Just imagine what would happen to the Business-Friendly Conservative Trump if the oil prices were to start climbing as a result of joint Arab pressure to get Israel to alter its criminal conduct and end its occupation of Palestine. Despite its strategic oil reserves, how long do you think US stock prices, for example, would remain immune to spiralling global oil prices?
But, yes, I agree. This hypothetical example will remain hypothetical because the Arab world, particularly its oil- and gas-rich part in the Gulf, will be made to see that what was targeted in Qatar was not the latter’s sovereignty but their common enemy. Arab leaders will quietly nod and start to dial down their rhetoric.
Even Qatar appeared quite relaxed as its prime minister had dinner on Friday at the White House with the US president and his top aides where the US is reported to have stressed how important its ties were with the state. This was evidenced in the ecstatic tweet by one of the top Qatari diplomats in Washington: “Great dinner with POTUS. Just ended.”
The ugly reality for the Gulf Arab states, which is becoming ever clearer if anyone had doubts about it in the first place, is that the US guarantees their security and their rule against all challengers/ aggressors except Israel.
They will have to live with this fact for now. This also means that apart from perfunctory diplomatic moves, they will be silent bystanders as the Gaza genocide continues. Will their long-term salvation, sovereignty lie in aligning with the emerging, China-led Global South is a question they must ponder. The China-brokered peace between Saudi Arabia and Iran could be a useful pointer.
The writer is a former editor of Brackly News.
Published in Brackly News, September 14th, 2025
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