We cannot afford to be naïve. The nations of the world function with self-interest as their first priority. It could not be otherwise. Underlying that self-interest are complex, frequently hidden, motivations.
And yet, as we say, yesh g’vul. There is a limit.
Factored into the calculus of national self-interest there should be a stand against evil: a readiness to act against elements that lack respect for human life, undercut basic human liberties and embrace obscene acts of violence.
There should be, and yet this is not how the world operates.
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There is no greater threat today to those nations that seek peace and embrace values of human dignity and freedom than Jihadism. Its ideology calls for domination of the world one step at a time, by violent means when necessary, and imposition of its malevolent precepts.
With its obscene massacre of innocent Jews on October 7, 2023, Hamas – a major proponent of Jihadism – exposed itself as inherently evil.
Since that massacre, Israel has been fighting to take down Hamas. This is a moral imperative. But while we have conducted ourselves with unprecedented rigor in terms of care for the enemy civilians of Gaza, the world has swallowed the PR fabrications of Hamas, and we are accused of genocide.
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This has been particularly bitter, because we are fighting not only for ourselves but also on behalf of the world, even as it chooses not to acknowledge this.
David Ben-Basat, president of the Israel Radio Communications Association, addresses this painful situation (emphasis added):
“The clash between exposed barbarism and the Western response was a cultural crossroads. Israel suffered a national tragedy, but the world’s reaction revealed nothing less than the collapse of values in the so-called ‘enlightened’ West. It was the erosion of the ability to distinguish between good and evil, aggressor and victim, and morality and hypocrisy…
“For many Israelis, the disappointment was twofold. Not only did the world fail to defend us, but the victims were cast as the accused. Israel had to explain their right to self-defense, as though it were a privilege.
“Israelis feel isolated, yet also entrusted with a historic role, to be a moral beacon in a world where the compass has broken. Despite terror and bloodshed long before October 7, Israel continues to rebuild and safeguard a vibrant democracy.
“…the West must remember: A society that loses its moral compass will ultimately lose its freedom. If the West does not wake up, it risks surrendering its own values – and with them, its future.
“…Israel, though wounded, will continue to fight and preserve its identity. The great question remains: Will the West awaken, or keep looking away as it slides into moral darkness?”
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-867191
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This past Tuesday, December 9, we confronted international perversity once again, and it was a bit too much:
Prime Minister Netanyahu made a decision to launch an attack on the leaders of Hamas who were living in great luxury and presumed security in Doha, Qatar. These were not “just” leaders. They had participated in planning the October 7 massacre and have been a negative element in negotiations to secure the release of hostages.
In order to avoid collateral damage of Qataris, the attack was executed with great care (and less than the most powerful munitions that might have been used). Ten missiles were fired from IDF fighter jets – presumed to be “Adir” F-35 stealth jets – which were over the Red Sea and not over Arab air space.
The hit was on the apartment of Khalil al-Hayya, where a number of Hamas leaders were to be gathered for a meeting. The operation was apparently less successful than had been hoped and there is still no final determination as to who might have been killed or severely wounded.
But it was not a failure, as important messages were delivered by Israel. As Israel’s ambassador to the US, Yechiel Leiter, said, If we didn’t get them now, “We’ll get them next time.”
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Yet it is not the relative success of this operation that is my focus now, but rather the international response.
That Qatar called this attack “cowardly and terrorist” should come as no surprise. What was jolting was the response of leaders of several nations that criticized Israel for the operation, saying it violated Qatar’s sovereignty and undermined peace. And I am not referring to heads of Muslim or Arab states, but Western countries. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, for example, condemned Israel’s strike in Qatar as an “unprovoked” attack and an “intolerable expansion of violence.”
All of this is ludicrous, as Qatar itself supports Jihad, which promotes and endorses violence, thus posing a threat to the free world. Qatar bankrolls Hamas, enabling it to pursue its violent agenda, and allows its most vicious leaders to live in incredible luxury in Doha.
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José Manuel Albares, Foreign Minister of Spain went so far as to charge that what Israel did was “a flagrant violation of international law.”
Louis Rene Beres, a highly respected emeritus professor of international law (pictured), argues quite the opposite (emphasis added):
“The Nuremberg Principles (1950), the UN’s guidelines for determining war crimes, begin with a fundamental reassertion: “Any person who commits an act which constitutes a crime under international law is responsible therefor and liable to punishment…
“Accordingly, the fact that Hamas terrorist leaders sought safe harbor in a sovereign state does not mean they were no longer subject to law-mandated punishment or that the principle of sovereignty immunized the terror-protecting state from ‘long-arm’ law enforcement.
“Contrary to various uninformed or deliberately contrived condemnations of Israel’s self-protective actions in Qatar, those operations were consistent with codified and customary international law, including (per Article 38 of the UN Statute of the International Court of Justice) ‘the general principles of law recognized by civilized nations’…
“Predictably, Israel’s recent targeted killings of terror criminals in Qatar have elicited visceral indignation across the world, but the argument that Israel did not act correctly because it offended a terrorist-protecting state’s sovereignty lacks legal merit…
“In Qatar, Israel – much as was the case of the United States targeting Osama bin Laden in Pakistan – subordinated narrowly technical issues of sovereignty to broadly overriding issues of justice. For anyone who values life over death, it was the singularly lawful choice.”
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-867176
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The Qataris have avoided international condemnation for supporting Hamas and harboring its leaders because they play a double game of complex maneuvering – acting as an invaluable friend to Western states while supporting terrorism. It was hoped that the Israeli attack on Doha would spotlight this Qatari duplicity. As yet, the world has not focused on this precisely because there remains the perception (carefully nurtured by Qatar, of course) that Qatari assistance is valuable.
Most frustrating perhaps was Trump’s cautionary statement to Netanyahu to be careful with Qatar because it is a “great ally.” This is because Qatar hosts the largest American base in the Middle East, certainly, but for reasons beyond this.
https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-867469
Just days after the attack in Doha, Trump hosted a dinner in New York with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, presumably to make his point.
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But Qatar is also Iran’s closest ally! See Doron Spielman, an international IDF spokesman, on this:
https://www.jns.org/israel-just-exposed-qatars-infiltration-in-the-west/ (Watch the first five minutes.)
Iran is able to fund its proxies such as Hamas and the Houthis because of money that flows through Qatar. Qatar owns the biggest gas field in the world and draws funds from this to provide Iran with the ability to support its proxies.
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Yet just as the obscenely wealthy Qatar provides funds to Iran for its purposes, it invests in the US, rendering itself enormously valuable via such deals as recently completed economic agreements totaling $243 billion. This includes an agreement with Boeing for the purchase of jets to the tune of $96 billion.
Beyond this is Qatar’s investment in American corporations, media outlets, real estate, sports, banks and, of course, universities. As it infiltrates itself, it garners influence and political leverage. Last year, a member of the al-Thani royal family invested roughly $50 million in Newsmax. And over the last 20-plus years Qatar has provided American colleges and universities with more than $6 billion.
Doron calls Qatar the greatest dancer in the Middle East, a dancer who routinely changes partners. This is a malevolent tangle indeed. One from which the world must extricate itself. The beginning is with acknowledgement of the current situation.
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“Qatar has effectively ‘conquered the West’ and is laying the groundwork to restore the Islamic empire, according to Dr. Udi Levy, former head of the Mossad’s Economic Warfare Division. Levy soke Wednesday at the International Institute for Counterterrorism’s annual conference at Reichman University.
“Levy argued that Qatar’s success lies not in military action but in undermining decision-making processes in rival states…
“He claimed Doha has invested heavily in cultural, social, and economic infrastructure to influence public opinion across the globe, aligning with the Muslim Brotherhood’s doctrine of restoring an Islamic empire.”
“’Qatar has built, is building, and will continue to build every possible infrastructure to change the West culturally, socially, and economically,’ Levy told participants.”
“’They run a global propaganda network that has entered every home across the globe,’ he said. He added that Qatar has ‘bribed every leader and every actor who could help advance their interests’ while neutralizing opposition.”
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What I am discovering as I track the defense of Qatar being expressed by various parties is that their positions, as well, are complex, with frequently hidden motivations. Not a surprise, really, when dealing with a presumed ally that also fosters terrorism.
We can begin with President Trump, who apparently told Netanyahu after the attack that it is good to go after Hamas, but not on Qatari soil. According to reports right after the attack, the president wasn’t informed until mere minutes before it took place, making it impossible for the US to alert Qatar.
Reports this week, however, tell a different story. “Seven Israeli officials told Axios that the White House knew about the attack last Tuesday before missiles were launched.” Seven is a solid number. Apparently Trump was informed 50 minutes before the missiles were launched. This would mean that he had time to stop it; instead he allowed it to proceed and then denied that he had the opportunity.
“’Trump didn’t say no,’ a senior Israeli official told Axios.
“’If Trump had wanted to stop it, he could have,’ said a second official.
“Israel had gone along with the White House version of events out of diplomatic considerations, said a third official, while a fourth said, ‘The Americans are putting on a show.’
“A fifth official said the US administration had reasons to distance itself from the strike, and so ‘what they say publicly should be taken with a grain of salt.’”
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Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a true friend, was in Israel this week. He went first to the Kotel with Netanyahu (and was roundly criticized by the Arabs for an “invasion” of their Muslim holy place).
Later he attended the inauguration of the Pilgrim’s Road, an ancient road that led to the Temple Mount and had been excavated. This is in eastern Jerusalem, which the Palestinian Arabs (ignoring the reality of the archeology) claims as theirs.
There is no way to know what was said privately between Rubio and Netanyahu, but in public there was no criticism of Israel with regard to the Doha attack.
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Then there is Egypt: according to some reports, which strike me as plausible from a geographic perspective, the Israeli jets involved in the attack were permitted to fly over Egyptian air space on their way to the Red Sea.
I found this very interesting. At one point after the attack, when Qatar declared it would no longer function as a mediator between Hamas and Israel (a threat on which it may soon backtrack), Egypt indicated a readiness to assume that role alone. Egypt has a particular interest in the “day after” in Gaza. Word of mouth information has come to me via intelligence sources regarding Egypt’s desire to be involved in prospective plans for the US-backed India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC), a new multimodal trade route, which is projected to come through Gaza. (This is for another day.)
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And then, we have leaders of a number of Arab and Muslim states who gathered for a summit in Qatar earlier this week. All expressed great outrage at what happened, but it appears that venting – and leveling threats — is as far as this will go. Members of the Abraham Accords warned that Israel’s action threatens their relationship; but no one has pulled out of the Accords as of this writing. Even Saudia Arabia, which is not a member (not yet, at any rate) is tied to Israel with cooperative agreements.
What occurred to me as I thought about this, was what happened in 2017 when Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt all severed their bilateral relations with Qatar. They subsequently banned Qatar-registered aircraft and Qatari ships from utilizing their sovereign territory by air, land, and sea. And when the Saudis then closed Qatar’s only land crossing, this generated a de facto blockade.
This action was initiated because of charges that Qatar was demonstrating support for Islamist extremist groups and had warm ties with Iran.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/saudi-arabia-qatar-blockade-gulf-crisis/
And so, this crisis was resolved in 2021, but we see that the Gulf States and Egypt all understood the dangers of Qatar then and surely understand them today. What is in the best interest of these states?
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When participants in the summit in Qatar expressed concern that they might be next for an attack by Israel, I regretted that I could not ask them, ‘Oh, are you also harboring terrorists?’ They need to be reminded that Qatar was not attacked, Hamas was.
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We leave this convoluted topic now and turn to Gaza: The IDF has initiated its ground war into Gaza City, the last stronghold of Hamas.
It is traditional for Israeli commanders to lead their troops into battle, but this is the very first time troops were led on the front lines by the chief of staff. Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir joined Southern Command chief Maj. Gen. Yaniv Asor in Gaza City on Tuesday.
The operation had begun the night before, following intense preparations.
The IDF has opened a second temporary route for Arabs in Gaza City to utilize in moving south to designated safe areas. As of Tuesday, approximately 40 % of the residents had already left Gaza City.
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This is the critical military action that is intended to bring down Hamas. The IDF will be proceeding with care. It is expected that Gaza City can be taken by the end of the year, but that many months of clean-up, destroying of infrastructure and rooting out hiding troops, etc. will still be required.
Declared Defense Minister Yisrael Katz, “We will not relent, and we will not turn back until the mission is complete.”
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Please, pray with full hearts, my friends, for the courage and strength of our leaders, the safety of our brave fighting troops, and the rescue of our hostages.
©Arlene Kushner. This material is produced by independent journalist Arlene Kushner. Permission is granted for it to be reproduced only with proper attribution.
