As Doha Summons Mideast Leaders To Condemn Israel, Documents Show Qatar Has Long Undermined Arab Regimes

The Qatari prime minister, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, is scheduled to meet President Trump on Friday on the eve of a two-day summit of Arab and Muslim leaders at Doha, where Qatar will try to convince them that Israel’s aggression endangers their regimes. Yet, past statements by Arab officials, as well as Hamas documents and statements seen by the New York Sun, indicate that Qatar’s Islamist surrogates have long striven to weaken America’s Mideast allies and replace modernizing Arab governments with fundamentalist Islamist regimes. In addition to Israel’s destruction, Hamas’s goal on October 7, 2023, “was to undermine regimes across the Arab world and to create unrest in several countries where masses rise up against the rulers, and Qatar is supporting that goal,” a senior researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, Jonathan Dahoah Halevi, tells the Sun.Following Israel’s strikes against Hamas offices that have long resided at Doha, though, Qatar has increasingly accused Israel of being an aggressor that threatens all Mideast countries. “Israel is trying to rearrange the region by force,” Mr. al-Thani told the United Nations Security Council on Thursday during an emergency session called to condemn Israel for violating Qatari sovereignty. “It is using fundamentalist ideas,” he said. “That is the basis of Israel’s behavior.” The Qatari claim that an “unhinged” Israel is threatening regional stability is widely echoed, including in Britain. Introducing Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, at London’s Chatham House this week, its director, Bronwen Maddox, accused his government of conducting unprovoked attacks across the region.“Qatar becomes the seventh country to be struck by Israel in the past year or so, along with Lebanon, Syria, Palestinian territories, Iran, Yemen and Tunisia,” Ms. Maddox said. No evidence has surfaced that Israel struck boats in a Tunis-docked Gaza-bound flotilla led by activist Greta Thunberg — or even that such strikes occurred. Israel struck the other “countries” on Ms. Maddox’s list only after they launched attacks against it. Yet, Qatar is expected to amplify that narrative during the weekend summit. “When [Osama] bin Laden was eliminated in Pakistan, the question asked was not why was a terrorist attacked on foreign soil, but why was he given sanctuary in the first place,” the Israeli U.N. ambassador, Danny Danon, said during the U.N. Thursday session, which coincided with the 24th anniversary of al Qaeda’s terror attack on America. Prior to September 11, 2001, that attack’s mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, found sanctuary in Qatar, the Middle East Media Research Institute’s founder, Yigal Carmon, tells the Sun. MEMRI has published a well-sourced paper documenting KSM’s safe haven at Doha, where he was employed by the Qatari Ministry of Electricity and Water while plotting terror operations around the world. In 2017 Qatar’s neighbors, led by Saudi Arabia, imposed an embargo on Qatar. They cited Doha’s support of terrorism and its influence operation, including through fiery sermons on the Arabic service of Al Jazeera, which, they claimed, undermined Arab governments.Qatar has “hindered the reform campaigns in the kingdom,” the Saudi foreign minister at the time, Adel al Jubeir, said in a 2018 speech, adding that despite Doha’s promises, its support of terrorism had not ceased. In 2021, under American pressure, the Gulf Cooperation Council finally ended its boycott of Qatar and renewed relations with its government.Mr. Halevi’s Jerusalem Center’s paper cites documents seized by Israel in Gaza, in which Hamas leaders envision a “Hereafter Battle” against Arab American allies that have made peace with Israel or planned to do so.“The problem with these people is that they lack Arab depth, Islamic depth, faith in their nation, and faith in themselves,” a Hamas senior leader, Mahmoud al Zahar, told Al Jazeera in 2020. “These were treacherous leaders who relied on betrayal to fortify their positions of power,” Mr. Zahar said, adding that Arab money “is now going to Trump.”Mr. Trump will now try to persuade Qatar to renew its mediation role and pressure its Hamas client to release all the hostages, disarm, and leave Gaza, sources cited in several Israeli and other Mideast media say. But first, Doha will vent its outrage. The United Arab Emirates summoned the Israeli deputy ambassador to Abu Dhabi on Friday for a tongue lashing, widely seen at Jerusalem as the weakest form of protest. Israelis doubt that the Emiratis would end relations that are beneficial for both countries. Egypt, which depends on Israeli gas for its energy needs, and the Jordanian Kingdom that relies on Israeli intelligence for its survival, are also unlikely to sever ties. The Doha summit is likely to end with a strongly worded statement, but little more. Washington, meanwhile, has condemned Israel’s violation of Qatar’s territorial integrity. Yet, “notwithstanding the unfortunate nature of this incident, President Trump believes it could serve as an opportunity for peace,” the American acting U.N. ambassador, Dorothy Shea, told the Security Council Thursday.

As Doha Summons Mideast Leaders To Condemn Israel, Documents Show Qatar Has Long Undermined Arab Regimes

More from the New York Sun

The War Over War Powers

Antisemitism Is the Root of Mamdani Socialism, and It’s Destroying New York City

Why Rod Stewart Mattered So Much to a Teen Boy in Care

More from the New York Sun

The War Over War Powers

Antisemitism Is the Root of Mamdani Socialism, and It’s Destroying New York City

Why Rod Stewart Mattered So Much to a Teen Boy in Care

France’s Greens Propose Paid Days Off Instead of Air Conditioning To Respond to Heat Waves

Musk Loses Trillionaire Title as SpaceX Shares Tumble

Chevalier Wins, Democrats Panic, and Letitia James Fears Mamdani Has Given Party Its MAGA Moment

James Comey Builds All-Star Legal Team To Thwart Renewed Effort by Trump DOJ To Convict Him

Rubio Tries To Ease Gulf Allies’ Fears of Capitulation to Tehran