More than 10,000 GIs swelter in the desert in Qatar, the hub of American military power in the Middle East, while the leaders of Hamas live in luxury in the capital of Doha. That paradox explains why Qatar’s ruler, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al Thani, plays such a central role in negotiations relating to the war in Gaza.

“Our security partnership has been essential over the past decade,” insists the American ambassador to Qatar, Timmy Davis, in a posting in which he describes the America-Qatar relationship as “a model for global partnership.”

Qatar, Mr. Davis notes, is “home to the largest U.S. military presence in the Middle East, which serves as a strategic hub for U.S. operations in the region and a major source of U.S. investment.” Indeed, he adds, “Qatar’s security is our security.”

Al Udeid Air Base hosts not only American fighter planes but also the forward headquarters of the U.S. Central Command, 21 miles southwest of Doha. Across the Persian Gulf, 20 minutes flying time away, looms America’s foremost foe in the region, the Islamic Republic of Iran.

If Mr. Davis avoids the whole issue of Qatar’s support for Hamas, that’s undoubtedly because neither Washington nor Qatar wants to upset what has been a crucial partnership while the Americans also defend their Middle Eastern interests with forces up and down the Gulf.

Similarly, Qatar, whose oil and natural gas exports make its 313,000 full-fledged citizens the richest per capita in the world with annual incomes averaging more than $100,000, does not want the Americans to leave just because of the war in Gaza or their own support of Hamas.

It’s a standoff between Washington’s need for its base in Qatar and the Qatari elite’s desire to go on enriching themselves. In the process, the emir lords over a fiefdom whose total population of 2.7 million includes 2.4 million foreigners in jobs ranging from laborers and nannies to skilled engineers and technicians.

The closest Mr. Davis, a marine corps veteran who has focused for much of his diplomatic career on Iraq, came to touching on the relationship of Qatar to Israel was to say that Qatar was “critical to global efforts to counter terrorism, maintain stability, and promote regional security.” Also, he observed, American companies are “fortifying this security relationship.”

Those arguments provide the rationale for the startling arrangement, acknowledged by Israel but not by Washington, that Qatar before the Hamas invasion of southern Israel on October 7 was financing Hamas to the tune of $2 billion in recent years while providing a base and home for Hamas leaders masterminding forces in Gaza.

The money that Qatar has been funneling into Hamas in Gaza, purportedly for humanitarian reasons, parallels the arms that Iran was slipping into Gaza for Hamas. All that explains why the Emir led talks for a cease-fire in Gaza and release of more than 100 of the 240 hostages kidnapped by Hamas.

In the bizarre jigsaw puzzle of interests and counter-interests in the Middle East, Prime Minister Netanyahu has been under fire for countenancing Qatari financial support for Hamas in what he obviously thought would contribute to peace in Gaza and turn Hamas away from threats against Israel. The Americans for their part have thanked Qatar as a go-between in talks.

Most recently, the White House reports that Vice President Harris, in a call to the Emir, looked forward to “planning for the day after the fighting ends in Gaza” — a guarantee that Washington will support Qatar’s ongoing pivotal position as a vital American base, whether or not its brokering in the war is “honest.”