To Make Progress on Gaza Hostages, Raise the Pressure on Hamas’ Sponsor: Qatar

After meeting Israeli hostages at the White House, President Trump gave Hamas a final ultimatum: release all the hostages and leave Gaza “while you still have a chance.” Mr. Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff then cancelled his upcoming trip to Qatar. For a moment, the White House appeared to be souring on Hamas’s top Arab sponsor. Then Mr. Witkoff’s trip was back on. He arrived at Doha on Wednesday before heading to Moscow for Ukraine talks on Thursday. For the envoy to accomplish anything more on the Gaza file other than racking up more airline miles, Qatari mediators need to start feeling the heat. As a sponsor of Hamas, Qatar has levers that it had repeatedly chosen not to pull — and that America has not forced them to. Doha could have compelled Hamas to release every last hostage starting on October 8, 2023. Yet month after month, the tiny, terror-sponsoring emirate shielded its clients from making concessions. It’s difficult to discern exactly where things stand right now in the hostage talks. When Hamas cancelled a hostage release scheduled for February 15, Trump warned the terrorists to release all the hostages by noon on the 15th or “all bets are off.” Prime Minister Netanyahu then announced that if Hamas failed to meet the deadline, Israeli troops would “return to intense fighting” until Hamas was defeated. Israel later told Qatari and Egyptian mediators that the ceasefire could continue if Hamas freed three hostages as planned. The terrorist group relented. The release of three hostages may have been welcomed by Israel, but the hostage crisis continues.Right now, the resumption of hostage releases by Hamas is on pause. Phase One of the deal is complete. Phase Two has yet to begin. The Trump White House took the unusual and controversial step of dispatching its hostage envoy, Adam Boehler, to negotiate directly with Hamas, only to sideline Mr. Boehler days later.One thing has remained remarkably consistent, though. The Trump White House has failed to attribute any blame to Qatar — the country that has nurtured Hamas politically, financially, and even militarily for decades. Before heading to Doha this week, Mr. Witkoff commended Qatari mediators for their “outstanding” work.To be fair, the lack of criticism directed at Qatar is bipartisan. No president has yet to say the obvious: that Doha has simultaneously fanned the flames of the Gaza war while also purporting to help try and end it. Admittedly, Qatari mediators helped broker the truce in November 2023 that saw Hamas release 81 Israeli hostages. But that success was short-lived. Seven days in, Hamas failed to produce a list of hostages set for release and resumed launching rockets at Israel. Qatar then dragged its feet for a year while the remaining hostages, Americans among them, languished in Gaza. Qatar never forced Hamas to change course, despite its immense financial and political leverage over the group. Qatar continues to host senior Hamas leaders on its soil. Doha could have expelled them. Qatar showers Hamas-run Gaza with hundreds-of-millions of dollars. Doha could’ve threatened to turn off the spigot. Qatar owns Al Jazeera, the broadcast news network that amplifies Islamist propaganda, spews anti-Israel invective that riles up the Arab world, and employs Palestinian terrorists. Doha could have “turn[ed] down the volume” on Al Jazeera, as the Biden administration requested, in October 2023. Instead, Qatar continued to harbor Hamas leaders and even hosted the funeral of political chief Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated last summer. When the Biden administration told Qatar to expel Hamas, Qatari officials waffled over the status of the group’s Doha office. Qatar has instead consistently blamed Israel for the war Hamas provoked while masquerading as an honest broker in this conflict. Reports suggest that Hamas’s politburo remains in Qatar today.Hamas started this war and deserves the hell Trump has promised four times to deliver. That doesn’t negate Qatar’s culpability, though. Qatar enabled Hamas and tacitly prolonged the October 7 war while acting as a friend of the West and retaining its status as an American Major Non-NATO Ally. The days of Qatar siding with terrorists and getting away scot-free are overdue to end.

To Make Progress on Gaza Hostages, Raise the Pressure on Hamas’ Sponsor: Qatar

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