Israel Bombs Doha

This is just the latest in a string of attacks against other countries in the region.

The Israeli government carried out a strike in Doha today in an attack on Hamas’ political leadership:

Qatar condemned the attack, which Majed al-Ansari, the spokesman for the Qatari foreign ministry, said in a statement targeted the “residential headquarters” where a number of senior Hamas politicians lived.

The UN Secretary-General condemned the attack as a violation of Qatar’s sovereignty. Guterres is right that Israel’s action is outrageous, but it can’t surprise anyone at this point. This is just the latest in a string of attacks against other countries in the region. Qatar’s government has been one of the chief mediators in ceasefire negotiations, so it is particularly obnoxious that Israel has carried out an attack on their soil that targeted the leaders involved in those negotiations. The Trump administration knew about the attack in advance and let it happen.

Paul Musgrave, who is living and teaching in Doha, commented on the attack and the local reactions:

Reactions here are mixed. On the one hand, the reaction is like all local reactions—what does this mean for traffic? It’s like Angelenos (or Orange County-ans) dealing with an earthquake: “Oh, it’s just a 3.9, no problem.” On the other hand, this is actually quite bad. It is quite bad because it represents a massive escalation—the norm against assassinations is a strong one, but it is weakening a lot.

One reason why the norm is weakening so much is that the Israeli government keeps getting away with one assassination after another. They bombed the Iranian consulate in Damascus and killed high-ranking Iranian officials. They blew up Haniyeh in Tehran. They carried out a major terrorist attack in Beirut with the exploding pagers. They recently killed the Houthi prime minister in another attack in Yemen.

The response from Washington and most other Western capitals each time was either a shrug or applause. If any other government were routinely carrying out these kinds of attacks in the capitals of other states, it would likely be facing condemnation and sanctions at the very least. The Israeli government knows that it will face no real penalty because of unconditional U.S. support.

The Doha attack reconfirms a few things that have been obvious for more than a year and a half. Netanyahu wants the war to continue because he needs war to ensure his political survival. If there is any chance that a ceasefire might be possible, Netanyahu will act to sabotage it. The Israeli government is a rogue regime that will trample on the rights of every other country in the region whenever it wishes. The Israeli government will continue behaving as recklessly and lawlessly as it wants because it assumes it has the automatic backing of the United States, and this is only going to get worse over time.

If the U.S. doesn’t pressure the Israeli government to halt the war and lift the siege, many more innocent Palestinians in Gaza will die preventable deaths from bombs and famine. Trump is clearly unwilling to apply even the slightest amount of pressure on Netanyahu when it comes to anything related to the war in Gaza. Every time Trump has a choice between reining Netanyahu in or letting him run wild, he chooses the latter.

Unlimited U.S. support for Israel is terrible for regional peace and security, and it is terrible for U.S. interests. If nothing changes, we can expect many more attacks like the one that happened in Doha today.