Israel’s treacherous attack on Qatar, targeting the Hamas leadership, was followed by the usual reactions at critical junctures. Those intersected with the push to reach a ceasefire in order to transition to the root causes of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, in the hope that addressing them will usher in a lasting regional peace.
Perhaps the most widespread reaction was to suspect US complicity. That is only natural, given the proximity of the American military base at Al-Udeid to the strike site. The White House immediately denied coordinating with Israel in any way or having advance knowledge of the attack, except when the Pentagon reportedly detected it. In short, Washington created for itself a space for plausible deniability regarding the incident. But it is still not ready to do what is necessary to stop the war.
Israel, meanwhile, is more set than ever on mass murder and destruction in Gaza. Its failure to take out the Hamas leaders it targeted in Doha only spurred it to ratchet up the violence with which it is forcing Palestinians to evacuate Gaza City and packing them into a tiny space in southern Gaza. Everyone knows what the ultimate purpose of that is: mass expulsion. As though to confirm this, Israeli officials, from Netanyahu down, chose this moment to speak of their long-term vision for “reshaping the Middle East” and establishing “Greater Israel.”
Unfortunately, the reaction to their remarks was also predictable: denunciations and condemnations, calls for urgent meetings, appeals for intensified communications to accelerate ceasefire efforts. Perhaps, some hoped, the Trump administration would take a serious step to stop the bloodletting and swelling graveyards in Gaza.
Israel’s strike against Doha has changed nothing. The aftermath is no different from what preceded it. The war continues to rage. Specifically, what is presented as a theatre of fierce battles between two sides is, in reality, an aggression waged by one side, facing only rare forms of “resistance.” Moreover, it did not stop in Gaza. The brutality has extended into the West Bank with sights set on turning it into another Gaza: an arena for mass killing, destruction, dispossession, and displacement.
What is unfolding on the ground is a far cry from the all-too-familiar myths from Israeli political discourse: “the Few” against “the Many”, the tiny Jewish nation beleaguered in a sea of Arabs, Muslims, Christians, and others. In reality, the world is witnessing a historical episode reminiscent of the Mongols’ incursions under Genghis Khan or the Nazi drive for Lebensraum. This is one of those moments when a surplus of power feeds an aggressor’s thirst for conquest and territorial expansion.
Israel’s rampage began before its Doha strike and continued afterwards. It has targeted Sanaa, Beirut, Tehran and Damascus while escalating its assaults on Gaza and the West Bank, hurling threats at others that their turn would come. Israel’s political and strategic elite are acting on what they perceive as a historic opportunity to realise the Zionist vision of steering the Jews from Holocaust victimhood to the paradise of indomitable hegemony.
The Doha operation was not a total failure. It left its mark through its hunt for leaders who can do little more than denounce Israel’s defiance of international law, lament the silence of the international community, and proclaim a hollow victory, since the leaders (not the resistance) are still alive. The glaring asymmetry between such logic and the logic of power further fuels Israel’s brute violence, secure in the knowledge that no land will be liberated, and no people will be left alive.
Historically, such terrifying power imbalance has sparked the emergence of a counter-alliance – one that is more powerful, shrewder, and capable of taking advantage of the vulnerabilities that beset aggressors when they overextend themselves. Napoleon’s conquests capitalised on the momentum of the French Revolution with all the attendant anarchy and divisions. But when his hubris carried him all the way to Moscow, the Concert of Europe forged in Vienna restored France to its natural size and position as only a part of Europe. The same pattern played out in two world wars, in which powerful alliances coalesced to drive back Imperial Germany and then Nazi Germany, until equilibrium was restored.
For Arab states – especially those that have concluded peace agreements with Israel – it is crucial to distinguish between Israel as a state and a people within borders established by the 1947 Partition Plan, and the imperial Greater Israel project, which aims to reshape the Middle East in line with the ambitions of Netanyahu, Ben-Gvir, Smotrich, and all other enemies of justice and humanity, whether within Israel or beyond. Arab leaderships, which are currently engaged in their greatest civilisational renaissance of modern times, must strive to protect this edifice not only from extremists, charlatans, fundamentalists and their militias, who seek to undermine the nation-state and the Palestinian state alongside it, but also from their counterparts in Israel.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 18 September, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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