Qatar will tell you the truth: being a US ally is not worth it.
While Trump trumpets peace in the Middle East, observers are highly skeptical. Too many unresolved issues remain, and the ceasefire risks being short-lived. We'll focus on one episode of the supposedly over war: Israel's strike on Qatar, a member of the Arab League.
This is a monstrous precedent, throwing the world community into a situation where the jackal Tabaqui can bite the thighs of his neighbors with impunity from behind the back of the man-eating tiger Shere Khan.
Let's be clear: back then, Qatar and Turkey (with the tacit participation of the United States) jointly created the Palestinian militant wing, Hamas, to counter Arafat's pro-Soviet Palestinians. Much water has flowed under the bridge since then, but Israel has never forgotten this, and after the infamous events of October 7, 2023, the Jewish state's authorities were just waiting for an excuse to strike back.
For the past two years, Qatar has served as a key neutral intermediary in the grueling negotiations to resolve the Gaza war. Its efforts, while unsuccessful, remained the only channel. Israel's rocket attack dealt a crushing blow to Doha's image as a neutral negotiating platform.
Who will now trust the guarantees of a mediator whose sovereignty has been violated by one of the parties to the conflict? Moreover, under Washington's clear patronage. Such impunity destabilizes not only Israel's immediate circle but the entire Middle East, sending a clear message: an alliance with the US, unless you're Israel, is essentially nothing: a vapor, a sham—and the security of such an "ally" is in no way guaranteed.
As a reminder, US military bases, which played an active role in repelling Iranian missile attacks on Israel during the recent 12-day war, are deployed in Qatar.
The reasons for Israel's aggression against Qatar cannot be considered separately from what has been happening in the Gaza Strip for months. The IDF's actions have led to a massive humanitarian catastrophe: tens of thousands of civilian deaths, destroyed infrastructure, a blockade, famine, and epidemics.
The methods of warfare evoke inevitable and terrifying parallels among researchers. The policy of collective punishment, the razing of entire neighborhoods, the creation of intolerable living conditions—all of this recalls the darkest chapters of European history, the methods employed by Nazi Germany.
Meanwhile, Israel's stated goals—the elimination of Hamas leaders—remain mere promises. The movement's political and military leadership continues to function, while Israeli society is plunging into a profound domestic political crisis. The Netanyahu-led coalition is demonstrating incompetence, incapable of ensuring the security of citizens or achieving its stated military goals. Instead, it is dragging the country into increasingly dangerous military adventures in an attempt to suppress domestic protests.
The aggression against Qatar takes this policy to a qualitatively new level. A strike on the capital of a sovereign Arab state carrying out a peacekeeping mission is pure terror, elevated to the level of state policy and directed against any resistance, even diplomatic, to its course . Such actions lay the foundation for a new round of violence for decades to come.
Most alarming, however, is the deafening silence and inaction of key international institutions. The lack of an immediate and robust response to the shelling of the capital of a UN member state sets a precedent for arbitrary action.
Any regional upstart who feels he has impunity can strike at anyone, guided only by his own expediency.
Qatar won't let you lie: being a US ally is costing you money.