{"id":4074,"date":"2026-03-08T19:19:37","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T19:19:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iranians.global\/news\/?p=4074"},"modified":"2026-03-08T19:47:29","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T19:47:29","slug":"middle-east-holds-its-breath-after-israel-launches-attack-on-qatar-expert-qa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iranians.global\/news\/middle-east-holds-its-breath-after-israel-launches-attack-on-qatar-expert-qa\/","title":{"rendered":"Middle East holds its breath after Israel launches attack on Qatar: expert Q&A"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Scott Lucas, Professor of International Politics, Clinton Institute, University College Dublin<\/strong><\/a> <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

Israel launched an unprecedented airstrike<\/a> on the Qatari capital of Doha on September 9, the first time it has directly attacked a Gulf state. The \u201cprecision strike\u201d as Israel has called it, targeted a building in which Hamas officials were reportedly discussing a peace proposal brokered by the US.<\/em><\/p>\n

Al Jazeera has reported that<\/a> it had been told by a Hamas official that none of its leadership had been killed in the strike.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Qatari government said it \u201cstrongly condemns the cowardly Israeli attack\u201d, which it described as \u201ca blatant violation of international law\u201d. Other Middle East states, including Saudi Arabia, condemned the Israeli strike, as did the secretary general of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, who said it was a \u201cflagrant violation\u201d of Qatari sovereignty.<\/em> <\/p>\n

It has also been reported<\/a> that Israel\u2019s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, informed the White House of Israel\u2019s intentions before carrying out the attack. An Israeli official told local media that the US president, Donald Trump, had given the strike the \u201cgreen light\u201d<\/a> but this has not been confirmed.<\/em> <\/p>\n

A statement released by Netanyahu\u2019s office<\/a> appeared to suggest that the strike had been at least party in retaliation for the killing of six Israeli civilians at a bus stop in Jerusalem, for which Hamas has claimed responsibility.<\/em><\/p>\n

Scott Lucas, a Middle East expert at Dublin City University spoke to Jonathan Este, The Conversation\u2019s senior international affairs editor shortly after the attack. He addressed several key questions.<\/em><\/p>\n

What\u2019s the thinking behind Israel\u2019s strike on Qatar? Why now?<\/h2>\n

The Israeli government is going for the kill with Hamas. Having staked his political and legal future on the \u201cabsolute destruction\u201d of the organisation, Netanyahu cannot agree to a settlement in which it retains any place in Gaza, let alone power.<\/p>\n

So he and some of his ministers have not engaged in negotiations for a ceasefire since the start of March<\/a>. At that point, they pulled out of any discussion of a phase two, resumed the military assault of Gaza, and cut off humanitarian aid. They have only turned it back on in dribs and drabs. But aid distribution has been sporadic and all too often deadly for the people who queue for food. And it\u2019s not enough to prevent widespread famine in Gaza. <\/p>\n

But the problem for Netanyahu and his allies is that others continued to push for a resolution: both inside Israel, where citizens are beginning to get sick of endless war and among Israel\u2019s international allies, who are sickened by the images emerging from the Strip and under pressure from their own populations.<\/p>\n

On more than one occasion, Hamas agreed \u2013 or at least came close to agreeing<\/a> \u2013 terms put to them by mediators. In August, the Palestinian organisation did so again<\/a>. At that point the Israel government had a choice: accept the settlement, get the hostages back and pull back on the plan for a long-term occupation of Gaza. Or try and push aside the settlement while blaming Hamas and expand military operations to take over Gaza City.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu\u2019s commanders, including the head of the Israel Defense Forces, Eyal Zamir, warned against<\/a> the assault on Gaza City. Other advisers noted the risk of further international condemnation and isolation of Israel. <\/p>\n

But Netanyahu and hard-right ministers in his government have persisted and urged the prime minister to go for broke. Within minutes of the strike on Doha, finance minister Bezalel Smotrich was on social media, praising the attack, writing: \u201cTerrorists have no immunity and will never have immunity from Israel\u2019s long arm anywhere in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

So how to accomplish \u201cabsolute\u201d victory? For Israeli hardliners it means levelling parts of Gaza City, while taking out Hamas\u2019s leadership \u2013 both to break up the organisation and to ensure that there is no more talk of ceasefire, only capitulation.<\/p>\n

What does this mean for the normalisation of relations between Israel and the Gulf States?<\/h2>\n

There is no normalisation. There probably was none before this attack. The Netanyahu government has decided on a course in Gaza that involves the mass killing of at least 65,000 people, most of them civilians, to displace up to 90% of the population of 2.2 million and to threaten all of them with starvation. <\/p>\n

Not even the most cynical Arab government could risk the domestic backlash of continuing with \u201cnormalisation\u201d in those circumstances.<\/p>\n

So the Netanyahu government is not losing any possibilities with the brazen bombing in a sovereign Arab state. It is trying to set the terms for the future, perhaps a distant one: we\u2019ll come back to normalisation from the position of imposing our will on Gaza, even if you might not have liked it.<\/p>\n

Israel has said the US president gave the attack the \u2018green light\u2019. Where does this leave Washington?<\/h2>\n

It leaves the Trump administration where it has always been: supporting Israeli actions that has led to the mass killing of people in Gaza. The US president was reportedly briefed on Israel\u2019s intention to strike at Doha \u2013 a US ally \u2013 before the attack went ahead. Trump\u2019s ally, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, is now talking about<\/a> Israel having to contend with \u201cenemies encamped around them and they\u2019re trying to bring peace\u201d.<\/p>\n

Yes, Donald Trump has pursued the chimera of a deal that would win him the Nobel Peace Prize. But when Israel effectively ended the deal at the start of March, Trump provided not only an excuse \u2013 Hamas is to blame \u2013 but also a rationale. Palestinians could be moved out of Gaza to allow Trump to create his \u201criviera of the Middle East\u201d \u2013 a detailed prospectus for which was obtained and published last week<\/a> by the Washington Post.<\/p>\n

Each time that the Netanyahu government has walked away from a peace proposal, Trump and his senior officials have provided them with cover. So, as the Israelis approach their long-term occupation, we are at the same point as we were in March \u2013 Trump officials talking about the removal of the civilians.<\/p>\n

I doubt that this attack will shake this position. <\/p>\n

What does this tell us about negotiations over Gaza?<\/h2>\n

There are no negotiations over Gaza. There is a demand by the Netanyahu government for Hamas\u2019s capitulation. If it does not capitulate, Hamas will be destroyed \u2013 no matter how many civilians pay the cost.<\/p>\n

This is not just about the approach to Gaza. The Netanyahu government has now decided that its regional objectives will be pursued through \u201cdecapitation\u201d.<\/p>\n

It has not only tried to destroy the leadership of Hamas, with attacks in Gaza, Iran, Lebanon, Syria and now Qatar. It has killed most of the leadership of Lebanon\u2019s Hezbollah. It laid waste to Iran\u2019s political and military commanders in its 12-day war in June. On August 24, it assassinated<\/a> Ahmed Ghaleb Nasser al-Rahawi, recognised by the Houthi people as their prime minister, and other senior Houthi officials in Yemen.<\/p>\n

The deadly message of the Netanyahu government is clear: no one whom they consider an \u201cenemy\u201d is immune, wherever they are. Negotiations are peripheral, perhaps even irrelevant, to that commitment.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

This article written by Scott Lucas, Professor of International Politics, Clinton Institute, University College Dublin<\/strong> and is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Scott Lucas, Professor of International Politics, Clinton Institute, University College Dublin Israel launched an unprecedented airstrike on the Qatari capital of Doha on September 9, the first time it has directly attacked a Gulf state. The \u201cprecision strike\u201d as Israel has called it, targeted a building in which Hamas officials were reportedly discussing a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":179,"featured_media":4075,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"inline_featured_image":false,"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[117],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorials"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iranians.global\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iranians.global\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iranians.global\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iranians.global\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/179"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iranians.global\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iranians.global\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iranians.global\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iranians.global\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iranians.global\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iranians.global\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}