Qatar’s Diplomacy In Gaza War
From Girish Modi, Decatur, GA
Qatar is a tiny nation in the Persian Gulf that has outsized influence derived from its wealth, the state-funded and popular satellite news channel Al Jazeera and through its role as regional mediator. Qatar has friendly ties with parties and nations who won’t speak to each other. It’s an ally to the U.S., which backs Israel, and Iran, which backs Hamas. It also speaks to Hamas at the behest of the U.S.
It uses its role as mediator to get other hard deals done. It negotiated a hostage exchange deal between Iran and the U.S., it negotiated with the Taliban and mediated a deal with Russia to bring home kidnapped Ukrainian children.
Qatar has been pursing diplomacy to restore peace in the middle east as opposed to American self-serving diplomacy, which openly supports Israel’s aggressiveness and apartheid rule by giving billions of dollars’ worth financial and military aid. That’s why Palestine and Israel do not come to terms with having a two-state solution in last 75 years, after Jimmy Carter had negotiation a peace between Egypt and Israel that had cost lives of Anwar Sadat Isaac Rabin. When Menachem Begin tried to make another peace negotiation in the 1980s, he was disgraced and replaced. Netanyahu survives because he is a hardliner and determined to deny Palestinians self-rule but to annex Gaza and the West Bank by pushing Palestinians to neighboring Arab countries.
The Palestine Authority which governs the West Bank is very week puppet government, has no military and no diplomatic clout. That’s why creation of Palestine state is dragging on for many years. That’s when Hamas comes into play. It realizes that Israel will accept a separate Palestine territory only by force and not by diplomacy. Israel and U.S. call Hamas not a group of militants but a terrorist group, so that they can have free reign of illegal invasion and illegal occupation just as U.S. has done in Iraq and Afghanistan.
When America bombs militants in countries like Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen & Iran, the world takes a back seat and don’t accuse America of warmongering. Those countries with weak military and UN security council are helpless and do not dare to oppose both Israel’s and America’s attacks on other nations. What is shocking is that International Court of Justice (ICJ) recently chided Israel for its invasion of Gaza that killed over 25,000 civilians and displaced millions, falling short of calling it genocide because of American pressure. A week later ICJ in a surprise ruling did not allege Russia of violating international law, even though Ukraine had submitted 25,000 pieces of evidence against Russians.
Do you know why Hamas had attacked Israel’s small border town on 7th October? Because Israel is suppressing Palestinians by interfering with their daily lives, by killing thousands of Palestinians and taking 5000 as prisoners on dubious grounds. So as a tit-for-tat action, Hamas killed 1400 Israelis and captured 200 civilians to put pressure on Israel.
However, Qatar is a ray of hope for peace in the middle east, which gives financial aid to Palestinians who are suffering under Israel’s oppression. Though it does not give military aid to Hamas directly, it does not oppose them fighting against Israelis.
As the U.S. moves closer to retaliating for a drone attack that killed three American troops in Jordan, leaders from Egypt, Israel, Qatar, and the U.S are negotiating for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of Israeli hostages. Qatar is trying to broker a deal between Israel and Hamas that would see an end to fighting, though temporarily. It would also bring some respite to trapped civilians in Gaza living under bombardment and get badly needed aid to a man-made humanitarian disaster zone. (This submission is not edited.)
