By Martin Schram, U.S. Syndicated columnist
Life in Qatar is serene and frequently lavish, and it is easy to adjust to the Persian Gulf lifestyle of Doha’s magnificent glass and steel skyscrapers, fine restaurants and posh comforts.
And on Friday it was also a symbol of just how mondo-bizarro the world of the Middle East has become. Two men of state, wearing the fashions of their respective trades — one in a dark blue business suit, the other in the white flowing robe and headdress — stood side by side at lecterns in the posh, modern comfort of a grand room of Qatar’s capital. They talked to reporters in subdued tones about the horrific hell and inhumane human conduct that was being allowed to happen a thousand miles away, in a people-packed soda straw of a place called Gaza and its larger neighbor, Israel.
America’s Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani had been talking privately of their multiple efforts to end the Israeli-Palestinian crisis in Gaza before it explodes into a calumny of historic proportions.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, shakes hands with Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani following their meeting and news conference in Doha on Friday,… (Karim Jaafar/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS)
But left unspoken, at least at the microphones, was the mind-boggling connection that links Qatar, where they were so comfortably speaking, and the inhumane hell that had happened in Israel last Saturday morning and was happening now in Gaza. We’ll get to that. But first you need to hear what Blinken had to say to the world as Qatar’s prime minister stood at his side. It was one of the most compelling — forceful even as it was quietly voiced — diplomatic scenes I’ve witnessed (via big screen) in decades of covering these things in person.
The linchpin is the most unprincipled terrorist group called Hamas. It was elected almost two decades ago to run Gaza. On Oct. 7, Hamas invaded Israel, slaughtered 1,300, beheading, raping and committing the vilest atrocities. They took more than 100 to Gaza to be their human shields. Why? They schemed to con Israel into military retaliation that would kill masses of civilians — yes, especially thousands of their own Palestinian civilians. They considered not only Jews but even their own people expendable — if it served their larger cause: They want to make the world hate Israelis.
And when Israel dropped leaflets and issued cellphone and other warnings pleading with Gaza’s masses to flee northern Gaza and head south to avoid the invasion and bombs that were coming — the people running Hamas told their own people to ignore the warnings and stay in place.
On Friday, with Qatar’s Prime Minister at his side, America’s Secretary of State made sure the world understood the core human values that Republican and Democratic Presidencies have sought to champion:
“Let’s not lose sight of why this is happening. Israelis are conducting operations in Gaza because Hamas carried out attacks that killed — in the most horrific way — 1,300 of (their) people. Hamas terrorists slaughtered, raped, mutilated, tortured, burned innocent civilians. The babies and the elderly. Men. Women. Boys and girls. … Hamas continues to use innocent civilians as human shields. And (Hamas) is reportedly blocking roads preventing Palestinians from moving to southern Gaza out of harm’s way.”
So how does all this truth-telling about the evils of Hamas leaders link back to Qatar?
Because Hamas’ top political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, doesn’t live in Gaza at all. He lives not far from where Blinken and Qatar’s prime minister were speaking, in the quiet, posh and most definitely safe comforts of Doha, Qatar. His super-safe home is just over 1,000 miles away from where Hamas was encouraging Palestinians to stay put, at home, even as they were doing all they could to inflame Israelis into angrily bombing and invading Gaza — knowing thousands of their own people would die.
Hamas’ leaders — and mainly their chief funders and string-pullers in Iran — had become stunned and desperate when recent events took the not-at-all unlikely turn. Saudi Arabia (which had a long but never stated relationship with Israeli’s governments) decided that now was the time to make their diplo-secret official. The Oct. 7 Hamas invasion was intended to goad Israel into killing enough Arab civilians to make it impossible for the Saudis and allies to be working with Israel.
Hamas’ leaders and their benefactors in Iran had great but unwitting help from Israel’s most clueless Prime Minister. Benjamin Netanyahu, worried about facing corruption charges, worked this year to emasculate Israel’s Supreme Court. He willfully tore apart his nation in the process. Hundreds of thousands openly protested — including a massive portion of his military. He made his nation look weak for all the world to see. And Hamas’ leaders saw this as their now-or-never moment.
So Hamas created the crisis that has sickened us all. Cynical and shameful.