New Times,
New Thinking.

  1. World
  2. Middle East
23 October 2023

Was Israel wrong to trust Qatar?

Doha hosts Hamas as part of a cynical geopolitical game.

By John Jenkins

Amid the horrors of the attack in ­Israel, it has been common for commentators to talk about the relationship between Iran and Hamas, the Islamist militant movement that is the de facto government in the Gaza Strip. There is a perfectly reasonable concern that Hamas’s performative savagery and Israel’s thirst for vengeance will precipitate a wider conflict. Iran and its friends in Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq have all gleefully threatened Israel’s imminent destruction and warned of direct retaliation if Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, orders a ground invasion of Gaza – as, of course, he will.

Iran is undoubtedly important for Hamas, not least for the enormous sums of money it reportedly disburses every year. The pair had a temporary estrangement over Bashar al-Assad’s bloodbath in Syria. But now that they have agreed that the only bloodbath that matters is in Israel, any clouds have cleared.

Subscribe to The New Statesman today for only £1 per week
Content from our partners
The future of exams
Skills are the key to economic growth
Skills Transition is investing in UK skills and jobs
Topics in this article : , , , , , ,