The sun rises on a holy land of show business
The art of the surreal: summiteering as a presidential vanity project
On the front page of the National Post on Friday, In a war of 1,000 defeats, the one clear winner is Qatar, I’m sorry to say I dissent from the received wisdom that the war is over in Gaza. Again.
Subscribers will be aware that I’m not fond of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but I have to say he’s right that the war goes on, and U.S president Donald Trump is wrong. After Trump thoroughly humiliated Bibi to the advantage of the slippery Qatari ruling family, the war against Israel is as loud as it’s ever been.
The war over Gaza still rages in the streets and campuses of the NATO capitals, and over the past three days so does the war in Gaza. There have been mortar attacks on Israeli military positions and Israeli airstrikes on Hamas targets, and dozens of Gazans have been killed. But my main observation in the Post, to put it crudely, if succinctly:
Just as he chose Moscow over Ukraine, President Trump has chosen Qatar over Israel, and that’s how the ceasefire and the release of 20 living Israeli captives was secured. The rest is show business.
It’s a photo opportunity of “global leaders” Trump summoned to the Egyptian resort of Sharm El Sheikh. Everybody from Hungary’s Viktor Orbán to International Federation of Association Football president Gianni Infantino was there. It was a weird spectacle that was over almost as soon as it started. Trump’s roadmap to peace still contains so many blank spots that everyone involved could end up in a ditch at any moment.
The way I put it: So far there is only one clear winner in the war, whether it’s over or not. That winner is the House of Thani, the duplicitous and fabulously wealthy royal family that rules the Persian Gulf state of Qatar. Patron of the notorious Muslim Brotherhood, longtime luxury-villa host of the senior Hamas leadership and friend of the Trump family, the Qatari regime has donated billions of dollars to American universities and to Islamic charities in Canada in recent years.
The Saudis, the Emiratis and Israel were all absent from the Sharm El-Sheikh summit. So was Hamas, and so was Iran, but nevermind that bit. Here’s the Saudis now:
“It’s a mistake to rely on Qatar, which backs the Muslim Brotherhood. Excessive Qatari involvement in the next stages of the plan and Gaza’s reconstruction will cause Trump’s plan to collapse. Qatar’s interests are different, it will undermine deradicalization efforts and try to ensure that Hamas remains in the picture and returns to power in the not-so-distant future.”
And that is unambiguously what Hamas intends and expects.

