Gregg Roman:
Wars end when one side loses the will or ability to continue fighting. For Hamas, that calculus has been distorted by Qatar’s provision of an extraterritorial sanctuary where its leadership could direct operations, manage finances, and plan attacks while remaining physically removed from consequences. This arrangement—in which Khalil al-Hayya, Khaled Mashal, and their lieutenants could watch October 7 unfold on television from Doha penthouses while Israeli families burned alive in their homes—represents a perversion of both warfare and diplomacy that no civilized nation should tolerate.
The principle at stake transcends Israel’s immediate security concerns. When Qatar transformed itself into a five-star command center for terrorism, it challenged the fundamental architecture of international order. The post-Westphalian system assumes that states will not provide operational headquarters for groups dedicated to the genocidal destruction of other states. Qatar’s hosting of Hamas since 2012 shattered this assumption, creating a precedent whereby wealthy nations could sponsor terrorism while maintaining diplomatic respectability through strategic ambiguity and energy leverage.
Consider the grotesque asymmetry: while Hamas fighters used Gazan civilians as human shields in tunnels beneath hospitals, their political leadership enjoyed the protection of Qatari state security. While Israeli reservists left their families for months of urban warfare, Hamas’s decision-makers conducted press conferences from air-conditioned hotel ballrooms. While Palestinian civilians in Gaza suffered under Hamas’s brutal rule and Israel’s military response, those most responsible for precipitating this suffering remained untouchable in their Doha safe houses.
This bifurcation of accountability—where those who order atrocities remain immune from their consequences—corrupts the very concept of warfare. It incentivizes maximum violence with minimum personal risk, creating moral hazards on a civilizational scale. Israel’s strike restored the principle that leadership entails vulnerability, that those who choose war must share its dangers.
Via
Scott Johnson.
# posted by Ranger @ 4:52 PM
