Israel’s attack on Qatar was as outrageous as it was educational. Aside from showing, yet again, that Israel is a threat to the entire Muslim world, it revealed that America’s military presence in the region is not meant to protect its Arab allies, but to subjugate and control them. Most concerning of all, it underscored the enduring weakness of Muslim nations and their inability to adequately respond to Israel’s crimes. The implications of these revelations, once their import fully reverberates through the region, could be profound.
Lesson 1: Israel represents an existential threat to the entire Muslim world:
The strike on Doha was only the latest in a series of brazen Israeli attacks over the past two years. In addition to leveling Gaza and paving the way to annex the West Bank, Israeli forces have invaded and occupied parts of Syria and Lebanon while repeatedly attacking both hundreds of times. They have also launched several devastating attacks on Yemen and Iran. The recent attack on a flotilla of unarmed vessels near Tunisia and the attack against Qatar, brings the total number of countries it has struck to seven.
Israeli leaders are reported to have contemplated similar strikes against Egypt and Turkey. These reports, when combined with the long list of countries it has already attacked, suggest Israel has intelligence cells collecting targeting data throughout the Muslim world and that no part of it is safe.
In addition to its military operations, Israel has been selling weapons to fuel conflicts across the region and beyond. It is arming the Druze and Kurds in Syria as part of its plan to partition the country. It is also supplying advanced weapons to Cyprus to counter Turkey and arming India in its confrontation with Pakistan. Many of the drones used to attack Pakistan during India’s ill-conceived Operation Sindoor this past May were purchased from Israel. The missile defense system sold to Cyprus is also designed to collect sensitive information about Turkey’s military and appears to be part of a broader effort to support Greek and Cypriot designs on northern Cyprus.
These military strikes and weapons sales are all part of a long term plan to ensure no Muslim state has the capacity or desire to oppose Israel’s plans to ethnically cleanse and annex Gaza and the West Bank. The attack on Doha was intended to show that any Muslim state foolish enough to interfere with these goals, even through solely diplomatic channels, will be targeted.
If Israel’s leaders are successful, the consequences for the Muslim world will be catastrophic. Aside from destroying what little remains of Palestine, the ethnic cleansing of Gaza and the West Bank will also flood Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon with millions of refugees, destabilizing all three nations in the process. This could very easily spell the end of both the Hashemite and Sisi dynasties while reigniting a civil war in Lebanon.
Similarly, Israel’s plans to dismember Syria will destabilize much of the Levant, Anatolia, and Mesopotamia, while cruelly prolonging the suffering of the Syrian people who have already had to endure decades of dictatorship and civil war. Finally, its desire to topple Iran’s government will unleash anarchy in Pakistan, Turkey, Central Asia, the Caucasus, Iraq, and the Gulf.
In their quest to create a Jewish homeland where Palestinians truly do not exist, Israel’s messianic rulers are willing to plunge much of the region into chaos. Their plans amount to a declaration of war against nearly the entire Muslim world while their nuclear weapons and fanatical worldviews make this declaration an existential threat to all its nations.
Lesson 2: America’s military posture in the region is not meant to protect its Arab allies but to assert control over them:
The attack on Qatar was particularly shocking because it is a key American ally and host to an important US military base. Over the years, the Qatari government has spent $26 billion on American weaponry, part of which was used to build an air defense system that is operated and controlled by America. This system was meant to protect it from the sort of attack Israel launched against it by integrating Qatar with America’s regional defense network. But instead of protecting its supposed ally, America stood by and allowed the attack to proceed.
No American officials even bothered to warn Qatar’s leaders until the attack was already under way. The WSJ did its best to create a narrative that absolved America of its culpability. However, due to Washington’s control over the region’s air space, these claims strain credulity. The only logical conclusion, given its robust early warning capabilities, is that America approved of and facilitated Israel’s attack.
In the aftermath, the Trump administration sent Secretary of State Rubio to Israel to show solidarity with indicted war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu by praying with him at the Western Wall. Meanwhile, Ambassador Mike Huckabee explained Israel is America’s only “true partner” in the region and can do as it pleases. These responses are just as revealing as the attack itself.
They show America’s military “alliance” with Qatar is a mechanism meant to establish a form of neo-imperial military control over it, not protect it. America does not provide Qatar with security, but uses it to further its geopolitical interests. These include establishing military control over the Arab states, in part, to ensure Israel remains the region’s dominant military power and has the freedom to attack any of them.
Israel’s attack exposed the absurd contradictions that govern the region’s American imposed security architecture. Israel can attack and endanger America’s Arab allies because it is a “true partner” in the crusade to subjugate the Muslim world. The leaders of those Arab states that have capitulated, on the other hand, are merely vassals from a vanquished enemy tribe. Their continued hold on power is contingent on submission, even in the face of direct attacks on their territory.
Lesson 3: The Muslim world is too weak and divided to challenge Israel or its American backers:
The Muslim world’s response, or lack thereof, showed exactly why Israel has been able to act with impunity for so long. Its leaders gathered in Doha to express their shock and indignation. Nearly all of them were justifiably concerned that by openly demonstrating their impotence to their own people, these developments threatened their grip on power. They had every right to be upset. Aside from those who rule Yemen and Iran, they had already done everything in their power to either facilitate or ignore Israel’s crimes. Nevertheless, their anger did not lead to action.
There was a great deal of talk about creating a collective security organization similar to NATO. Egypt, sensing the threat to its Sinai region, proposed an Arab defense force. However, this effort failed to gather support due to a leadership dispute with Saudi Arabia. Qatar and the UAE also opposed the idea, preferring to rely on assurances from the Trump administration that it would restrain Israel. They also objected to any proposals involving coordinated action with Turkey or Iran. As a result, the summit did more to highlight the Muslim world’s divisions than bring it together. It produced nothing more than scathing press releases and empty statements about international law and the need for unity.
This inaction was an admission of weakness and a recognition of their total dependence on America to equip and operate their militaries. Every single member of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) features arsenals full of the latest American military hardware. Keeping this equipment operational requires a constant flow of spare parts and American technical expertise. As detailed by the Washington Post in the fall of 2022, the Saudi and Emirati militaries rely on hundreds of retired American military personnel to perform critical logistical and operational roles. Without this extensive support, their militaries would be crippled within days.
This dependence stems from a widespread lack of indigenous technical and industrial capabilities. Even countries with powerful militaries like Pakistan, Turkey, and Iran, still rely on external suppliers for their most advanced weapons. Thus, collective military action was never a serious option.
There were, however, a range of diplomatic and economic tools available to pressure Israel or its supporters in America, the UK, Germany, and India. They could have withdrawn their ambassadors, suspended trade, cut off intelligence sharing, halted arms purchases, or denied access to their airspace. Any one of these steps, if coordinated among a majority of the world’s 57 Islamic nations, could have imposed a meaningful cost and prompted Israel’s allies to reconsider their uncritical support. But none of these measures were taken.
While the lack of military action reflects their industrial and technical weaknesses, the refusal to take any diplomatic or economic steps reveals a lack of political will. This refusal to act, even in the face of mortal danger, is yet another symptom of the Muslim world’s authoritarian political systems. These are primarily designed to keep their rulers in power by repressing their own citizens, not protect their nations from outside threats. Unfortunately, their inaction was not the least bit surprising. It was merely a continuation of the same dynamics that allowed America to establish its dominance over the region in the first place.
During its war on “terror,” the US conquered Afghanistan and then Iraq with lightening speed, simultaneously occupied both for several years and waged a clandestine war throughout various Muslim nations like Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. America’s assault was characterized by a total lack of regard for borders, human rights, or the sanctity of life. According to Brown University, the chaos unleashed by its violence killed 4.5 million people. Despite these outrages, no Muslim states took any overt steps to stop these crimes either.
Israel’s current offensive is, in many ways, a continuation of America’s previous assault. It shows that without serious changes, the pattern of violence will never end. The enhanced military pact announced by Saudi Arabia and Pakistan shortly after the summit hints at emerging strategic shifts, but the lack of immediate action ensures Israel’s crimes will go unchallenged for the foreseeable future.
America’s assault helped trigger the Arab Spring and the collapse of regimes in Tunisia, Libya, Syria, Yemen, and Egypt. It is too early to accurately forecast how Israel’s violence will reverberate. What is certain is that it is only a matter of time before the next massacre or sensational attack and that the cumulative toll of this violence will have lasting and unforeseen consequences. It is very likely that by refusing to take any action against Israel, many of the region’s leaders are unwittingly planting the seeds of their own demise. The leaders of the GCC survived the shocks of the Arab Spring. It is too early to tell if they can survive the far more violent storms that will inevitably follow Israel’s rampage.
