Just another boring news week under Trump 2.0
Will last week prove to be just another boring news week?
Israel bombed Qatar, attempting to kill several of Hamas’s leaders and managing to knock off a few Qatari security forces as well. Israel employed U.S.-made F-35 stealth radar avoiding jets, probably armed with U.S. weapons.
Presumably, the U.S. was alerted in advance so as not to employ any defensive weapons from its huge Al Udeid air base in Doha. But the warning apparently was not made in sufficient time for the U.S. to inform the Qataris.
However, one wonders if the U.S. early warning systems had detected the low flying F-35’s. If not, does that suggest a problem?
The repercussions are huge. Qatar is a close American ally. It is officially a neutral territory in the Gaza war. And it has acted as a negotiator to facilitate resolution of the Hamas-Israeli conflict.
By any definition, Israel committed an act of war against Qatar by using military force to attack another state’s sovereign territory.
Although not quite a Pearl Harbor in terms of consequences and certainly not regarding a Qatari response, the strike probably means that further negotiations are pointless — clearly Israel’s intent.
And President Trump’s reply that he “was not thrilled,” is unlikely to........
© The Hill
