It was a day after he ordered a missile attack against Hamas leaders in Doha, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was defiant.

While international outrage continued to build, the premier declared in a video statement that the strike served not only as a warning to the Hamas leaders in Qatar’s capital — who had prostrated themselves there in prayers of thanks as Hamas terrorists slaughtered Israelis on October 7, 2023 — but also “to Qatar and all nations who harbor terrorists.”

“You either expel them or you bring them to justice. Because if you don’t, we will,” Netanyahu vowed.

Three weeks later, sitting in the Oval Office beside US President Donald Trump, the premier changed his tune. Speaking into a receiver whose cradle was perched on Trump’s lap, Netanyahu apologized to Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed al-Thani, expressing regret over the Qatari security guard inadvertently killed in the attack and pledging to halt further strikes.

Soon after, Trump announced Israel’s and the Arab world’s approval of his Gaza ceasefire plan, and said that Jerusalem and Doha had agreed “to launch a formal, trilateral mechanism… to enhance mutual security, correct misperceptions and avoid future misgivings.”

Days later, the Israeli negotiating team was filmed shaking hands with and hugging a smiling Al-Thani in Sharm El-Sheikh after Hamas approved the ceasefire deal.

The rapid turnaround by Israel wasn’t a change in its approach to the powerful Gulf emirate. It was a continuation of a long-standing policy.

For decades, Israel has treated Qatar as both partner and ideological adversary, terror backer and vital mediator.

As Israel winds down its war in Gaza and can start thinking once again about its position in the region, it will have to contend with Qatar and its influence. Only this time, the energy-rich country emerges from the conflict with closer ties with  Washington, backed by its Gulf neighbors, and poised to shape Gaza’s future.

Israel could choose to go along with Trump’s push for a reset, or finally confront a rising power that was one of Hamas’s main backers. Judging from Israel’s actions over recent weeks, it still hasn’t decided whether it wants to embrace Qatar or challenge it.

The failed Doha strike appeared to threaten decades of well-established business, security, and intelligence cooperation between Israel and Qatar.

The two states never had formal diplomatic ties, but they established trade relations in 1996. Qatar closed Israel’s trade office in Doha amid regional pressure during the Second Intifada in the early 2000s, but allowed it to reopen in 2005 in the wake of Israel’s 2005 disengagement from Gaza. It closed for good in 2009 after the Operation Cast Lead conflict between Israel and Hamas.

Despite tensions, Israeli athletes occasionally competed in Doha, and during the 2022 World Cup, a special arrangement allowed Israeli diplomats in Qatar to assist visiting nationals.

All the while, Qatar positioned itself as a key US ally in the Gulf. The emirate hosts the largest American military base in the Middle East, has mediated for Washington on issues from Taliban talks to Iran diplomacy, and is granted special defense and security benefits since being designated in 2022 by then-US president Joe Biden as a “major non-NATO ally.”

Trump has maintained that policy, praising Qatar’s “great job” in mediating during the Gaza war........

© The Times of Israel