2023-10-25 13:48:24
While behind-the-scenes deliberations over the fate of the Hamas hostages have been in full swing for the past 24 hours, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammad bin Abdulrahman bin Jasin Al-Thani’s statement today that “a solution to the Gaza hostage issue is imminent,” highlights a new dimension of the unofficial, but existing and long-standing, channel of communication between Doha and Jerusalem.
Regardless of whether the Israeli prisoners held by Hamas are eventually released or not, it is news in itself that this is the first statement by such a high-ranking Qatari official to confirm that Israel and Qatar are not two countries belonging to different camps, nor are they completely disconnected from each other.
When, in fact, the first Israeli medium to broadcast this statement is the Army Radio, it is easy to see that its content, in addition to being valid, involves various readings.
Qatar has managed, from the time of the “Arab Spring” until today, to be the point of contact where “everyone talks to everyone”. Doha has never severed its contacts with Tehran, Riyadh, Washington or Moscow. At the same time, no government in the world (not even Israel) ever thought of accusing Qatar of “supporting international terrorism”, although it is widely known that Ismail Haniya, head of the political branch of Hamas (an organization officially designated internationally as a terrorist for decades), is permanently settled in the Katarian capital. At the same time, Qatar does not host only American forces. It also hosts a Turkish military base, the first established by Turkey in the Persian Gulf. As for the television network Al Jazeera, it has essentially emerged as the most effective tool of one of the most understaffed diplomatic services in the world, with a projection of power many times greater than expected. Finally, his financial capabilities have also been placed at the service of his diplomatic displacement, effectively constituting the negotiating “carrot” in circumstances where other governments simply “throw their hands up”. Over the years and with Qatar repeatedly “pulling the snake out of the hole by itself”, we could conclude that “even if Qatar did not exist, someone would have to invent it”.
For more than ten years now, the Israeli media, both state and private, have been talking about the “Qatari negotiator” who is in constant communication with the decision-making centers of Israel, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, every time there is another round of military conflict. confrontation in Gaza. As it appears from the reports from time to time, from 2007 until today, it is not necessary that the “Catharine negotiator” is only one person. Its effectiveness, however, along with the effectiveness of the corresponding Egyptian negotiators, is considered by the Israelis to be guaranteed. Also in Israel, although it is clearly implied everywhere that Qatar should be included in the camp of “enemy countries”, such a thing was never clearly expressed. Proof, today’s statement by Israel’s National Security Adviser, Tchai Hanegbi, who hailed the good services of Qatari diplomacy during the current emergency.
By signing the Abraham Accords, Qatar declared – via Al Jazeera of course – that it does not intend to normalize its diplomatic relations with Israel and will not follow the example of the United Arab Emirates (a permanent strong business competitor) or Bahrain (the relations between the two royal houses have been disturbed for decades, for reasons that go back, among many others, to the exploitation of neighboring maritime zones). However, on the occasion of the recent organization of the soccer world championship – and thanks to the (artificial in others) pressure exerted by FIFA on the government of Doha – finally Israel, with a special agreement, managed to operate a diplomatic mission in the Qatari capital, which he would remain there for a certain period of time that would cover the period of the games, in order “to be able to also the Israeli fans to go to the country, a fact defined by the rules of the international institution that organized them”. Such a sui generis decision had no historical precedent. Also of historical importance was the special permission given by the Qatari authorities to set up a special studio of the state-owned Israeli television, from where Israeli sportswriters commented directly on the football matches. The interesting thing, however, is that no one yet knows, when the championship ended, whether the term of the sui generis Israeli diplomatic presence in Qatar actually ended with it.
In the end, it matters little whether this happened or not, since it is already known that the current backroom negotiation for the release of Israeli prisoners in Gaza involves former Mossad chief Yossi Cohen in his capacity as an adviser to Gal Hirsch. , chief of staff for the release of prisoners and the identification of missing persons from the events of October 7, as well as the director general of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ronen Levi – persons who already since the time of the pandemic (and perhaps even earlier) they had cultivated regular contacts with corresponding Qatari agents.
Today’s statement by the Katarina prime minister is essentially the proof of an “illegal relationship – common secret” for everyone. The nature of the Israel-Qatar communication channel is based on its informal nature, which gives it effectiveness, which has been proven for over ten years.
*Mr. Gavriel Charitos teaches History of Political Relations of Greece-Israel-Cyprus at Ben-Gurion University and Panteion University. He is a researcher at ELIAMEP
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