Qatar Seeks To Sweep Away Trump's Gaza Plan With So-Called Peace Plan

The Arab states' meeting in Cairo set for February 27, that was to come up with a unified opposition to President Trump's Gaza plan, has been postponed. They fear him, and he may well tell them: "We are not the Biden administration. If you oppose us, don't expect foreign and military aid."

In any event, the Arab states never cared enough for the Palestinians to risk their relationship with their ally, the U.S., who supports some of them with foreign aid and protects them from Iran.

All the Arab states have expressed mild official opposition to Trump's plan – with one exception, Qatar, the mega-sponsor of Hamas and the Gaza war and of Islamist terrorism worldwide, including responsibility for 9/11 which was masterminded by former Qatari government employee Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM).[1] The Qatari government has issued no official government statement against Trump's plan.

Qatar is now resorting to its classic game – deception, which has characterized its policies over the years. It is acting on the ground in Gaza to sweep away Trump's plan by beginning a process of rehabilitation, limited as it is, so that the displaced Gazans will return. At the same time, Qatar is also working with the other Arab states to devise and offer an overall plan that purports to be a peace plan.

In doing this, Qatar is hinting to Trump, who is eager to find an overall and swift solution to the problems of the Middle East, that such a plan is being drawn up, while at the same time throwing Trump's plan into the dustbin of history where it joins the many other plans and initiatives offered to the Palestinians over the years. All of them failed because of the Palestinians' refusal to relinquish the so-called right of return.

Here, of course, the Qataris have a major problem: Hamas is not accepting any peace plan. So what peace plan can the Qataris come up with that Hamas will accept?

For now, Hamas has gone as far as it can go to help Qatar in its deception plan, by seemingly offering to stay out of Gaza's post-war administration. But everyone understands that if Hamas is not completely stripped of any ability to control any new administration in Gaza behind the scenes with its weapons, offer to stay out of power is not real.

It is certainly no solution for Israel, nor for its great ally the U.S. But the Trump administration understands this very well, as demonstrated by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who said: "Hamas cannot continue as a military or government force. And frankly, as long as it stands as a force that can govern or as a force that can administer or as a force that can threaten by use of violence, peace becomes impossible. They must be eliminated. It must be eradicated."[2]

Under these circumstances, Qatar desperately needs more time to devise a better form of deception in order to sweep away Trump's plan. As clashing with Trump over the future of Gaza is inevitable, Qatar's emir busies himself with his ally Iran to seek so-called mediation that will win him Trump's goodwill.

It is noteworthy that Qatar has never condemned Iran for its openly declared plans to assassinate Trump.[3] A MEMRI report on the Qatar-Iran alliance will be published soon.

Although there are some rumours about an Arab plan in the making, as of this writing there is no such concrete Arab plan for Gaza. Thus, it would be helpful to analyze the principles of Trump's plan.

After World War II, tens of millions of refugees and displaced persons in Europe needed to be resettled, among them Jewish survivors of the Holocaust. The UN and the international community rushed to help them.

In 1949, there was a new wave of refugees – the Arab Palestinians – that resulted from their failed attempt, along with that of seven Arab states, to destroy the newborn State of Israel. Over the years, there were still more refugees from new regions of crisis – northern Cyprus (1974), Yugoslavia (1990-1992).

A single global policy for all refugees was set: resettlement in their new locations. But for the Palestinians, another principle was devised – the principle of return to their previous locations, in complete disregard of the State of Israel.

In order to implement the return of the Palestinians, a special UN agency was created: the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East – UNRWA.

It is no wonder that over the years UNRWA's education system taught children to fight Israel, to allow all Palestinians everywhere in the world to return to it to completely destroy it, and to establish Palestine "from the river to the sea." And it is no wonder that UNRWA teachers participated in the October 7, 2023 massacre of Israeli civilians – women, children, and the elderly.

The Trump plan has brought all actors back to the 1948 moment. No principle of return. The rules for all other refugees in the world should apply to the Palestinians of Gaza as well. The natural solution for them should have been their rehabilitation in Gaza, not relocating them into Israel. This could have been implemented had there been a guarantee that Gaza attacks on Israel would cease.

But the Palestinians want to eat their cake and have it too. They want both rehabilitation in Gaza and the implementation of return into Israel through violent means. This has been reiterated by Hamas leaders throughout the war. For example, senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad said that the "Al-Aqsa Flood" – the Hamas name for its October 7 massacre, "was just the first time, and there will be a second, a third, a fourth." Adding "Will we have to pay a price? Yes, and we are ready to pay it. We are called a nation of martyrs, and we are proud to sacrifice martyrs," he concluded: "On October 7, October 10, October 1,000,000 – everything we do" to eliminate Israel "is justified."[4]

This approach as the basis for rehabilitation in Gaza is unacceptable, not only for Israel but for its great ally, President Trump.

It is the Palestinians' own insistence on the principle of return through violent means that brought the Trump plan down upon them. Similarly, it is the approach of the PLO, as well as of the UN and UNRWA, that is preventing the possibility of a two-state solution, because they too include the principle of the so-called right of return for Palestinians – a principle that, as noted, does not exist for any other group of refugees in the world. The PLO also wants to have its cake and eat it too – that is, it wants a Palestinian state but also the so-called right of return.

This is why the Israel-Palestinian conflict has continued for nearly eight decades. There is no way for a so-called Palestinian right of return to align with the existence of the state of Israel.

Even the Arab states understand that rehabilitating the Gaza Palestinians, beyond providing them with tents and temporary housing, will require a fundamental change in the Palestinian and Arab position the issue of return.

This is the what the focus of the postponed Arab summit should be – and also what Israel should insist on.

No more 10-year hudnas – Islamic temporary truces – like the Prophet Muhammad's Treaty of Hudaybiyya, that he himself violated after 18 months, which Yasser Arafat used as an historic Islamic model for peace. It must be a real solution, and a clear-cut choice: Either return or rehabilitation. Either return, or a peace plan that includes the complete disarmament of Gaza.

The so-called right of return is a test for any peace plan that the Arab states are trying to devise. If it includes this principle, as does the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative[5]– then it is no peace plan, but yet another attempt to force unviable conditions on Israel, as seen on October 7, 2023. It will not be accepted.

In view of all the above, one question remains: What deception will Qatar come up with this time?

* Yigal Carmon is Founder and President of MEMRI.