I rushed to hope that the U.S. would turn the Gaza port initiative into the first step in the move toward its comprehensive peace vision, in cooperation with the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinian Authority.
This was all based on the hope that Qatar, which is Hamas, would be ousted from any role in it, since it is a sponsor of Islamist terrorism worldwide. My hope was indeed consistent with the first reports about the port initiative. I termed it a "port of hope" and considered it a miracle that the Biden administration would take an actual step to implement its peace vision.
I proved to be damned wrong.
This administration betrayed its allies – the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and Jordan – by handing the port over to Qatar, namely to Hamas.
By doing so, the U.S. has flipped sides, from Israel to Qatar. In fact, it has been like this for years, thanks to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's collaboration with Qatar and Hamas, facilitating the flow of billions of dollars to Hamas-ruled Gaza, which Hamas used to build its military empire and caused the October 7 attack. By giving the port to Hamas, this administration has embraced its own enemy, Qatar, in place of its true allies, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Jordan. (I listed all the Qatari terrorist-sponsoring anti-U.S. activity, and Qatar's connections with Iran, in my latest piece.)
The UAE and Saudi Arabia now realize that any engagement with this administration is hopeless. They will try to wait out President Biden, while moving further toward the other bloc, the bloc of multipolarity: Russia, China, and Iran.[1]
Russian President Vladimir Putin (front right) shakes hands with Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Aal Thani at the Kremlin (Source: Rferl, March 27, 2018)
Chinese President Xi Jinping holds talks with Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Aal-Thani, emir of Qatar, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, January 31, 2019. Prior to the talks, Xi held a welcome ceremony for Tamim at the Great Hall of the People. (Xinhua/Li Tao, January 31, 2019)
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi (left) welcoming Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani (right) at the presidential palace in Tehran, Iran, May 12, 2022. (Credit Image: ©️ Iranian Presidency via ZUMA Press Wire)
Why did this happen, and what will be the repercussions?
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First of all, it should be stressed that this was an American surrender that shows America's weakness to the world. What all anti-U.S. elements will take away from this tragic episode is not that America stands by its human values to support and care for the population of Gaza, but rather that America is weak and that this is why it is granting the port to Qatar and Hamas.
Why is it doing this? First, Israel failed to finish the job within a month or maximum two, which is the time span that the U.S. and the West can tolerate. Hamas, as always, used the Palestinians in Gaza as human shields, thus turning them, through inhumane cruelty, into unarmed and unwitting fighters on its side.
As a result, the West has attacked only Israel, forgetting even about October 7 and the hostages. All that mattered was the tragic human casualties among the Gazan civilian population. Theoretically, the West could adhere to its human values and to international laws of war and say that Hamas's savagery turns civilians into human shields and that therefore we continue to stand by Israel. But such a scenario is a hopeless dream.
Second, as the war continued, and with it the human toll, Israel did not provide the administration with the political horizon it so badly needed to justify its support for Israel – namely, that all these tragic casualties were for the sake of a peace agreement after the war.
Netanyahu wouldn't give it to the administration. Not that his argument – that one cannot speak about a peaceful solution before Hamas is ended – is invalid. In principle, it is valid: One cannot talk about a peace agreement while Hamas continues to exist. But the administration needed a different message for the upcoming presidential election, a message to counter all the protests against it. Netanyahu disregarded this partisan American need, and would not give the administration what it required.
So, the administration had no choice but to focus on humanitarian aid to mitigate the consequences of Israel's battle against Hamas, with its cost in human tragedy. The easiest and most convenient way was to hand this port initiative over to Qatar, which means Hamas.
Repercussions: Weakness Breeds Violence
The Biden administration believes that this small, seemingly insignificant step would grant it a second-rate achievement for November (if not a ceasefire and an agreement, then at least an end to the humanitarian tragedy) that will allow it to eke out a Democratic victory. In reality, its betrayal of its true ally will produce the opposite result.
First of all, via humanitarian aid, Qatar, namely Hamas, will maintain control of the population.
With this small step, the U.S. is surrendering the population into Hamas's hands. As a result more Israeli soldiers will be killed, as well as more Palestinian. And that will cause a wider conflagration.
But the American weakness will breed violence on a far larger scale. All the anti-U.S. forces in the region will now understand that America is weak and fails to stand by its allies – and thus the time is right to throw them out of their bases across the Middle East.
The clash on Israel's northern border will escalate all the way to a comprehensive war with Hizbullah.
The Houthis will intensify their attacks. All of Iran's proxy militias will escalate their attacks on American bases in Syria, Iraq, and Jordan, and Iran will continue to claim that they are acting independently (which is a joke).
Come November, the Biden administration will be faced with a total regional war – not only against Israel but also against America. (And of course it will have no political achievement to show in the Middle East with regard to the war.)
What can we expect to see on the global scene? As a result of America's weakness, as demonstrated in Gaza, Russia will expand its war in Ukraine, with open threats about a nuclear war if NATO reacts. And China will escalate its violent pressure against Taiwan, and against the Philippines in the South China Sea.
Nothing succeeds like success. Nothing fails like failure. The Israeli and American failure in Gaza will set off a total war just before the election. All the anti-U.S. forces will think that this is their time and their chance. America is weak and will not dare to enter into world wars, particularly before the election.
Handing over the port to Qatar, i.e. Hamas, is a small, seemingly insignificant step for one man, President Biden, but one giant leap towards total war.
*Yigal Carmon is Founder and President of MEMRI.
[1] In Afghanistan, the Biden administration betrayed the democratically elected secular pro-U.S. president Ashraf Ghani and the secular Afghanis in favor of the Taliban, which were sponsored by Qatar for many years. It also betrayed, time and again, Iranians' civil rebellions, in favor of the bloody and murderous regime of the ayatollahs.
