Qatar bombing shows Israel's belief that strength will win out

As condemnations of Israel’s bombing of Hamas leaders in Qatar erupted across the globe late Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was taking the podium at a belated US Independence Day celebration put on by the American embassy in Jerusalem.

Hundreds of guests, many Israeli, dined on hot dogs and hamburgers and drank whiskey sours at an event that had been delayed by the 12-day Israel-Iran war in June. Netanyahu apologized for being late, saying with a wink that he’d been “otherwise engaged” — the crowd erupted in cheers.

Governments in Europe and the Arab world say they’re increasingly concerned that Israel is turning into a rogue attack machine, striking out in all directions and destabilizing a region long viewed as a tinderbox. Even US President Donald Trump said he was unhappy about the Qatar attack.

But many Israelis, especially those leading and supporting the Netanyahu government, see it differently. They believe that peace will only come from strength, and that defeating Hamas, its affiliates and Iranian sponsor is the way to do it.

“I believe the negotiations will continue, and right now we are applying significant pressure on all fronts in order to relay a very clear message about our intentions,” Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, told 103FM in Tel Aviv on Wednesday morning.

“It could be that this pressure, both in Gaza and elsewhere in the world, will ultimately bring about a breakthrough in the negotiations,” he added.

As has been increasingly the case over the past year, Israel finds itself broadly isolated in that view amid scenes of devastation and hunger in Gaza. It has bombed four Middle East capitals and now tried to kill negotiators in a fifth, alienating much of the world, including longtime allies.

“There’s a difference between having a policy of” destroying Hamas “and then breaking international law as a country to carry it out,” Nicholas Hopton, former British ambassador to Qatar, Libya and Iran and now non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, told Bloomberg Radio on Wednesday. “And that seems to be what Israel has decided to do and which puts it on the wrong side of the international community.”

Longtime Plans

Israel has long broadcast its plan to assassinate Hamas political leaders abroad, because it views them as indistinguishable from the militant wing of the group, which is designated a terrorist organization by Washington and the European Union. Israel killed then-Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July 2024.

“We’ll eliminate Hamas leaders in Qatar and Turkey,” said former Shin Bet Chief Ronen Bar two months after the October 2023 Hamas attack that killed 1,200 Israelis. “It’ll take a few years but we’ll get there.”

Bar made that statement before Israeli jets had flown repeatedly to Iran, Yemen, Lebanon and Syria, attacking targets in all countries and demonstrating that Israeli military might is now at a new level — it’s a regional and largely unchallenged superpower.

And that, according to Danon, means that it can handle the condemnations and freezing of normalization work with Saudi Arabia and other Arab states. Later, they say, those governments will come around, despite their current public postures.

“I speak with the leaders of Arab countries,” UN Ambassador Danon added in his radio interview. “Some of them issued very angry statements about Israel. But in informal conversations they say, ‘Kudos’ - both because they dislike Qatar and because they dislike Hamas and radical Islam.”

“I think we should keep taking the lead in this campaign,” he added. “The entire world is talking about a future without Hamas — including even those who are today fighting us here in the UN, like France and Britain.”

Brandon Friedman, a senior fellow at the Moshe Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University who specializes in the Arab Gulf, said Netanyahu does care about relations with the Gulf but right now defeating Hamas takes precedence.

“Israel believes the best strategy is to escalate in order to deescalate,” he said. “The leaders of Hamas must be made to understand that their only hope of survival is surrender.”

On Wednesday, Israel was awaiting clarity on whether the Hamas leaders targeted in the Tuesday attack were killed. Hamas said most had survived. But few Israeli pundits were questioning the move, saying that ultimately, success would arrive.

Others were less sanguine, noting that in 23 months of intense warfare Hamas is still standing and holding hostages, still inspiring loyalty among Palestinians both in Gaza and in the West Bank, with Israel’s conduct of the war turning global public opinion broadly against the country.

The largest selling daily newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, ran a cartoon on Wednesday in which a man watching TV cries excitedly to his wife, “We’ve taken out Hamas!” Unimpressed, she replies, “Again?”