Listen and follow along
Transcript
You are listening to an art media podcast.
It's 6 p.m.
on Tuesday, September 9th here in Washington, D.C., where I am.
It's also 6 p.m.
on Tuesday, September 9th, in New York City.
It is 1 a.m.
on Wednesday, September 10th in Israel, where Israelis learned about a little over eight hours ago that Israel had dropped 10 bombs on a building in Doha, in the capital of Qatar, where senior Hamas leaders were believed to be meeting.
The government of Qatar has issued a strong statement calling the attack, and I'm quoting here, a criminal assault and a violation of all laws and norms.
Others that have joined the list criticizing Israel's action, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Jordan, Turkey, and the Palestinian Authority all condemned the attack and expressed solidarity with Qatar.
The U.S.
government, the White House issued a statement that was very critical.
of Israel's decision here, yet at the same time, it was a little bit of a blurry message because it also said that this incident, this unfortunate incident, the White House described it as, could be the basis for some kind of pursuit of peace or some kind of turnaround.
So I want to turn to Nadaviel and Amit Segel here for their quick take in this new format we're testing called voice memo.
So Nadav Amit, my question is, has this attack changed the landscape of the war in Gaza?
And what now?
What do you expect to unfold?
Well, I think the situation changed dramatically in Gaza, even if the assassination failed.
And this is the most probable scenario.
First, because Qatar is no longer the marriager.
If you are a Hamas leader, would you arrive again to Qatar to negotiate indirectly with Israel if you are under the impression that they're going after you and that they are not negotiating but gathering intelligence before striking?
Second, is that Israel choose a side?
There was a debate in Israel whether Qatar is a partner to bring back the hostages, like the Mossad said, or that Qatar is an enemy because it funds Hamas, like the Shinbet claims.
Is it a friend or a foe?
And Israel chose.
It's a foe.
That's the main thing.
So it actually brings the situation in Gaza to a better place because they see that Israel has no limits in trying to eliminate Hamas.
They were under the impression prior to the war that hostages are actually their get-out of jail card.
And they see that it's not an insurance that Israel is going after Hamas everywhere.
So I think at the end of the day, it's going to bring better results at a heavy price.
The price is that Israel is more isolated in the region now and that the Qatari poison machine is going after Israel now with full engines and full amounts of money.
Then I think we can say for sure that the landscape of the war has changed, if not for one reason only, and that is that Qatar has been attacked by the Israeli Air Force.
Something that I suspect the Qataris never believed that could happen.
And the fact that Qatar, that has been there since the beginning of the war, and actually in the road to the war by supporting Hamas with the endorsement of the Israeli government at the time, the fact that they are now being ejected through this action, and they are being ejected, they are super angry at the Israelis.
They're super suspicious that the Americans did green light them, although the U.S.
is denying that.
And the fact that this is the case means that...
Now everything is shifting towards Cairo and towards the Egyptians, which is something that Israel's defense apparatus wanted to happen like a long time ago.
Of course, if it turns out that indeed those Hamas officials are dead, what we call in Hebrew, I'm translating literally, Hamas overseas, isn't there anymore, that also changes the war because to a large extent, I think, it delays the possibility of a deal, right?
These are the people that were negotiating with Israel a hostage deal.
These are the people also with blood on their hands that were responsible for two previous deals.
And now, if they are indeed dead, they're out of the question.
But we will need to wait to see if indeed the Hamas denials.
Hamas is saying that they are unheard.
If this is indeed the case, Israeli intelligence is still checking this up.
And only then will we be able to say for certain what is their condition.
By the way, if they have fled Qatar to Iran,
probably Hamas overseas as a negotiating tool is also dead because the Israelis are not going to travel to Tehran to negotiate, right?
Anyway, it changes the war.
