For years, senior Hamas figures in Qatar acted as if they were untouchable. Doha’s luxury hotels served as their bases of operation from which they managed the campaign against Israel, coordinated funding, procured weapons, and exercised remote command over terror. The Qatari government gave them political and economic cover, while they enjoyed international protection and a feeling of complete security.
Israel knew where the Hamas leaders lived. Yet the political and security reality made any action in Qatar impossible. Washington viewed Doha as a strategic partner: The region’s largest US base – Al Udeid – is located there. Any Israeli attempt to operate on Qatari soil previously ran into a wall of American opposition.
Following the deadlock in negotiations with Hamas, Israel decided to take off the gloves and act in Qatar as well. The attempt to eliminate terror leaders, even if it failed, is a warning to Qatar.
For years, Doha invested huge sums in establishing itself as an international mediator, especially on the issue of freeing hostages, but reality has slapped it in the face. It is neither a neutral mediator nor fair; it hosts and funds a terrorist organization. Israel will not grant immunity, even if that means acting on land where an American presence exists.
It is worth listening to what Dr. Udi Levi, former head of the Economic Warfare Division at the Mossad, who dealt with economic warfare against terror, said. During the annual international conference of the Institute for Counter-Terrorism at Reichman University, Levi warned: “Qatar has conquered the West and is building the infrastructure to restore the Islamic Empire.”
Dr. Levi spoke about Qatar’s involvement in influence networks and funding organizations and called for a renewed Western strategy.
“Conquest is not necessarily the seizure of territory; conquest is also your ability to paralyze the enemy’s decision-making processes. And that is exactly what Qatar succeeds in doing. But at the same time, Qatar has built, is building, and will build every infrastructure that can change the West culturally, socially, and economically on the road to implementing the Muslim Brotherhood doctrine of restoring the Islamic Empire.
“It operates a global propaganda network that has penetrated every home across the globe. They have bribed every leader and every element that could help them advance their interests; at the same time, they operated every possible arm for terror attacks to destabilize regimes and to spread radical Islam that has a single purpose – harming the West.”
Every killing is a psychological blow
THE MESSAGE to the terrorists is clear: You are doomed, every last one of you. Every killing is not only a physical act but also a psychological blow. Hamas leaders who survived still learned the hard way that there is no longer a safe place – not in Damascus, not in Beirut, and not in Doha. From now on, they will live in constant fear, change identities, alter travel routes, and seek hiding places. Every additional day of life for them is a death sentence waiting to be executed.
This message is deeply rooted in Israel’s security tradition. The Mossad, Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), and IDF acted this way in response to the perpetrators of the Munich massacre in 1972, against those who carried out terror during the intifadas, and now also against Hamas leadership. There is no statute of limitations on the blood of Jews.
Over the past year and a half, calls have been heard again and again from figures in Israel – mainly from the left side of the political map – to “end the war at all costs.” The call sounds like a voice of reason, wrapped in slogans about responsibility, restraint, and preserving human life.
Yet behind that voice hides a real danger: an attempt to turn weakness into an ideology and surrender into a strategy. In the Middle East, reality translates weakness as an invitation to eliminate, and concession is seen not as generosity but as flight.
For those who have already forgotten: Had the State of Israel yielded to this pressure and ended the war more than a year ago as politicians, senior officers, and journalists demanded, Yahya Sinwar would still be alive and kicking, Hamas would continue to rule the Gaza Strip with an iron hand, and the rule of terror would not have been weakened but strengthened. In Gaza, the education and incitement systems would have continued to operate, producing another generation of terrorists and injecting poisonous ideology into all age groups.
Thousands of Nukhba terrorists would be sitting today on the Gaza border, training and waiting for an order to carry out another incursion into communities – perhaps larger and more murderous than the one we experienced on October 7. In the North, Hassan Nasrallah would still be sitting in his chair, hale and whole, alongside Hezbollah’s leadership.
Tens of thousands of rockets would continue to be aimed at northern and central cities, upgraded and with longer ranges. Thousands of Radwan operatives would be massed on the border fence, equipped with combat experience and waiting for the order to break into the Galilee. In Syria, on the Golan Heights border, the pro-Iran militias receiving reinforcements from Tehran would continue to operate, waiting for the right moment to strike Israel.
Iran would have continued its nuclear trajectory with almost no hindrance. Nothing would have deterred the ayatollahs from continuing to develop an atomic bomb. A direct nuclear threat to Israel would have become a much nearer reality.
The Houthis in Yemen, Iran’s proxies, would reach the peak of their power, armed with hundreds of long-range ballistic missiles made in Iran, launching them toward shipping lanes in the Red Sea and toward Israel itself.
THERE IS one clear truth in the Middle East: Whoever is perceived as weak is devoured. Power is the only language our enemies understand. Every concession is interpreted as surrender; every attempt to show “restraint” is seen as proof that more pressure can be applied.
Against Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, and its proxies, there is no room for a strategy of surrender. The enemy is not seeking compromise and has no interest in political arrangements. Its aim is singular: the destruction of the State of Israel.
The IDF and the intelligence services carried out a complex operation to eliminate the leadership core in Gaza and beyond. The operation may not have achieved its goal, and it did not advance negotiations for the release of our hostages, but it sent a clear message: There is no longer anywhere in the world where the “heads of the snake” can continue to hide underground or in palatial mansions.
The military activity was meant to clarify to all Israel’s enemies: This war will not end until the heads of terrorist organizations are eliminated. Hamas terrorists know they are living on borrowed time.
At this point in time, Israel faces a historic decision, not between peace and war, because peace is not on the table as far as our enemies are concerned, but between firm standing and surrender. Those who speak of “a ceasefire at any price” ignore the real cost: a return to a reality of perpetual threat, breached borders, and endless terror.
It is precisely in moments like these that leadership is tested, not measured by the ability to reap immediate praise but by the ability to look toward the next generation of the State of Israel. What do we want to leave to our children? A reality of deterrence and security or a reality of weakness, fear, and surrender?
War is not an end in itself; it is a means to ensure the existence of the State of Israel as a strong, sovereign country that will prevail over its enemies wherever they are.
Bold actions against Hamas leadership in Gaza are still being carried out, actions intended to make clear that the State of Israel will not tolerate the existence of those who threaten it. The pursuit of Hamas leaders reflects the understanding of a simple truth: In the Middle East, you do not win with empty agreements but with determination, deterrence, and strength.
The writer is CEO of Radios 100FM, an honorary consul and deputy dean of the Consular Diplomatic Corps, president of the Israel Amateur Radio Club, and a former Army Radio monitor and NBC News correspondent.