Qatar alleged contribution to Jumblat campaign

From our current perspective on Israel's failures in the Syrian civil war, we can better understand why we rejected the extended hand of the most significant forces fighting Assad, who were completely on our side.

One could understand the reluctance to intervene in "Arab wars" and wish everyone success, but from today's perspective, this wasn't the case, or perhaps it was the result of misguided policy that needs to be thoroughly examined to avoid future failures. This refers to the extended hand of the main force fighting Assad, the "Free Syrian Army," reaching out to us – optimal allies – until they were worn down by Putin's carpet bombing and defeated.

The "Free Syrian Army" was that part of Assad's army that rebelled against him, primarily consisting of the Sunni portion of the army. In their messages to Israel, they announced they would relinquish claims to the Golan Heights and immediately establish a peace agreement with us in exchange for IDF training in Eastern Europe, a television station to compete with Al-Jazeera and expose Assad's crimes, and connections with the Israeli lobby in the United States and Israel's friends in Congress.

Until now, Israeli indifference could have been interpreted as mere laziness and reluctance to repeat the major mistake of connecting with Christian Phalanges in Lebanon. However, now another disturbing explanation emerges, as we see this mistake repeating itself and pushing Israel into problematic corners.

The new perspective is the visible confrontation between Qatar and Saudi Arabia, where Israel is supposedly meant to be on Saudi Arabia's side, but is actually on Qatar's side.

The new confrontation line is in Syria and Lebanon. Saudi Arabia is being drawn back to Lebanon to rehabilitate it economically, following political rehabilitation, and is throwing its weight behind the election of General Joseph Aoun, the army commander, to ensure Hezbollah's disarmament, even beyond the Litani, throughout all of Lebanon, while Qatar is designating itself for a parallel role unifying all anti-Saudi forces from the Syrian side of the border.

Thus, while Lebanon is supposed to develop into a state that will not only shake off Hezbollah but try to return to the path of a proper state, Qatar, on the other side, will establish for Abu Mohammad al-Jolani a Muslim Brotherhood state resembling Afghanistan, controlled by a coalition of various Muslim Brotherhood organizations with spillover to ISIS, threatening pro-Saudi Lebanon.

From today's perspective, the Free Syrian Army would have aligned with Saudi Arabia, not Qatar, because it opposes Iran, Russia, the Muslim Brotherhood, and Turkey—which is Qatar's camp.

There is concern that Israel didn't respond to them because it was already in a behind-the-scenes alliance with Qatar, and just as it strengthened Hamas in Gaza together with Qatar, it didn't want to interfere with Qatar—and Turkey—in building the Muslim Brotherhood forces opposing the Free Syrian Army.

This force was the Syrian National Army. Similar name to the Free Syrian Army, but opposite in nature—a proper Muslim Brotherhood force initiated by Turkey, established in Idlib, and designed to allow Jolani to absorb it.

The founder of al-Nusra changed the original name, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Organization for the Liberation of Greater Syria, to absorb the Syrian National Army within it.

Just as Qatar and Saudi Arabia are already on opposite sides of the Syria-Lebanon border, they were supposed to be in Gaza, but Israel closed the Rafah crossing to block the entry of the Emirates and Saudi Arabia, after they had already positioned themselves in the southern Strip and started deploying an aid network to compete with UNRWA and Hamas, leaving Hamas and UNRWA with Qatar as the sole proprietors in the Strip.

Qatar has authorization for Gaza rehabilitation from previous rounds, The authority exists and only needs to refresh plans.

Now, as the lines of confrontation between Qatar and Saudi Arabia sharpen, talks resume that the Emirates will return to Gaza the day after. In a conversation I had with a senior Emirates official, I was told they had already informed Israel they wouldn't return to Gaza. Perhaps now things will change, but as long as Israel prefers Qatari mediation over Egyptian, nothing fundamental in the covert Qatar-Israel alliance changes.

Qatar announced its intention to build the Gaza port, meaning: it will bring Turkey into Gaza in the momentum of Ottoman Empire renewal along with rebuilding Hamas's military capabilities from the Qatari-Turkish port.

It has a candidate to succeed Abu Mazen in the West Bank – Jibril Rajoub, Hamas's main ally in the West Bank, who said he would drop an atomic bomb on Israel if he could, led the campaign to remove Israel from FIFA.

If indeed Israel's refusal to assist the Free Syrian Army stemmed from the covert connection that already existed with Qatar, there is concern that all forces in Syria today considering ties with Israel will be deterred if it becomes clear that this connection with Qatar remains intact.

For example, the Druze. There were reports that the Druze in Syria were considering connecting with Israel. This is an extremely important strategic connection for Israel to block Erdogan's declared aspirations to liberate Al-Aqsa, and also to protect Jordan, but there is concern that what will torpedo this vital connection will again be—Israel's undeclared alliance with Qatar.

The Lebanese Druze leader, Walid Jumblatt, rushed to Abu Mohammad al-Jolani in Damascus to ensure the safety of the Druze in Sweida, which would eliminate their need to connect with Israel, and also assured him that the Druze have no objection to growing Turkish influence in Syria (prelude to Lebanon?) and to work against Saudi Arabia's candidate for Lebanon's presidency. Not coincidentally, an invisible hand published a photo of Qatar's payment order to Jumblatt for financing his 2018 election campaign.

In the parade of failures and mistakes in Israel's long journey of falling into every possible political pitfall, the connection with Qatar is perhaps the least understood. This doesn't exempt us from the need for a complete system overhaul.

Doing the right thing for once is also an option.