Peloni: Fascinating conversation between Eylon Levy and Mike Doran. It is impossible to disagree with Doran on the need to prioritize the destruction of Iran and its proxies, but what remains obscure, to me at least, is his belief that Israel is damaging this effort to destroy Iran by calling for accountability for Qatar, Egypt and Turkey while doing so. Is it truly necessary for Israel to accept these bad faith enemies as partners or face the loss of an opportunity to defeat Iran, even as the US is actually prioritizing negotiating with Iran instead of militarily defeating it? Is it really impossible to chew gum and walk at the same time? Wherein lies the conflict in treating the Qataris, for instance, as if they are subsidizing, motivating and harboring terrorists, because they are in fact doing all of this, even as they remain classified as a Major Non-Nato Ally, are protected by a US base of operations from which Qatar will not allow the US full freedom of action, and still harbor Hamas representatives in the life of luxury instead of at the end of a noose. The problem is that the US, despite all of this, does not hold influence over Qatar, but Qatar instead holds influence over the US. What is more is that this Qatari influence is substantively relevant as the US considers how best to deal with the nuclear threat emanating from Iran. But Doran seem to believe that the influence from Qatar is not relatively material in this context.
00:00 – Coming up
00:15 – Monologue
02:31 – Welcome
06:47 – Defining state sponsors
11:10 – US role in framing Hamas
15:12 – Iran’s support of Hamas
23:34 – Hezbollah’s role
31:02 – Let’s talk about Qatar
46:20 – US role in Qatar
48:53 – Let’s talk about the Egyptians
53:35 – Who to focus on
59:48 – Where does Turkey fit into this?
1:07:00 – The Future of the Middle East
1:12:48 – Wrap Up
1:13:44 – Outro
@shmujew
It is the grifting, count on it. The base is only useful because of its proximity to Iran, and Qatar will not permit the US to use the base against Iran, thus defeating the strategic locality.
Why does qatar have such a hold on the us? If its its strategic location surely the us has enough firepower to wrest enough land from them without argument. Or is it the grifting of certain us high profile people that preventing them from supporting israel?
The question may be: Why is the US supporting Qatar to the extent of having its military based there? Why (for example) would they not base their forces in Israel or next to Israel? I’m not suggesting that the US have boots on the ground in Israel; far from it. Israel can do what it does in the best possible manner.
I’m just trying to figure out what makes Qatar, of all places, so attractive, and the answer (almost) evades me.