Doha wants to be seen as a neutral broker. It is not. It is a bankroll, a safe house, and a propaganda factory. In a recent address the emir accused Israel of continued breaches of the ceasefire while refusing to name the massacre of October 7 that pulled Israel into conflict.
That omission was deliberate. It signaled that Israel is the villain and the group Hamas is the victim.
For years the West treated Qatar as a useful bridge while Doha cultivated and protected Hamas. Qatar offered sanctuary to Hamas leaders, wired millions to Gaza, and gave the group a global platform on state supported media. Money labeled as humanitarian aid too often flowed into networks that sustain terror rather than rebuild lives.
That pattern is not charity. It is strategic support.
In 2012 the former emir visited Gaza under Hamas control and pledged hundreds of millions. That trip validated the group rather than containing it. Documents recovered in the conflict referenced discreet funding channels and sums approved for military purposes. Those were not charitable transfers. They were investments in an Islamist proxy that would continue to threaten the region.
After the October 7 atrocity Doha adopted a public posture of responsibility and signed statements condemning the massacre while promising support for disarmament. That was a performance for Western audiences. Behind closed doors Doha adjusted tactics but did not cut Hamas off. When the United States produced a detailed peace plan Qatar played mediator long enough to help secure a ceasefire. Once the cameras moved on, the old pattern reasserted itself.
The danger is real and immediate. Senior Arab voices and Israeli critics warn that excessive Qatari involvement in postwar Gaza risks sabotaging any effort to remove Hamas from power. A Saudi source told Israeli media that allowing Qatar to control reconstruction will cause plans to collapse because Doha will work to keep Hamas in the picture. Israeli critics fear substituting one foreign patron for another instead of implementing a credible reconstruction overseen by trusted Western partners.
Qatar benefits when Gaza remains a crisis. The longer instability endures the more leverage Doha gains. The result is a perverse incentive structure in which chaos becomes an asset. This calculus is incompatible with genuine demilitarization and durable peace. The international community must stop rewarding a state that profits from prolonged conflict.
There is also an information war. State owned media based in Doha amplifies narratives that absolve Hamas while focusing blame on Israel. That messaging influences Western audiences and shapes policy debates. When a small state controls a megaphone it can reframe victims as aggressors and aggressors as victims.
To skeptics who call this melodrama answer this.
Which would you prefer - a genuine internationally supervised reconstruction that leaves Hamas with neither guns nor governance, or a façade in which Doha quietly ensures the group long term survival? Year after year the evidence points to the latter. The question is whether the West will act or will repeat the cycle.
An arsonist does not make a good contractor. Allowing the same state that played both arsonist and fireman to rebuild Gaza invites repeat catastrophe. Reconstruction must be planned and executed by institutions that will not benefit from instability. That means independent audits, multinational oversight, and security arrangements that remove military control from the group Hamas rather than cement its authority.
The time for half measures has passed. Qatar has shown its preference for influence over peace. It will play good cop when convenient and revert to protector of proxies when that serves long term interests. Washington and its allies must stop treating Doha as indispensable and begin treating it as what it is a state with strategic interests that often run counter to the object of peace in Gaza.
Amine Ayoub,a fellow at the Middle East Forum, is a policy analyst and writer based in Morocco. Follow him on X: @amineayoubx