For some time, Qatar—a major backer of Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, and other Islamist groups—has been locked in a strategic struggle with the pro-Western and loosely pro-Israel bloc of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt. It has also kept up friendly relations with Iran, the sworn adversary of both the moderate Gulf states the Jewish one. Jordan Cope explains how this intra-Arab rivalry has spilled over into the realm of soccer:

Last spring, Qatar deployed its state-financed broadcast network, beIn Media Group, to sabotage Saudi Arabia’s effort to purchase [the British team] Newcastle United. The company, which holds regional broadcasting rights for Premier League games, contacted all twenty teams in the league and accused Riyadh of “siphoning off its broadcast signals.”

While this might have been a business move, it could also have been another skirmish in Qatar’s “proxy war” against Saudi Arabia and its allies—the UAE, Bahrain, and Egypt—over the question of Islamism. . . . Despite its small size, Qatar enjoys great influence and oil wealth. It has given nearly $5 billion to U.S. universities and sponsors Al-Jazeera. It is now seeking to exert international cultural influence through soccer, the world’s most popular sport. Soccer offers Qatar an opportunity to supplant Saudi and Emirati influence, seize the world’s attention, and sanitize its Islamism.

Qatar Airways has also partnered with Europe’s elite clubs—Bayern Munich and AS Roma in 2018, and FC Barcelona between 2013 and 2017—that the Qatar Foundation sponsored between 2011 and 2013. With global soccer domination in sight, Qatar now seeks a stake in Leeds United and the Emirates-dominated Premier League.

Qatar’s partnerships [a covert way for] it to boost its popularity as it finances terrorism and Islamist insurrections. Fans must demand better corporate accountability from their clubs.

For some time, opponents of U.S support for Israel have been urging the White House to end the war in Gaza, or simply calling for a ceasefire. Douglas Feith and Lewis Libby consider what such a result would actually entail:

Ending the war immediately would allow Hamas to survive and retain military and governing power. Leaving it in the area containing the Sinai-Gaza smuggling routes would ensure that Hamas can rearm. This is why Hamas leaders now plead for a ceasefire. A ceasefire will provide some relief for Gazans today, but a prolonged ceasefire will preserve Hamas’s bloody oppression of Gaza and make future wars with Israel inevitable.

For most Gazans, even when there is no hot war, Hamas’s dictatorship is a nightmarish tyranny. Hamas rule features the torture and murder of regime opponents, official corruption, extremist indoctrination of children, and misery for the population in general. Hamas diverts foreign aid and other resources from proper uses; instead of improving life for the mass of the people, it uses the funds to fight against Palestinians and Israelis.

Moreover, a Hamas-affiliated website warned Gazans last month against cooperating with Israel in securing and delivering the truckloads of aid flowing into the Strip. It promised to deal with those who do with “an iron fist.” In other words, if Hamas remains in power, it will begin torturing, imprisoning, or murdering those it deems collaborators the moment the war ends. Thereafter, Hamas will begin planning its next attack on Israel:

Hamas’s goals are to overshadow the Palestinian Authority, win control of the West Bank, and establish Hamas leadership over the Palestinian revolution. Hamas’s ultimate aim is to spark a regional war to obliterate Israel and, as Hamas leaders steadfastly maintain, fulfill a Quranic vision of killing all Jews.

Hamas planned for corpses of Palestinian babies and mothers to serve as the mainspring of its October 7 war plan. Hamas calculated it could survive a war against a superior Israeli force and energize enemies of Israel around the world. The key to both aims was arranging for grievous Palestinian civilian losses. . . . That element of Hamas’s war plan is working impressively.