In this newsletter’s ongoing series on the threats posed to Israel and the U.S. by the small, fossil-fuel rich emirate of Qatar, we’ve pointed to the country’s propagandizing, its funding of Hamas, and its interference in American universities. This conversation does something different: it takes a comprehensive look at Doha’s strategic interests, and why it pretends to be America’s ally while flirting with its enemies. Speaking with Jamie Weinstein, Jonathan Schanzer explains that Qatar has benefitted from the Gaza war, and might well not want to see any more Israeli hostages released. He also puts to rest the canard that Qatar is hosting Hamas’s leaders only at Washington’s behest and tackles other difficult questions. (Audio, 40 minutes.)

As Israel moves closer to dismantling Hamas’s rule in Gaza, it will soon have to start implementing an alternative form of local governance. To do so it will likely draw on a confidential report produced by a team of Israeli scholars that has been circulating in the highest ranks of the government and military for the past few weeks.

One of the report’s authors, Netta Barak-Corren, discussed some of its suggestions recently with Dan Senor, addressing what can be learned from what the U.S. got right in Japan and Germany after World War II, and got wrong in Iraq and Afghanistan: