Another way to combat anti-Semitism is to stem the flow of money and propaganda from abroad. Here the worst culprit is Qatar, creator and owner of the anti-American Islamist mouthpiece Al Jazeera, patron of Hamas and numerous other jihadist groups, and funder of academic institutes, lobbying groups, and other levers of influence. The country’s emir recently was treated to a lavish welcome in Britain, and the U.S. has given his fiefdom the coveted status of a major non-NATO ally.

Qatar’s apologists might point to reports, the details of which remain vague, that Doha has expelled Hamas’s leaders from its territory. But, Gabriel Scheinmann points out, even if these reports are accurate, this is hardly sufficient action from a putative American ally:

History shows that terrorist leaders in exile can regroup and continue their operations. . . . Osama bin Laden was expelled first from Saudi Arabia and then from Sudan before directing al-Qaeda’s operations from Afghanistan. Exile is no substitute for justice or peace.

Arresting and extraditing Hamas leaders would be a defining moment for Qatar. Israel has the greatest claim to prosecute these individuals, given the scale of the atrocities committed on its soil. Still, Hamas also has the blood of dozens of Americans on its hands. . . . Guantanamo Bay remains the most secure location for housing high-value terrorism suspects.

And where did these master terrorists decamp to upon leaving their five-star hotels? Turkey, also a nominal American ally and thus a place where Israel will be unable to target them.

Yesterday, Israel’s Channel 12 reported that Israeli representatives have been involved in secret talks, brokered by the United Arab Emirates, with their Syrian counterparts about the potential establishment of diplomatic relations between their countries. Even more surprisingly, on Wednesday an Israeli reporter spoke with a senior official from Syria’s information ministry, Ali al-Rifai. The prospect of a member of the Syrian government, or even a private citizen, giving an on-the-record interview to an Israeli journalist was simply unthinkable under the old regime. What’s more, his message was that Damascus seeks peace with other countries in the region, Israel included.

These developments alone should make Israelis sanguine about Donald Trump’s overtures to Syria’s new rulers. Yet the interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa’s jihadist resumé, his connections with Turkey and Qatar, and brutal attacks on minorities by forces aligned with, or part of, his regime remain reasons for skepticism. While recognizing these concerns, Noah Rothman nonetheless makes the case for optimism:

The old Syrian regime was an incubator and exporter of terrorism, as well as an Iranian vassal state. The Assad regime trained, funded, and introduced terrorists into Iraq intent on killing American soldiers. It hosted Iranian terrorist proxies as well as the Russian military and its mercenary cutouts. It was contemptuous of U.S.-backed proscriptions on the use of chemical weapons on the battlefield, necessitating American military intervention—an unavoidable outcome, clearly, given Barack Obama’s desperate efforts to avoid it. It incubated Islamic State as a counterweight against the Western-oriented rebel groups vying to tear that regime down, going so far as to purchase its own oil from the nascent Islamist group.

The Assad regime was an enemy of the United States. The Sharaa regime could yet be a friend to America. . . . Insofar as geopolitics is a zero-sum game, taking Syria off the board for Russia and Iran and adding it to the collection of Western assets would be a triumph. At the very least, it’s worth a shot. Trump deserves credit for taking it.