Prof Shahram Akbarzadeh is Professor of Middle East & Central Asian Politics at Deakin University and the director of the Middle East Studies Forum. He was interviewed by the anti-Israel SBS public broadcaster to get his condemnation of Israel’s maligned attack on Hamas officials who live in luxury in Qatar.
The United States, which controls the skies over Qatar thanks to its massive airbase there, is reported to have coordinated closely with Israel despite what Trump has said publicly. Given that the US has an important military base in Qatar they had to give the impression that they opposed Israel’s action.
In fact Prof Akbarzadeh has not perceived that what has just happened marks a profound shift. Washington may finally be tiring of Qatar’s duplicity—its role as Hamas’s patron, its alliance with the Muslim Brotherhood and its obstruction of peace initiatives, including U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to conclude the war before the midterms. The Saudis, who loathe Qatar, will see this as an opening to push forward a regional realignment under the Abraham Accords.
At the end of this short video clip on SBS Prof Akbarzadeh goes down the anti-Netanyahu rabbit hole to make Netanyahu out to be the real villain in this whole episode. It is far too simplistic to blame Netanyahu for everything. But of course that fits nicely into SBS’s dyed-in-the wool anti-Israel narrative.