“Complete Charade”: Qatar Withdraws from Ceasefire Talks, Middle East Prepares for Trump Presidency

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, “War, Peace and the Presidency.” I’m Amy Goodman.

We continue to look at Gaza, where Israeli forces launched a deadly attack early Sunday morning on a residential area in Jabaliya where displaced Palestinians were attempting to shelter, killing at least 36 people, including over a dozen children. Dozens of the victims were reportedly members of the same family, asleep when Israeli forces attacked their home. An eyewitness who lost several relatives described the horrific scene.

HAMZA ALLOUSH: [translated] We were just sitting peacefully. These are innocent citizens who don’t belong to any military organization or faction. The eldest man is 70 years old. The house of Abu Sobeh Al-Alooshe was bombed over the residents’ head without warning, which led to the martyrdom of everyone inside, more than 30 martyrs. Those who were lucky enough to survive were thrown onto the trees, onto the neighbors, and the remains are still scattered under the rubble.

AMY GOODMAN: Palestinian journalist Mohammed Khreis was killed along with his wife after an Israeli airstrike on their tent in the Nuseirat refugee camp. At least three more Gazan journalists were also killed in the Israeli strikes over the weekend.

The attacks happened as the people of Gaza marked over 400 days since Israel launched its latest war and as northern Gaza remains under a brutal siege, with hospitals surrounded by Israeli forces who have issued forced evacuation orders, but doctors and medical staff have refused to leave their patients behind. Amidst Israel’s relentless attacks, the Palestine Red Crescent Society helped evacuate some 20 patients from Al-Awda Hospital in Jabaliya and transferred them to Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. PRCS reported at least one of the patients died as the ambulances were held up for hours at an Israeli checkpoint.

Meanwhile, the U.N.-backed Famine Review Committee has joined other humanitarian groups in issuing a dire warning that there is a, quote, “strong likelihood that famine is imminent in areas” of northern Gaza.

This all comes as Qatar has suspended its efforts to mediate a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal until, they say, Israel and Hamas show, quote, “willingness and seriousness” to resume negotiations.

Israel also carried out deadly strikes on Lebanon and Syria over the weekend, while the United States bombed Yemen over the past two nights.

For more, we go to The Hague, where we’re joined by Mouin Rabbani, Dutch Palestinian Middle East analyst, host of the Connections podcast. He’s former senior analyst for the International Crisis Group and a contributor to the book Deluge: Gaza and Israel from Crisis to Cataclysm.

Mouin, welcome back to Democracy Now! In a minute we’re going to ask you about the latest in Amsterdam, where police beat and arrested more than a hundred pro-Palestinian protesters Sunday after they defied a ban on demonstrations following street clashes between visiting Israeli soccer fans and Dutch youth. But first, can you talk about the significance of Qatar temporarily withdrawing as a mediator between Israel and Hamas for the Gaza ceasefire talks and about what’s happening currently in Riyadh?

MOUIN RABBANI: Yes. Well, turning to Qatar first, several days ago, there were press reports that Qatar was going to, as you mentioned, suspend its mediation and also show the Hamas exile leadership, that has been based in Qatar, the door and ask them to leave the country in response to U.S. pressure. The expulsion of the Hamas leaders has been denied by Qatar, but it has indeed, as you mentioned, confirmed that it is suspending its — that it is suspending its mediation, saying basically that the parties aren’t serious.

And I think my own view is that this is something that Qatar and the other mediator, Egypt, as well, should have done months ago, when it became entirely apparent that there never were serious ceasefire negotiations and that this process was essentially serving as a fig leaf for Israel and for the United States to continue with their war of annihilation in the Gaza Strip and deflect criticism by claiming that they’re involved in earnest initiatives to try to put an end to this war. As many of your listeners and viewers will know, every time there appears to be progress, the Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu shifts the goalposts, and we’re back to the square one. And then Antony Blinken is trotted out to say that Hamas is the obstacle. So I think it’s a good thing that these — at least that Qatar has suspended its efforts, and hopefully Egypt will do so soon, as well, because this entire process has from the outset been a complete charade.

AMY GOODMAN: So, talk about what’s happening right now in Riyadh. Some, what, 60 world leaders, including the Syrian President Assad, including Erdoğan and others, the Turkish president, are in Saudi Arabia right now. Talk about the significance of this and then what this means after the election of Donald Trump.

MOUIN RABBANI: Well, this is the second such summit. The first was held, if I’m not mistaken, in late November or early December last year. It was supposed to be an emergency Arab League summit, but the Saudi de facto leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman then expanded it to also include the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. Many people felt that was an attempt to seek to dilute the decisions that would be reached by this enlarged conference. And indeed, the only relevant resolution that they adopted was that they would immediately begin providing humanitarian supplies to the Gaza Strip, irrespective of any Israeli restrictions. And in fact, they did absolutely nothing and delivered nothing, unless they had Israeli approval to do so.

This is now, if you will, a follow-up summit. It’s possible that this one could be more serious, because there is, as you know, a very significant risk now of an all-out war that would include Israel and Iran trading blows directly at each other. And I think Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Cooperation Council states are very much worried about being in the frontline of any such conflict and being left with the consequences in terms of attacks on their own oil facilities and territory and so on. I mean, these are countries that had formerly looked to Israel as a reliable or potentially reliable security partner, but now see an Israeli government determined to set the entire region aflame. And they want to ensure that they’re not consumed by those flames.

AMY GOODMAN: So, where does Trump fit into this picture, well known to be extremely close, as his son-in-law is also extremely close to the Saudi Arabian Prince Salman?

MOUIN RABBANI: Yes. Well, as you mention, the relationship between the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the American crown prince, Prince Jared of Kushner, is known to be very close.

It’s less clear what a second Trump administration will mean for the region. Will it be a continuation of Biden’s policies towards the region, which were very much a continuation of the first Trump administration’s policies towards the region? Will Trump intensify, hard as that may be to believe, U.S. support for Israel and sign off on open warfare against Iran? Or will he also respond to those isolationist and antiwar elements among his constituency and seek to ensure that the U.S. is not drawn directly into an armed conflict in the Middle East, which would also mean using some leverage on Israel not to escalate matters further?

The problem with Trump is that he is so erratic, and we still don’t know who he’s going to surround himself with, that it’s very difficult to speculate about what the first months of the second Trump administration are going to bring. He’s already, for example, indicated that Mike Pompeo and Nikki Haley, two well-known Middle East hawks, will not be part of his administration. But against that, he’s also been closely working with Brian Hook, a well-known Iran hawk, and has indicated that his new ambassador to the United Nations will be Congresswoman Stefanik, who’s also well known for her very, very radical positions with respect to the region.