The best answer of the OIC may be to recognize Hamas

The attack by Zionist occupier, genocidal Israel on the Hamas delegation in Qatar, which was discussing the US ceasefire proposals, announces both a new stage in its own aggression and the onset of a major shock effect on regional balances. This shock is, above all, a notice and warning about the ground of security and legitimacy on which the Gulf countries in particular have been sitting.

With this attack, the fact has become plainly visible that the great power they regarded as an ally, even a protector, far from providing them protection, is itself the head of the threat. No one allows the possibility that Israel's attack on Qatar took place without the USA's knowledge. Moreover, Qatar has extremely good relations with the USA, and the Hamas negotiating delegation is not in Doha out of any obstinacy toward the USA.

ISLAMIC COUNTRIES AT A CROSSROADS

Even so, the USA's failure to raise its voice against Israel's aggression does not show that the USA is a toy in Israel's hands. In the Israel-USA relationship the opposite is true. In this case, Israel's attack having been at best tolerated can be understood as the USA's way of communicating to the parties the new limits of its claim to regional sovereignty. As the former US officer Scott Ritter often emphasizes, and recalled again on account of the Qatar attack, the USA has no allies: "Anyone who is our ally is not our ally in truth, because we will betray them, and we have done so before... When you make a deal with the US, it uses you as a tool; we are nobody's friend."

These words formulate, as realistically as possible, what the USA understands in general by friendship, alliance and power. The course of the USA's historical relations with its allies so far is full of examples that amply confirm these words. When the occasion arises, the USA feels the need to remind others of the utmost level of arrogance with which it understands or feels the relationship. It is after neither virtue, nor kindness, nor loyalty. In its crudest form it positions the relationship as a hierarchical superior-inferior relation. Yet those who form an alliance with it may have very different expectations or dreams; who cares?

Otherwise the USA owes no debt of loyalty even to Israel, whose support has steadily declined even in US public opinion. That is why criticisms of Israel or talk of sanctions need to be addressed directly to the USA. If the latest aggression against Qatar is a test of limits, the answer that the addressees of this test will give brings them to a moment of decision on whether to accept their position in this relationship or to show the will to get out of it. As the Palestinian writer Said al-Hajj put it very well in his article on aljazeera.net, "Either this blatant aggression will turn into an opportunity to stop the genocide in Gaza and the aggression in the region, or Netanyahu and his government will be emboldened to intervene further in the region."

WHO WILL STOP ISRAEL IF NOT YOU?

The opportunity part seemed to materialize with the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Arab League convening a joint Summit over the Qatar attack. All the Islamic countries and Arab states declared that they were united on the point that the attack on Qatar was an attack on themselves, and that they stood in solidarity with Qatar. They displayed a somewhat higher level of awareness that the attack on Qatar was indeed the harbinger of a series of attacks that would target them as well.

President Erdoğan said that "the Islamic world has the resolve to thwart Israel's expansionist ambitions," and this time he also concretely offered the contributions he could make to a possible joint action:

"We are aware that we have the means to prevent this. It is now imperative that we reach the level of self-sufficiency in certain areas. Foremost among these is a deterrent defense industry and development. I want you to know that we are ready to share our capabilities and experience with you, our brothers. I believe that we must intensify our cooperation in these areas now in order to win the coming decades."

All the leaders criticized, cursed and condemned Israel in the harshest terms. But, as it turned out, no result emerged different from all the other meetings. While the Doha summit of Islamic countries was under way, Israel launched its ground assault with the aim of occupying Gaza, and in the first hours again massacred more than 50 children and civilians, destroyed dozens of buildings still standing, and with all its insolence continued to challenge the Islamic world.

The language and attitude of the OIC and EU Summits are in no way deterrent, nor can they be. Because in this language there is, above all, a plain lack of self-confidence, a lack of belief, and a servility. Who is the addressee of sentences such as "Israel must be stopped," "Someone should stop Israel," "The international community should apply the necessary sanctions to Israel," "Effective interventions should be made against Israel"? Even if a thousand declarations poured out in such sentences were published and a million meetings were held, no one will be deterred by them; is this so hard to understand?

Yet if one proceeded from Erdoğan's statement "we are aware that we have the means to prevent this," and if the OIC and the EU had a little faith in their own strength, there would be no need to ask anyone for help in stopping Israel. The Islamic countries would stop it directly.

IF ISLAMIC COUNTRIES UNITE AGAINST THE USA, THEY HAVE MORE THAN ENOUGH TRUMP CARDS AND MEANS AGAINST THE USA, THE OWNER OF THE ISRAELI DOG

The addressee must be the USA directly. They can say: "O USA, pull this rabid dog of yours out of the region now; without your support this dog could not even bark, we know this now!" Perhaps they could not say this alone, but when they display a stance all together, they make the seriousness of the matter felt.

It is very unfair and unnecessary for the summit declaration to present as their own success the fact that the Palestine solidarity formed in the world against Israeli aggression is leading to the recognition of the State of Palestine. In the first place, this success is the success of the cause that the people of Gaza have explained to the world by sacrificing themselves. The Islamic countries have not yet done anything for Palestine. Moreover, the recognition of Palestine has in any case no effect on Israel within this balance of sanctions and power.

There is actually a more effective and simple thing they can do at this stage: now that Israel has attacked the Hamas negotiating delegation and has, by many times the attack it carried out on Qatar, threatened the entire Islamic world, the best retaliation is not to recognize the State of Palestine but to recognize Hamas as a Kuva-yi Milliye (National Forces), exactly as Erdoğan defined it.

TODAY THE ONLY FORCE FIGHTING ON THE FRONT AGAINST THIS RABID POWER, WHICH HAS OPENLY AND INSOLENTLY CHALLENGED THE ISLAMIC WORLD AND DECLARED HOSTILITY, IS HAMAS

Therefore, to embrace Hamas and to announce that one will open one's doors to it would be the best answer to give to Israel or to its owner, the USA.

Neither murderous, genocidal Israel nor the USA, the instigator of its crimes, has any moral standing left from which to accuse Hamas or any other entity of terrorism. Hamas is waging a struggle, sacrificing itself on behalf of all Muslims, to save the honor of all Muslims.

Standing by it today would be a far more effective and far more apt step than recognizing the State of Palestine. It would also show that the humiliation openly inflicted in the name of the Islamic world is not accepted.