Israel's precise strike at Hamas headquarters in the petrostate sheikdom of Qatar happened about 23 months too late.

Every one of the reported targets has been sanctioned by the U.S. government for terrorist activities. Each one of them, by any moral or legal understanding, was engaged in war crimes.

Not only did they orchestrate and manage an ongoing war against Israeli civilians, but they also doomed Arabs in Gaza to destitution while sitting on billions of stolen dollars and sleeping safely in their luxurious hotel rooms.

Even if it turns out that Israel missed these targets, Hamas leaders know there is no place to hide.

Among the targets was Khaled Meshaal, whose net worth has ballooned somewhere between $2 billion-$5 billion, was one of the founders of modern Hamas.

Then there is Khalil al-Hayya, who praised the rape of women and murder of children as "a source of pride for our people," and bragged about using Palestinian civilians as "shields for the resistance."

Zaher Jabarin, known as the CEO of Hamas, siphoned billions of international aid to the group and procured funding from Iran and Qatar.

Nizar Awadallah, a longtime Hamas leader, had planned dozens of attacks on civilians. And Khaled Mashal, who promised his group would "repeat the October 7 attack time and again until Israel is annihilated."

After 700 days of bogus negotiations with these malevolent savages, Israel said enough. None of the people were diplomats or peacemakers. Every one of them pledged forever war.

There's no possible scenario in which Israel didn't inform the United States about its plan to target Doha, which sits near U.S. military installations. It's implausible that Israel would attack without a green light from the president. More than likely, Israelis held off while Trump attempted to craft a broader deal. But Hamas was never going to stop.

It might well be the case that Qatar also knew the attack was coming and decided to untether its fortunes from Hamas. Even so, the United States should decouple from this toxic theocratic city-state, which undermines American domestic politics by dropping billions into U.S. schools, politics and media to gain influence and normalize radicalism and Islamist ideas.

Remember that Qatar blamed Israel "alone" for Oct. 7. Without Doha's financial backing, the attack never would have happened in the first place. And if Qatar wanted the hostages released, it could have pressured the Palestinians to do so a long time ago. Qatar perpetuated this charade to lift itself as a power broker. Its duplicitous and unctuous playing of all sides does nothing to help our national interests.

Qatar also surely realized that Oct. 7 had been a colossal blunder not just for Palestinians but for Islamists across the Middle East. Since that day, Israel has decimated Hamas, killing thousands of its soldiers and eliminating virtually its entire leadership; it has decapitated Hezbollah's fighting force, possibly allowing Lebanon's leaders to try to dislodge the Iranian proxy militia from their country; it has precipitated the fall of the Assad regime, which had been in place in Syria for over 50 years; it has likely set back Iranian's nuclear program for years, not to mention knocked out a massive number of armaments and defenses; and it eliminated top Houthi leadership, as well.

It's a shame it took this long. Imagine, if you can, Mexico hosting Al Qaeda leaders in five-star Cancun resorts and giving them space for a headquarters in the year 2002. Now, if your contention is that Hamas is the legitimate governing entity of the Palestinian people, imagine Mexico hosting Imperial generals as Americans fought the Japanese in Okinawa.

The United States didn't conduct ceasefire talks with Ayman al-Zawahiri. The only reason Israel spent years in negotiations with Hamas was to attain the release of hostages. And the Jewish State was willing to make unconscionable demands to save them. It may never happen. But it was certainly never going to happen while the billionaires of Hamas conducted their operations in the safety of Qatar.

Those days are over.

David Harsanyi is a senior writer at the Washington Examiner. Harsanyi is a nationally syndicated columnist and author of five books — the most recent, "The Rise of Blue Anon," available now. His work has appeared in National Review, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Reason, New York Post and numerous other publications. Follow him on X @davidharsanyi.

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