Deadly airstrike was Benjamin Netanyahu’s latest move to obstruct peace negotiations, threatening Qatar’s role as intermediary

When Donald Trump visited Qatar in May, he promised to defend the tiny, wealthy emirate and its rulers. “We are going to protect this country,” Trump declared on his state visit, where he was treated like royalty and honored in gilded palaces. “It’s a very special place, with a special royal family … They are great people and they are going to be protected by the United States.”

Over two decades, Qatar spent billions of dollars to upgrade the largest US military base in the Middle East and spent many more billions to buy US warplanes and other weapons. In May, as the president prepared to visit, the Qatari government donated a luxury Boeing jet, a “palace in the sky” valued at $400m, which is now being refitted so Trump can use it as Air Force One.

Mohamad Bazzi is director of the Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies, and a journalism professor, at New York University