This is today’s scenario: the Doha talks have effectively collapsed, even as Arab mediators insist this is a normal falter borne of complex realities. The American mediator, however, has warned that the only viable alternatives align with Netanyahu’s plans—under which the war continues, escalates, and expands.
President Trump, following his usual pattern, immediately blamed Hamas. Hamas, in turn, highlights the flexibility it claims mediators appreciate. Yet US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff refuses to acknowledge any of these gestures, leaving Hamas to believe that Witkoff’s sudden shift serves only Israel’s interests.
What emerges is a sense of pessimism, briefly overlaid by President Trump’s optimistic statement: “Tomorrow you will hear good news about Gaza.” That phrase cannot disguise the reality that we are facing an outright collapse, not a temporary falter that might be repaired in a matter of days or weeks. Between this collapse and a mere falter, the disaster of death and famine deepens. Even a matter of hours can mean hundreds killed—by bombardment, hunger, or lack of medical care.
Children of all ages are the first victims, including unborn fetuses who cannot escape the violence.
Israel, led by Netanyahu, is speaking of airdropping food into Gaza—a gesture that rings hollow when the occupying army has kept entire truckloads waiting at the border and deliberately obstructed land convoys. Rotten and damaged cargo piles up while officials hope that aerial relief will polish their image and help them win the PR war amid global condemnation.
Meanwhile, the Israeli government is making criminal moves toward a catastrophic alternative aimed at ensuring the collapse of the talks. These include finalising the occupation of Gaza by carving it into small zones that would be easier for the army to control in pursuit of absolute victory. Yet within Israel itself, a storm is brewing. Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak, in a scathing piece in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, has called on the public to take to the streets in mass civil disobedience until the government falls or the president resigns. He urges citizens to disrupt daily life until change happens.
Barak warns that Israel risks becoming a pariah state, with its people losing faith in their leadership. Only nonviolent civil disobedience that paralyses the state, he insists, can force those in power to step down.
He calls for involvement not only from political and union leaders but also from academia, the courts, educators, health workers, and the kibbutzim. If this effort fails, he warns, darkness will overshadow Israel’s identity, security, and very existence.
This is the image that emerges—from Doha, from Washington, and from within Israel: a complex scenario that runs much deeper than the simple question of whether the Doha talks have collapsed or merely faltered.
Yousef Ramadan is Ambassador of Palestine to Bangladesh
