Can the governments that grew Hamas destroy it?

It is a great irony of the war in Gaza that the two governments most responsible for navigating the response to Hamas — Israel’s, for military action, and Qatar’s, for diplomacy — also facilitated its growth.

That isn’t just a piece of trivia, but an impediment to any lasting solution because it’s hard to see either making the policy reversals required. This may sound harsh, given that Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has, since Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre of more than 1200 people, sworn to eradicate the group as a political and military force and is currently pulverizing Gaza in pursuit of that goal.

Qatar, for its part, proved an indispensable mediator in securing the recent pause in hostilities and release of more than 100 Israeli hostages, as well as three times that number of Palestinian prisoners. Yet neither of those actions can deliver stability.