The Great Unraveling: Doha Strike Pulls Final Thread on Peace Process

The great unraveling of the Gaza peace process is now complete. An Israeli strike on Hamas negotiators in Doha has pulled the final thread, causing the entire fragile tapestry of diplomacy to fall apart. This act has made a negotiated settlement all but impossible, committing the region to a future of relentless military conflict.
Though fraught with difficulty, the U.S.-backed Doha talks were the last intact piece of the diplomatic puzzle. They represented a shared, if grudging, understanding that a political framework was needed to end the war. The strike is a definitive and violent rejection of that understanding, a choice to resolve the conflict through force of arms.
For Hamas, the implications are existential. The attack sends a clear message that there is no room for their political survival in any future scenario. The choice is stark: be erased through surrender or erased through combat. This approach, aimed at breaking them, could instead forge a resolve to fight on, no matter the cost to civilians.
With the diplomatic process now fully unraveled and the mediator, Qatar, sidelined, the conflict is adrift in perilous waters. The strike has eliminated the very concept of a negotiated off-ramp. The door to peace has not only been closed but has been dismantled and its parts scattered, leaving no clear way to rebuild.