Is Trump’s “Art Of The Deal” Outsmarting Qatar?

In up to its neck, Qatar is clearly clutching for a lifeline from President Donald J. Trump. The question is: Why should he throw it to them?

Qatar’s foreign minister, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, said this week in Paris that he senses a “greater desire” from President Trump to end the crisis. Sure he does. While wishful thinking is a favorite form of public diplomacy in the Middle East, this shows that Al Thani has no respect for the U.S. president and no understanding of the man’s unique negotiating philosophy.

As any sentient life form who has read Trump’s Art of the Deal knows, it is wiser to let an adversary nearly drown before asking the lifeguard to dive in. You will get more concessions that way. And the U.S. could certainly wring some important concessions from Qatar: an end to financing terrorist groups, an end to using its state-run Al Jazeera as a mouthpiece for terrorists, and an end to its financial support for Iran, which is building nuclear weapons and bankrolling terrorists. In short, if Trump simply waits, he will score one of the greatest victories in the war on terror—without firing a shot.

If Trump surrenders now to Qatar’s whimpering entreaties, he gets nothing but a return to the status quo ante while squandering one of greatest opportunities to de-fund terror since the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington. Why should Trump yield to Qatari sheikhs, and their State department sandal-lickers, to “do something” when he knows that doing nothing achieves something very important?

All Trump must do is remind Secretary of State Rex Tillerson that there is no need to hurry along the end of the Qatar crisis. Let’s wait, he might say, and see what they offer. This is what Trump calls “strategic patience.”

The gas-rich peninsula, which is being squeezed by a boycott by Egypt, Saudi Arabia and several of its other Gulf Arab neighbors, over its funding of terrorists (including Hamas, which is fond of killing Americans and Israelis) and its support for Iran. The boycott, which began on June 5, has closed air and sea ports to Qatar’s trade and all but ended diplomatic ties with many of its Arab neighbors. What began as a pinch is now a death grip. Qatar recently opened a new port just to secure its food supply, which formerly came through Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Now it is buying food, at a steep premium, from Iran and Turkey, while shortages loom.

Still, Qatar’s foreign minister appeared in Paris this week to bemoan the boycott and beg: “By their measures, they are pushing Qatar to Iran. They are giving Iran, or any regional force, Qatar like a gift. Is that their objective, to push one country, a GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) member state towards Iran? This is not a wise objective.”

This is equivalent of the scene in Mel Brooks classic Blazing Saddles, in which sheriff points a gun at his own neck and says “Hold it! The next man who makes a move the [sheriff] gets it.”