Trump faces a major headache with incidents in Qatar and Poland

In the two large foreign policy arenas, sucking much of the time and efforts of the Trump administration, there are two main challenges for less than 24 hours.

Israel’s aerial raid at Hamas’s offices in Doha and Russian invasion of a drone in Polish airspace are two massive lung headaches.

And, perhaps, two major aferists of the president’s powers.

In the end, these are conflicts – Ukraine and Gaza – US President Donald Trump said he would handle it quickly and decisively.

In any case, a leader he sees as a natural, if he is a problematic ally, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu-throw a massive wrench in the White House Peace wheels.

Think about the weather. Doha’s raid came just two days after the Trump administration gave its latest proposals to end the Gaza War.

In social media, Trump told Hamas that it was the last chance.

“I warned Hamas about the consequences of not accepting,” he wrote at Truth Social on Sunday. “This is my last warning, there will be no one!”

In Doha, Hamas’s senior management gathered to examine his answer, but Israel was not waiting to hear it. The attack not only blew up the most proposals in the United States, but may have destroyed all the delicate architecture of Gaza’s diplomacy, which the Trump administration relied hard.

The debate is spinning about how and when the United States learned about Israeli raid and whether it can do more to stop it. The presence in Qatar of one of the most important American air bases in the world has made many conclude that it is unthinkable that Washington did not see Israeli jets approaching.

But if there was no green light from Washington – and many accept that there was – what does this say about G -n Trump’s ability to influence Benjamin Netanyahu’s actions?

In the last two years after the humiliation suffered from the hands of Hamas’s artillerymen on October 7, 2023, Israel bends his military muscles in the Middle East, most of all with the silence or explicit approval of the United States.

Israel has established itself as an indisputable hegemon in the region, capable of attacking in the countries of Will, insofar as Yemen and Iran.

But in both cases, the United States was also included and shared the goals – stopping Huti’s attacks against Israel and shipping in the Red Sea and thwarted Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

The attack on Qatar, a key ally of the United States, is a completely different thing.

Donald Trump said he felt “very bad” about it. According to the White House account of the events, the news of the Israeli attack came too late to offer Qatar any meaningful warning.

“Unilateral bombardment inside Qatar, a sovereign nation and a close ally of the United States, which works very hard and boldly take risks with us for peace mediation, does not progress in Israeli or America reporters,” the White House press secretary told reporters.

It would not be enough to suppress the suspicions of American complicity, but it sounded like real anger.

For his part, Netanyahu is willing to emphasize that this is a “completely independent” action.

In The Washington Post, David Ignatius writes that what the Israelis called “Operation on the top of the fiery fiery” is, despite us and the Israeli assurances that Hamas leaders will not be directed in Qatar.

In order to provide such assurances, if they have been so furiously rejected, it will inevitably be seen in the bay as a sign of American weakness.

Then it’s Poland.

Less than a month ago, Trump welcomed Putin to the top in Alaska, unfolding the red carpet, cording the war architect in Ukraine, and at a hot moment later, telling France Emmanuel Macron that Putin “wants to make a deal for me …

But far from progress to a deal, the weeks have only been bringing escalation since then. More recoat Russian attacks on drones and rockets against Ukraine, and now, for the first time, a gentle invasion of NATO’s airspace.

This is not the first time the Russian shells have landed in Poland, but the previous episodes were close to the border and at first glance casual.

But the invades early Wednesday morning were anything but accidental. Polish officials reported 19 Russian drones, some flying deep in Poland.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk told parliament that this is “the closer we have found a conflict from World War II.”

Despite Russian refusals, there is an almost universal consensus that it was Moscow’s deliberate effort to test NATO’s determination.

And since the United States remain the most powerful member of the Union, this also means testing Donald Trump’s determination.

The president’s obvious reluctance to answer – unlike his comments on the Doha attack – he did not go unnoticed.

“The stunning silence of the White House congratulated the news that NATO ally was committed to and overthrows Russian military assets,” Kiev Post reports.

One post about Truth Social, after all, and inevitably – come.

“What is there with Russia, violating Poland’s airspace with drones?” The president wrote, adding, somewhat ambiguous: “Here we are!”

But his initial silence, combined with his seeming reluctance to pursue his own threats to impose new sanctions on Russia, to leave the Western allies of Ukraine where they have always been: Wondering where Donald Trump’s heart is.

This can change, with European employees working with their US counterparts on a coordinated penalty package, the first since Trump returned to the White House.

But given the President’s previous ambivalence to NATO, alliance members want assurance that when an ally’s sovereignty is threatened, Washington can be relied upon to answer.

A recent NATO membership agreement to buy US military equipment for Ukraine, along with the engagement of members to spend more on their own protection, did a lot to improve relations in the Union and Trump abandon the type of hostile rhetoric to NATO, which characterizes his first term of office.

For their part, European NATO members generally admit that they need to do more in order to take care of their own security. Poland’s airspace is a good example.

But American power, military and political, is still the basis on which the union is built, and the questions are detained for the desire of this president to rule it.

Two days, two conflicts and two puzzles. For Trump a leader who does not like or expect to be contested, this is a testing of experience. Everyone is waiting to see if he rises on the occasion.