Fudge Country

The tiny Arab emirate of Qatar is actively seeking to become a land where extremes coexist.

Can Bin Jassem seal the deal?

When Aljazeera was first launched in Qatar, it sported a slogan considered to be a novel idea back then in the Arab world: “The opinion and the other opinion”. Their Anchor Faysal el Qassem became notorious for banging heads from opposite sides of political spectrums together, resulting in spirited and often nasty debates.

Qatar, a tiny state with one of the highest GDP per capita in the world, raised many eyebrows by managing to simultaneously host Aljazeera (an Arabist, sometimes demagogical pan Arab TV station), the largest American Military Air base in the region and conferences which invite Israeli officials like Tsipi Livni to Doha to address Arab leaders.

It seems Qatar has a unique ability to have things both ways. It has managed to have a good relationship with both Syria and Saudi Arabia (a relationship that has thawed considerably of late), it gets along with both Hezbollah and Israel, it hosts both Ahmedinejad and Bin Laden, and it pleases both the American military elite and the much vaunted anti-American “Arab street”

Today will mark the start of the ultimate trial for Qatar: Will it be able to use its skills to fudge a deal between the two most irreconcilable of foes, the Lebanese majority and its opposition?