Qatar’s Growing Influence Poses Deepening Threat to Israel’s Security

The giant Israeli shipping company ZIM was recently sold to a German entity that subsequently sold significant shares to Qatar, sparking urgent warnings from Israeli strategic analysts. The Institute for Maritime Policy and Strategy published a position paper stating that “selling the shipping company ZIM to foreign hands constitutes a strategic and security threat to Israel’s resilience,” noting that roughly 99% of Israel’s foreign trade passes through maritime supply lines that ZIM helps ensure.

Beyond the ZIM acquisition, Qatar has invested an estimated 800 million to 1 billion shekels in Israeli high-tech since 2020, with significant involvement—under the radar—in cyber, security technologies, and infrastructure protection systems. Israeli defense companies have signed contracts to sell advanced cyber technologies to Qatar, sometimes with the approval of senior figures. Qatar is estimated to be the second-largest Gulf investor in Israeli high-tech after the UAE, despite its education system teaching that Zionists and Jews are enemies.

Qatar, whose territory hosts Hamas and other terrorist organizations, has been documented conducting influence operations involving payments to Israeli figures to shift public opinion. The “Qatari Ring of Fire”—as strategists now describe it—differs from the Iranian military encirclement because it operates from within Israel’s economic and political body rather than from surrounding borders. Analysts warn that this internal penetration may represent a greater long-term existential threat than the military proxy networks. (JPost/VFI News)