Opinion: Doha strike shows that no peace can be achieved by recognising Israel

Every time Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tries to kill Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal, it ends in humiliation for Israel.

The first time was back in 1997. Mossad agents acting on orders from the Israeli prime minister entered Jordan, posing as Canadian tourists. Two of them waited at the entrance to Meshaal’s office in Amman, and when their target walked in, one held a device to his left ear that transmitted a fast-acting poison.

Meshaal’s bodyguards chased the two agents down, and others in the team fled to the newly installed Israeli embassy for refuge. At first, it was thought that the attack had failed. Meshaal described the attack as a “loud noise in my ear” and “an electric shock”. But as the poison began to take effect, his condition deteriorated.

Meshaal was a Jordanian citizen at the time, and King Hussein was angry. He demanded that Israel turn over the antidote, and threatened both to put the Mossad agents on trial and pull out of the historic peace agreement he had signed three years earlier in Wadi Araba, recognising Israel.

Former US President Bill Clinton forced Netanyahu to comply. Humiliatingly, Danny Yatom, then the head of Mossad, flew to Amman with the antidote. Meshaal, who was by then in a coma, survived.