Tiny Qatar Vies for Big Regional Role ; Israel's Shimon Peres Traveled to the Gulf State Last Week, Highlighting Its Unconventional Foreign Policy

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Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres touched down in Qatar last week - the highest-level visit by an Israeli to the Gulf in more than a decade. He debated local students, met the emir, toured the Iranian market, and then got his Israeli passport stamped at the airport and flew home.

While Mr. Peres's visit passed somewhat quietly, and peace didn't break out in its wake, the 40-hour voyage did, however, highlight a key aspect of Qatar's foreign policy - it is original.

Whether it's visionary - or merely iconoclastic - is another question altogether.

Until 1995, Qatar did not have a distinguishable foreign policy to speak of, and instead took cues from …