The following are highlights of MEMRI's research and translations about Qatar this past year.
On the first anniversary of Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack, in which about 1,200 Israelis were murdered and 240 were taken hostage, the Qatari government press published a number of articles glorifying the attack, which Hamas calls the Al-Aqsa Flood operation. The articles presented the attack as a "heroic operation," a "miracle" and a "historic turning point" that restored the honor of the Muslim ummah (nation), placed the Palestinian cause back on the world's agenda and proved that "liberating Palestine from the river to the sea is possible."
"One year after the Al-Aqsa Flood," the Palestinians use the waning Israeli candle to light their own candle ( Al-Sharq, Qatar, October 9, 2024)
The International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS), which is funded and supported by Qatar and Turkey, has expressed support for the Syrian rebel factions that have taken over areas in the north of the country, chief of them the jihadi organization Hay'at Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), headed by Abu Muhammad Al-Joulani, formerly the head of Al-Qaeda's affiliate in Syria. Writing on their X accounts, members of the Doha-based IUMS welcomed the rebels' advance into regime-held territory and hoped for the collapse of Syrian regime, headed by President Bashar Al-Assad. One of them even ascribed the rebels' current success to the leadership shown by Al-Joulani, which, he said, "combines jihadi toughness, political awareness and strategic planning."
The Qatari government daily Al-Sharq posted a virulently antisemitic and anti-Israeli article by Qatari journalist Ibrahim Abd Al-Razzaq Aal Ibrahim, known for his support for jihad and hatred for Jews and for Israel. In the article, from October 24, 2024, he wrote that the Zionists and the Jews are treacherous and corrupt and are full of "filth, wickedness and depravity." He also called them "bats of darkness" and "devils of Hell who suck the blood of the nations… [and are] incorrigibly [full of] resentment and jealousy." He explained that these traits are innate and therefore characterize all Jews and Zionists, but promised that the end of the Jews and the Zionists is surely near. He concluded by warning that the world and humanity will not enjoy security, stability and peace as long as Israel continues to exist on Palestinian soil.
While the attacks of November 7-8, 2024 in Amsterdam – in which Muslim rioters ambushed and beat up Israeli football fans who had come to the city to see their team play – were met with shock across Europe and in many countries worldwide, journalists and media personalities in Qatar welcomed the attacks, describing them as a "just punishment" for the "Zionists" and expressing joy over the incident.
On September 18, 2024, Qatari journalist Ibrahim Bin Hashim Al-Sada published an anti-American and antisemitic article in the daily Al-Sharq, in which he outlined a sequel to Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, featuring the Jewish moneylender Shylock. In Al-Sada's story, Shylock's uncle Sam advises him to leave Venice for the Holy Land – an allusion to the state of Israel as a imperialist American project aimed at taking over the region. According to the story, Uncle Sam's real goal is to get rid of Shylock, i.e., of the Jewish "nuisance" that is a burden on the U.S. and the West – a claim prevalent in both Western and Arab antisemitic discourse. In the Holy Land Shylock, acting on Uncle's Sam's advice, sows discord among the locals and encourages corruption in order to attain wealth and further Uncle Sam's arms trade. He does so with the help of "agents" and "fools" who, seeking personal gain, come to trust him and his "cursed" uncle more than they trust "their own brothers in the Holy Land" – an allusion to Arab countries that hold ties with Israel. Al-Sada predicts that Allah will punish these countries.
Israel's October 17, 2024 elimination of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, architect of the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 invasion and massacres in southern Israel, sparked much praise of Sinwar from influential figures in Qatar, including from Qatar Foundation chairperson Sheikha Moza Bint Nasser, who is the mother of current Qatari Emir Tamim Bin Hamad Aal Thani and the wife of former Emir Hamad Bin Khalifa Aal Thani, as well as from Al-Jazeera reporters, other Qatari journalists, and members of the Qatar-backed International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS). Sheikh Moza wrote that Yahya Sinwar "will live on and they will be gone," hinting at Israel. The others described Sinwar as a role model, a leader to be proud of and the legendary hero behind Israel's greatest military defeat and historic losses. Many also extolled Sinwar for attaining the martyrdom he had sought throughout his life, describing death for the sake of Allah as a the loftiest of aspirations.
In the past months the Qatari papers, published in Qatar and in London, have continued to publish flagrantly anti-American cartoons that demonize and mock the U.S. and accuse it of abetting Israel’s war in Gaza by lending it military, political and legal support. Some cartoons even depict Israel as being in control of the U.S.
Demonization of U.S. and virulent criticism against it are also prominent in Qatari press articles that refer to it as “the cursed Uncle Sam” and “the nation of heresy” and describe it as “one of the main sources of terrorism” and as the one “primarily responsible” for the situation in Gaza. In fact, the Qatari press occasionally features articles expressing hope for a military attack on U.S. forces, such as an article in the Al-Watan daily that urged Iran’s allies in the region to launch attacks on U.S. troops stationed there so that the U.S. “will come back with the bodies of its slain and its hostages, humiliated and defeated.”
The criminal U.S. roasts the world on the torch of liberty (Al-Arabi Al-Jadid, London, March 16, 2024)
Since Hamas' deadly attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, and throughout the war that broke out in its aftermath, the state of Qatar, its media, and institutions affiliated with it have consistently expressed unreserved support for Hamas and for terror and armed violence against Israel. This support finds expression on all levels, in statements by officials and religious clerics, in the media and in the education system. Despite its ostensible role as a mediator between Hamas and Israel, Qatar, which has for years sheltered Hamas leaders within its borders and funded this organizations with billions of dollars, has taken a blatantly pro-Hamas and anti-Israel line.
December 12, 2023 cartoon in Qatar's Al-Watan daily
On the first anniversary of the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, in which 1,200 people were murdered and some 240 were kidnapped to Gaza, many journalists in Qatar, particularly at the Qatari Al-Jazeera outlet, posted photos and videos glorifying the attack on their X accounts. They praised the attack and gloated over the suffering it had caused Israel, and one even expressed his hope that the country would disappear.
In a September 10, 2024 statement, Dr. Ali Al-Qaradaghi, the head of the Internation Union for Muslim Scholars (IUMS), which is based in and funded by Qatar, praises Maher Al-Jazi, the Jordanian who carried out the September 8 terror attack at the Israel-Jordan border-crossing, in which three Israelis were killed. Posted on the official website of the IUMS, the statement is titled "The Crimes of the Zionists Will Not Go Unpunished, and the Will of the People Is Undefeatable.” In it, Al-Qaradaghi describes Al-Jazi as a hero whose action represents the feelings and ideas of the entire Muslim nation. Commending him for acting on his own without waiting for a religious ruling or for instructions, Al-Qaradaghi also states that “the silence of the Islamic nation is due to the chains and shackles placed on it by the tyrant” (hinting at the Arab regimes). He warns the “Zionists” that “the brutal massacres and genocide will not bring them security and safety” but are “the beginning of their end."
In a two-part article published in March 2024, Dr. Wasfi Ashour Abu Zeid, a member of the Qatar-backed International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS), considered how the Al-Aqsa Flood – namely Hamas' deadly October 7, 2023 attack, in which over 1,200 Israelis were killed and over 200 were kidnapped, and the ensuing war in Gaza – can be used in education, i.e., as a tool to instill correct values in children and to shape their personality. Writing in the magazine Al-Mujtama, the mouthpiece of the Social Reform Association, which is affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, Abu Zeid states that "this great event, the like of which has not been experienced by our nation for long decades," can be utilized in different kinds of education and serve to teach children many important principles and aspects of Islam.
Dr. Wasfi Ashour Abu Zeid (Image: Islamanar.com)
The appointment of Hamas' leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, as the new chairman of the movement's political bureau was received with joy by journalists in Qatar, who celebrated this decision in on their X accounts and described it a surprising and devastating "blow" to Israel. Congratulating Sinwar on his appointment, they praised Hamas for this "correct" decision and called Sinwar "the hero of October 7," "the Saladin of our century," "a leader in the spirit of the Prophet's companions," and an "honorable model" of leadership that the Islamic nation sorely needs.
Some journalists and Al-Jazeera hosts also mocked Israel, writing that it killed the milder and more accommodating Haniya, and instead got the hardliner Sinwar, who represents the more militant camp in Hamas and is "Israel's worst nightmare."
Cartoon in Qatari daily: "Sinwar will complete the mission" (Al-Quds Al-Arabi, London, August 8, 2024)
Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani said in an October 15, 2024 interview with Qatar TV that Qatar does not accept the launching of any wars or attacks on any country from the Al-Udeid Air Base. He added that Qatar has a "strategic partnership" with the United States and that it maintains an independent foreign policy from the United State, and the Americans understand this and do not intervene in it.
On July 3, 2024, the Qatari daily Al-Sharq published an antisemitic article by journalist Fatimah Bint Yousuf Al-Ghazal titled "The People Most Hostile to the Believers are the Jews" (Quran 5:82). In the article Al-Ghazal states that the Jews have been manipulators, cheaters and traitors since the days of the Prophet Muhammad, and that their "rotten beliefs" cause them to cheat and oppress all non-Jews. She adds that the reason no hostage deal has been concluded yet between Hamas and Israel is that Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has these typical Jewish traits of treachery and deceitfulness. As an example of the Jews' lack of compassion, she claims that, during World War II, Jewish prisoners followed the orders of Nazi troops to kill Russian prisoners, after those same Russian prisoners had refused the order of the Nazi troops to kill the Jews.
Fatimah Bint Yousuf Al-Gazal (Image: Al-Sharq, Qatar)
Clip: Al-Jazeera Satirical Skit 'The Orange Dome' Mocks The Abduction Of Israelis By Hamas On October 7 – The Title 'Invincible Army' Is Good For Peace Times And The First Ten Minutes Of War
Al-Jazeera Network (Qatar) posted on October 2, 2024 a satirical skit mocking Israel's response to the October 7 Hamas attack, titled "the Orange Dome." The skit is a faux marketing video for the "very expensive and ineffective" Orange Dome rocket defense system. In the video, Hamas militants infiltrate the military base of an 'Israeli soldier' trying to pitch the defense system, while he is being kidnapped by the militants. The actors in the skit speak Arabic with an Egyptian accent, and the video has been circulating online as early as March 2024.
On May 31, 2024, the Qatari daily Al-Sharq published an article by Palestinian journalist Sajida Abu Odeh in praise of the Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip, whom she describes as heroic jihad fighters. Lauding them for their desire to die as martyrs and meet Allah in Paradise, Abu Odeh writes that they are fighting "the greatest wars in the history" of the region "and turning Gaza into an unforgettable legend," and are therefore "a lighthouse for the coming generations."
At Qatari Government-Sponsored Summer Camps Children Learn That Israeli Cities Are Part Of Palestine
Activities held at Qatari summer camps sponsored by Qatar's Education Ministry and the Ministry of Sports and Youth feature a map of Palestine from the river to the sea painted in the colors of the Palestinian flag, and present cities inside Israel, such as Haifa and Jaffa, as part of Palestine, while ignoring Israel's existence.
Pictures and names of cities in Israel under the caption "Palestine Will Stay Free"
On June 15, 2024, the Qatari-owned London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi daily published an article titled "War Criminal Blinken Wages Diplomatic Campaign to Eliminate the Palestinian Resistance and Buy Time for the Israeli War in Gaza." Penned by the paper's Washington correspondent Ra'ed Salhah, the article is an analysis of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken's speech at the June 11 conference in Jordan discussing the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.
Salhah wrote that Blinken's statements prove that he "lies as he breathes" and that he is leading a pro-Israel "disinformation campaign." He further claimed that Blinken had "helped Israel to perpetrate dozens of crimes and massacres," underlining that Blinken is Jewish in order to explain his open support for Israel.
The article in Al-Quds Al-Arabi (Source: Al-Quds Al-Arabi, London, June 15, 2024)
Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, chairperson of the Qatar Foundation and mother of the Emir of Qatar said in a speech posted on her YouTube channel on September 9, 2024 that she is angry and disappointed with the world leaders who kept silent in the face of the "genocide" perpetrated in Gaza. She said that anyone who is silent in the face of this aggression is encouraging it.
Leading Al-Jazeera news anchor and television program host Jalal Chahda, who on June 12, 2024 interviewed U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in the Qatari capital Doha, has been with the network since 2011 and is known for his extremist views. Chahda expresses support for terror organizations, especially Hamas, praises the firing of rockets into Israel from Gaza, opposes Israel's existence, and slams Arab countries for normalizing or seeking to normalize relations with this country. MEMRI has previously documented Chahda's extremist statements – see Al-Jazeera TV Journalists Use Their Facebook, Twitter Accounts As Propaganda Mouthpieces In Service Of Hamas, August 2014). That report stated that on July 15, 2014, against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas fighting at that time, Chahda tweeted: "The Israeli Iron Dome system is a paper tiger, weaker than a spider's web, a failure, and helpless against the rockets of the honorable resistance that defends the honor of the ummah."
Al-Jazeera Journalists By Day, Hamas Commanders By Night
Since the October 7 attack, Hamas's leaders have been managing the war from Doha, Qatar, and conveying their messages mostly via the Qatar-owned Al-Jazeera TV channel. The network has been operating as a propaganda outlet in the service of Hamas 24/7, with hardly any coverage of other topics. It expresses unreserved support for Hamas, justifying the deadly attack, showing footage from it obtained from the terrorists' bodycams, and celebrating it as a victory that has brought pride and honor to the Islamic nation.
On May 19, 2024 the Qatari daily Al-Watan published an article that called on Hamas, Hizbullah, the Houthis and the Iran-backed militias in Iraq to target the U.S. so that it "comes back with the bodies of its slain and its hostages, humiliated and defeated." The author of the article, Palestinian journalist Samir Al-Barghouti who writes a column in the daily, added that the U.S. is leading the current war in Gaza, and that the resistance is stronger than all the armies of the world.
State-Sponsored Qatari Children's Magazine Justifies Terror, Incites Against Jews, Israel And U.S.
Since Hamas' October 7, 2023 terror attack and the outbreak of the ensuing war in Gaza, Jassim, a Qatari monthly magazine for children issued by the state-sponsored Dar Al-Sharq Group, has been publishing content that justifies terror and violence against Israel, as well as antisemitic content. Poems and comics featured in the magazine since October 7 incite against Jews and against Israel, deny Israel's right to exist, condone terror against Israel, which is termed "Palestinian resistance" and even encourage the readers to seek martyrdom and attain Paradise. One of the comic strips also demonized the U.S., depicting it as a serpent baring its fangs to defend Israel.
From the comic strip "This Is My Nest"
Sheikh Muhammad Al-Muraikhi delivered the Friday sermon during the funeral of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Qatar on August 2, 2024. He spoke about the honor of martyrdom and asked Allah to reward the 'martyr' Ismail Haniyeh. Haniyeh was assassinated on July 31 during a visit to Tehran, his funeral ceremony in Doha was attended by the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim Bin Ahmad Aal Thani as well as many senior leaders of the Palestinian factions, including Khaled Mashaal and Khalil Al-Hayya of Hamas, Ziyad Nakhalah of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Jibril Rajoub and Mahmoud Al-Aloul from the Fatah. The Friday sermon was aired on Al-Rayyan TV (Qatar).
In his March 14, 2024 column in the Qatari Al-Sharq daily, Abdullah Al-Amadi, a former advisor to the Qatari education minister and deputy editor of the newspaper, wrote that the war in Gaza is an exact repeat of how the Jews of the Arabian Peninsula schemed against the Muslims in the days of the Prophet Muhammad.
Abdullah Al-Amandi (Image: Al-Sharq, Qatar)
While the U.S. is placing the Gaza port under Qatar's control – namely under Hamas control – an the Internation Union for Muslim Scholars (IUMS), which is funded by Qatar and is based in Doha, has published on its website an article by one of its members, the Algerian Islamist writer Touhami Medjouri, that calls on all Muslims to expand the scope of the war between Israel and Hamas by joining the fray and "targeting American, British, French and German interests everywhere, using all possible and legitimate means." Titled "Go Forth, Light Armed and Heavy Armed” (Quran 9:41), which was also the title of a statement delivered recently by Abu Obeida, the spokesman of Hamas' military wing, the article argues that the two-state solution is not feasible, and that the only way to resolve the Palestinian issue is to establish "an independent Palestinian state in all the Palestinian territories, with no presence of Jews, except under [the rule of] this state."
Touhami Medjouri |(Image: Sabqpress.dz)
Cartoons In Qatari Press Celebrate Attacks On Israel, Yearn For Its Collapse
Since the terrorist attack perpetrated by Hamas on October 7, 2023, in which 1,200 people were murdered and 240 were kidnapped, the Qatari and Qatar-affiliated dailies, both those published in Qatar and those published in London, have published many virulent cartoons that celebrate the attacks on Israel and its losses in the war and praise Hamas for "defeating" Israel despite the latter's considerable military power. The cartoons stress that Gaza is standing fast and predict Israel's collapse in the course of 2024.
After expanding since 1948, Israel is about to disappear (Al-Sharq, Qatar, January 19, 2024)
With the Afghan Taliban needing weapons and Qatar seeking to bolster its defense cooperation with the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA, i.e., the Afghan Taliban), a delegation led by Taliban Defense Minister Mawlawi Mohammad Yaqoob Mujahid met with the emir of Qatar, Shaikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, on March 7, 2024. Qari Fasihuddin Fitrat, the chief of staff of the Afghan Taliban's Islamic Army, was the other Taliban leader on the two-member delegation visiting Doha to inspect weapons at the Defense Exhibition of Weapons (DEMDEX), Qatar.
Mullah Yaqoob Mujahid, the Taliban defense minister (left) with the emir of Qatar
On March 5, 2024, the sixth annual U.S.-Qatar Strategic Dialogue was launched in Washington D.C.US Assistant Secretary for Global Public Affairs, Bill Russo, welcomed Dr. Majed Al-Ansari, spokesman of the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs and an advisor to Qatari Prime Minister.
Dr. Majed Al-Ansari, left, with Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of Global Public Affairs Bill Russo.
Dr. Majed Muhammad Al-Ansari, the spokesman of Qatar's Foreign Ministry and an adviser to the Qatari prime minister, was until quite recently a journalist and a columnist for the Qatari state daily Al-Sharq. Echoing Qatar's policy of supporting Hamas both politically and economically, Al-Ansari has expressed total support for armed struggle against Israel and for massive rocket attacks on it. One example of this is a column he published in Al-Sharq on May 24, 2021, just a few days after the end of the round of fighting between Israel and Hamas that began on May 10, 2021, during which Hamas and other armed Palestinian factions fired thousands of rockets into Israel.
Dr. Majed Mohammed Al-Ansari, spokesman of the Qatari Foreign Ministry (Image: Qna.org.qa, February 2, 2024)
While Qatar serves as a mediator in negotiations between Israel and Hamas, the Qatari state press continues to publish incitement against Israel and to praise Hamas' October 7, 2023 terrorist attack, as it has done since the day of the attack itself. The Qatari press regularly prints articles, reports and cartoons expressing hope for Israel's demise, which refer to the country as n "Western product" or as a "Zionist-Crusader" and "imperialist" enterprise and contend that only more operations like the October 7 attack will stop it from realizing its plan to expand "from the Nile to the Euphrates." An article by a Hamas official on the website of Qatar's Al-Jazeera channel called the attack "a scaled-down model of the final war of liberation and the disappearance of the Zionist occupation."
Cartoon in Qatari daily: Hamas is cracking Israel's facade (the cracks form the Arabic word "Hamas") (Al-Sharq, Qatar, December 31, 2023)
On May 26, 2024, Qatari children's magazine Jassim uploaded a video to its X account in which it responded to a May 20, 2024 report by MEMRI on the magazine. According to the MEMRI report, the magazine, which is published by the state-sponsored Dar Al-Sharq Group, the magazine justifies terrorism and incites against Jews, the U.S., and Israel. The video claims that the magazine was subject to a "crude attack" by MEMRI, adding: "Qatar is a sovereign Arab country, with a free press that supports the rights of the deep-rooted Palestinian people."
The Qatari government has donated to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) a wooden figure of a jalbut, which is a medieval Arabian ship used for trade. On May 16, 2024, the Qatari Embassy in the Netherlands shared on its X – formerly Twitter - account a video from the dedication ceremony. Qatari Ambassador to the Netherlands Mutlaq Al-Qahtani said in a brief speech that Qatar deeply esteems the ICJ and its promotion of international peace. ICJ President Nawaf Salam said that the ship symbolizes the sea, which has historically been a "channel of communication" between cultures and civilizations.
On January 1, 2024, Al-Jazeera Network (Qatar) aired a report in which its military analyst General (Ret.) Fayez Al-Dwairi provided an overview of the Yasin-105 anti-tank missile used by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. He explained some of its technical specifications and the mechanism it uses to penetrate armor, and when asked why the animation he was using for his explanation depicts the Yasin-105 being used against Israeli Merkava tanks, he explained that the Merkava tank is even more vulnerable than the Namer APC, which had thus far been effectively targeted by Hamas militants, inflicting several Israeli casualties.
Amid the ongoing war in Gaza, which broke out following the October 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attack on southern Israel, Qatar's education system continues to hold activities in solidarity with the Palestinians that ignore the existence of the State of Israel. For instance, in late December, two student organizations at Qatar University (QU) – the Elia Club, an organization of Palestinian students, and the Environment and Sustainability Club – in conjunction with the Student Activities Administration, planted a garden shaped like a map of Palestine on the campus grounds. This "map" represents Palestine as stretching from the Jordan river to the Mediterranean Sea, in complete disregard of Israel's existence, and includes trees representing "Palestinian" cities inside Israel, such as Jaffa, Acre and Beersheba. The Elia Club, whose name is derived from the Roman name of Jerusalem (Aelia Capitolina), often holds Palestinian-themed activities and on more than one occasion has expressed support for terrorist activity against Israeli citizens, as may be seen in its X (formerly Twitter) account. It should be noted that, in November 2023, QU hosted an art exhibition in which similar maps of Palestine from the river to the sea were displayed.
Qatar University students and faculty at the inauguration ceremony for the garden landscaped like a "map of Palestine" from the river to the sea (Image: Qu.edu.qa, December 27, 2023)
In a video posed on Ahmed Alshalfi on X (Twitter) on April 22, 2024, Qatar representative to the Arab Parliament, Shura Council Member Essa bin Ahmad Al-Nassr, said there can be no peace with the "Zionist entity." He explained that the Zionists' faith condones deception, the violation of agreements, and lies. Al-Nassr said that Israel only accepts killing. He stated that the October 7 Al-Aqsa Flood was "only the introduction to the annihilation" of Israel. He quoted from the Quranic verse stating that the children of Israel will spread corruption on the land twice." According to the Qatari Shura website, Al-Nassr "was promoted to military positions and ranks in the Emiri Guard, where he was appointed as an assistant commander of the Guard for Intelligence and Security at the rank of Brigadier General. He was appointed a member of the Financial and Economic Affairs Committee, a member of the Cultural and Media Affairs Committee, and a member of the Qatari-Asian Parliamentary Friendship Group in the Council."
Al-Jazeera Arabic: The Qatari-Owned TV Channel That Promotes Islamist Terrorism Worldwide – UPDATED
On April 1, 2024, the Israeli Knesset approved a law giving Israel's prime minister and communications minister powers to prevent foreign news networks from operating in Israel if they are deemed to be harming national security. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to shut down the Qatar-funded Al-Jazeera channel's operations in Israel, calling it a "terror channel," and Israel Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi said it would be shut down because it acts as "a propaganda arm of Hamas" by "encouraging armed struggle against Israel." The outlet was shut down and taken off the air in Israel on May 5.
Qatari Emir Aal Thani embraces Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi
By Yigal Carmon*
For decades, Qatar has, directly or indirectly, provided economic and political support for all the extremist Islamic terror organizations: the Muslim Brotherhood, Al-Qaeda, and even ISIS-linked groups. Muslim Brotherhood leader Sheikh Yousuf Al-Qaradawi, one of the leading Islamic jurists who was known for his extreme antisemitism and his justification of the annihilation of the Jews in the Holocaust, operated for many years in Qatar, under the state's protection. Qatar also sheltered leaders of other jihad organizations. Its education system is saturated with preaching to jihad and suicide attacks. Its state-run media, the Al-Jazeera channel, is rife with antisemitism and Holocaust denial.
Hamas political bureau head Ismail Haniyeh thanks the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Aal-Thani, for his country's support for Hamas. (Source: qudspress.com)
Qatar Is The Trojan Horse In Washington, D.C.
By Yigal Carmon*
Qatar has failed President Biden again: Hamas's answer to proposed deal was, as the immediate reaction from the president and Secretary of State Antony Blinken showed, "over the top" and "absolute non-starters," respectively. This happened because Qatar is not pressuring Hamas. It sees itself as a mere go-between. Qatar isn't pressuring Hamas despite the fact that in reality, Qatar is the lifeline of Hamas – its hope, its future, its power to continue to fight and to hold the hostages.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi (left) welcoming Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani (right) at the presidential palace in Tehran, Iran, May 12, 2022. (Credit Image: ©️ Iranian Presidency via ZUMA Press Wire