Originally published in Haaretz, May 10, 2022
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)
In 1996, the U.S. informed the Qatari emir personally that American agents had come to arrest Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), the terror operative responsible for several widescale attacks in Asia, who had been given asylum in Qatar as an employee of Qatar's Ministry of Electricity and Water. Within hours, KSM disappeared; five years later, he became known as the mastermind of 9/11. Had he not been given asylum in Qatar, or been alerted before being arrested, these attacks would not have happened. For years, Qatar supported the Taliban, and last year [2021] it helped it in its coup against the democratically elected Afghan government, and 13 American service members were killed in the violence. Today, Qatar is doing everything it can to give the Taliban international legitimacy and aid.
Al-Jazeera TV, operated with funds from its owners – the Qatari regime – has, since its establishment, functioned as a mouthpiece for jihadi terror organizations, ceaselessly broadcasting anti-Israel incitement. The claim that Qatar has calmed things down in recent months is ridiculous, and attests to sheer ignorance. During the recent violent events at the Temple Mount, the channel, which is the most-watched channel in the Palestinian territories, reported daily that the Israeli regime was planning to conduct sacrifices and "Talmudic prayers" at Al-Aqsa Mosque – and this naturally contributed to the intensification of the violence.
Israelis will particularly remember the televised birthday celebration in the channel's studio in honor of the release from Israeli prison of the terrorist Samir Kuntar – who in a 1979 terror attack smashed the skull of four-year-old Einat Haran on the beach in Nahariya and murdered her father. The celebration included effusive praise for Kuntar, a large cake, a band, and fireworks.
It is Qatar that is supporting Hamas in the Gaza Strip. It is doing this by means of the millions of dollars – according to a January 5 [2022] report in Haaretz by Yonatan Liss, $5 billion in the past decade – that the Israeli governments have allowed it to transfer to Gaza, ostensibly not to Hamas. The Israeli attempt to buy temporary calm with funds "that are not ours" allows Hamas to build its military systems, including tunnels, rockets, drones, and military units comprising thousands of fighters.
Simple math shows clearly that it would have been better to "buy" this calm with Israeli investment, in the form of aid to the residents, and not as aid for building and arming Hamas. This could have been done via international organizations that are not committed to Hamas, and by [Israeli] approval for the employment of tens of thousands of Gazans in Israel.
There is no doubt that after all these years of the funding of Hamas with Israeli permission, a change in direction would involve a difficult struggle – but it is possible. This is because the UAE, which stands alongside Israel as its ally and signed a peace agreement with it, can bring about most of the turnaround in Gaza, both politically and economically. The UAE has no fewer resources than Qatar does for massive investment in the Gaza Strip – and it is astounded by all Israeli governments' adherence to its rival Qatar. Egypt too is interested in ending Hamas's rule in Gaza, because Hamas is the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, the bitter enemy of the Egyptian regime. Egypt can assist with this change of direction using its power as Gaza's neighbor.
The current [Israeli] government [under Prime Minister Naftali Bennet] could have been expected to refrain from continuing the policy of indirectly aiding Hamas, which harms the State of Israel's long-term security interests. Prime Minister Bennet even warned, at the height of the Temple Mount events, that Al-Jazeera TV – that is, the Qatari regime – "lies all the time." But government press briefings contradict his statements, which appear to be aimed at setting the stage for a continuation of the previous policy that can see neither the security nor the political damage [that it is doing]. This is because Qatar is the one that is most actively fighting, regionally and internationally, against the Abraham Accords.
Beyond all the strategic and political considerations, cooperation with Qatar, for any goal at all, is both strategically disastrous and morally shameful. The responsibility for this lies with the Israeli government.
* Yigal Carmon is President and Founder of MEMRI and served as counterterrorism advisor to two Israeli prime ministers.
