More than a year ago, I published an article here about Qatar and the dangerous role it plays in the regional and global arena. In recent weeks, the "Qatar-gate" affair has come to light, concerning a connection between the Prime Minister's Office and Qatari officials.
I'm not sure if the seriousness of such a connection is clear enough, so I thought it would be appropriate to republish what was written then. I've included a few updates that reflect events we've experienced since then.
introduction
There has been much talk about the "concepts" that led Israel to October 7, 2023. There has been talk about the "deterred Hamas" concept, the concept of buying silence with money, the concept of intelligence, and so on and so forth.
What, for some reason, is less discussed is perhaps one of the most serious strategic failures that Israel has suffered - the inability to understand the role of one of the most significant factors in our region.
There is much talk, and rightly so, about Iran as the head of the snake responsible for reigning chaos in our region and the entire world. Every man on the street can point to Iran's destructive role. In the past year, Israel has succeeded in hitting the head of the Iranian snake and weakening its power,
But there is another such snakehead in our region, no less dangerous, and even more sophisticated than Iran. The head of this snake is Qatar.
Israel falls time and time again into every trap that this snakehead sets for it. It plays the game according to its rules and interests, causing enormous damage to itself and the region.
In the following lines, we will try to understand who this head of the serpent is, how it operates, how much more sophisticated it is than us, and why Israel cooperates with it.
Several facts
Qatar is a small country and emirate that sits on a small peninsula that juts into the Persian Gulf in the northeast of the Arabian Peninsula. The area of Qatar is 11,586 square kilometers (about half the area of Israel), and in the south it borders Saudi Arabia.
Qatar has about 3 million residents, of whom about 350,000 are citizens, and the rest are migrant workers.
The Al Thani family has ruled the emirate since its founding in the 19th century.
In the 20th century, Qatar was a protectorate of the British Empire, and in 1971 it gained full independence. The regime in the Emirate of Qatar is an absolute monarchy, and its head is Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.
Qatar's GDP per capita ranks eighth in the world at $87,000 (for comparison, Israel, with $53,000, ranks 24th in the world). Qatar's economy is based primarily on oil and natural gas production, and it has the third largest gas reserves in the world.
All of this is to say that Qatar is an exceptionally wealthy country, which gives it enormous influence beyond its tiny size.
Qatar (AI version)
Go to one of the AI websites and ask for the following task there:Write an essay on Qatar's role in the world today".
I did this (over a year ago) and the results are before you.
In Bard (now Gemini) I received a beautiful article whose concluding paragraph is:
"Qatar is a significant player in the world today, and it has a great influence on what is happening in the world.
It is a rich and committed country, and it plays an important role in the international arena."
Claude knew how to tell:
"Qatar has become a regional and global power despite its small size thanks to its wealth, diplomatic initiatives and investments in culture and sports."
And ChatGPT even enlarged and wrote:
"Qatar serves as an example of an advanced role in the world today. With rapid progress in the economy, infrastructure and international investments, it manages to maintain its position and contribute to the international community.
In an era of global connection, Qatar manages to influence and leave a positive mark on the world today.".
AI tools know how to reflect the spirit of the times and the prevailing mood in the world.
Interestingly, even Israel, armed with the best strategic and intelligence minds, acts as if it were ChatGPT. But, as we will see immediately, understanding Qatar's role in the world requires human, not artificial, intelligence.
Qatar (reality version)
Despite Qatar's seemingly Western appearance, it is an extremist Islamic state, governed by Sharia law.
The Qatari media engages in the demonization of Jews, with blatant anti-Semitic cartoons, conspiracy theories of Jewish world domination, blood libels, the connection of Zionism to Nazism, and the dehumanization of Israel and Jews.
Qatar is not just another Muslim country. It is a country with a particularly extremist agenda, the goal of which is to transform the entire Arab region (and later beyond) into one dominated by extremist Islam along the lines of the "Muslim Brotherhood," a movement that did not hesitate to form an alliance with Nazi Germany in the 1930s.
In order to achieve this goal, Qatar has been running a particularly sophisticated policy for many years, which has already brought it tremendous success. Along the way, Qatar wears the mask of a moderate country that maintains ties everywhere, and even serves as a mediator in international conflicts.
Below is a partial list of Qatari activities and achievements:
Taking over the campuses in the West
For many years, Qatar has been investing large sums of money in academic institutions in the Western world, in order to turn the younger generation against Western values.
The result: Moral and academic bankruptcy, as has erupted on US campuses since October 7th.
Taking over the showcases of world sports
Qatar is involved in the acquisition of sports clubs and stadiums in Europe. It recently hosted the World Cup (after bribing FIFA officials).
The football team "Paris St. Germain" is also owned by a Qatari.
The result: Great public relations and creating a positive image.
Media
Qatar established the media channel "Al Jazeera" - a mouthpiece of the state that spreads propaganda in the Arab world and the Western world.
The result: A huge echo of Islamist propaganda in the guise of a legitimate news channel.
Challenging regimes in the Arab world
Qatar was deeply involved in the events of the "Arab Spring" from 2010, in an attempt to replace the Arab regimes with radical Islamic regimes, and its Al Jazeera channel worked to increase the flames.
The result: The overthrow of the regime and riots in many Arab countries.
Positioning Qatar as an international intermediary
Qatar supports Iran and terrorist organizations, while at the same time winking at the West and openly hosting Western military bases and prestigious sports tournaments.
The result: Qatar has positioned itself as a mediator between the Western world and all the crazies of the Arab world.
Qatar mediated between the US and the Taliban, and is largely responsible for the return of the Taliban to Afghanistan after the departure of the Americans. Qatar also managed to position itself as a mediator between Israel and Hamas, and as an ATM for Hamas (with massive Israeli encouragement).
Qatar Hamas and Israel
Hamas is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Qatari movement is its engine. Qatar hosts Hamas leaders abroad on its soil, and has always stood by them.
Qatar was one of Hamas's most important financiers. It did so behind the scenes for years. After Operation Protective Edge (2014), Israel decided to harness Qatar into a mechanism under which the Qatari government would periodically transfer sums to the Gazans that would be used partly to purchase fuel from Israel for the operation of the power plant in the Strip, partly to finance the salaries of government employees, and partly for aid to needy families.
This was the period when the Israeli "concept" began to take hold, according to which the more Hamas accumulated economic and governmental assets, the more it would abandon the basic idea of destroying Israel.
Until 2018, Qatari money entered Gaza only occasionally, with Israel’s consent and through the Palestinian Authority. At the end of 2018, the Authority decided it was no longer willing to fund Hamas. Hamas demanded that the money come directly to it on a regular basis – $30 million in cash every month.
But then, instead of letting Hamas collapse, the Israeli government, as part of its policy of buying silence, decided to transfer money to it in a different way, and once again turned to Qatar for "help."
Interestingly, Qatar, the world's largest funder of terrorism, was actually concerned that openly transferring funds to Hamas, which is designated as a terrorist organization, would put it in trouble with international institutions. But don't worry, Netanyahu, the resourceful Israeli Prime Minister, found a solution for this - he promised the Qataris to work with the US to prevent a situation in which they would be accused of aiding terrorism.
Avigdor Lieberman, who resigned from his position as Defense Minister in November 2018 on this basis, stated: "On the one hand, we are passing a law in the Knesset to offset terrorist funds, and on the other hand, we are allowing money to be transferred to terrorists in Gaza." He was a voice calling in the wilderness, and the money continued to flow.
Bottom line – Qatar received permission from the Israeli government to openly fund Hamas. I would liken this move to granting a work permit to a hired killer. It is quite amazing, but this was the policy of the Israeli government.
In 2020, the Qataris got cold feet and considered cutting off aid to Gaza. The Israeli government responded immediately. Netanyahu sent Mossad chief Yossi Cohen and then-Southern Command general Herzi Halevi to convince the Qataris to continue transferring funds to Gaza.
Recently, an advisor to the Prime Minister of Qatar, Majed al-Ansari, was interviewed, and said in an interview with Gili Cohen that the Qataris "are shocked that some of the senior officials, who worked and sometimes came to Doha to convince Qatar to increase aid or continue aid, are now accusing Qatar of sending money to Hamas."
One of the reasons for Qatari involvement was to poke a finger in the eye of Egypt, whose police are hostile to the Muslim Brotherhood, and to drive a wedge between it and Israel.
The Egyptian connection
Egypt and Qatar are enemies competing for a leading position in the Arab world. Egypt does not forget Qatar's support for Egypt's uprising in 2011 and its role in the riots that brought Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood to power (until they were overthrown by Sisi).
In June 2017, a major crisis occurred between the United States and moderate Arab countries over Qatar's support for terrorism. The United States declared Qatar a state that supports terrorism, and Arab countries led by Egypt and Saudi Arabia severed diplomatic ties with it and imposed a political and economic embargo on it that lasted several years.
Egypt, by virtue of its geographical proximity to the Strip, has great influence over Hamas-Gaza. Egypt does not have the resources or the desire to distribute money to Hamas, but it does have powerful leverage over the Strip, and Sinwar has always tended to respect them.
The involvement of Qatar (by Israel) in the enormous economic aid to Hamas harmed Egyptian interests and Egyptian honor.
For reasons kept to himself, Netanyahu has been behaving contemptuously and disdainfully towards Egypt for years, preferring Qatar over it at every opportunity. The result is that Egypt has had a full stomach for Israel and its prime minister from the start.
After October 7, the situation worsened, when Israel rushed to bring in Qatar as a mediator in the issue of the abductees. The head of the MLA, Tzachi Hanegbi, complimented the Qataris and thanked them for their blessed activity.
In doing so, Israel exacerbated the harm to Egyptian interests and honor, and strengthened the power of Hamas outside Qatar.
This is nothing less than a strategic failure.
It is certainly possible that the Egyptians, with their real levers of pressure on the Gaza Strip and Sinwar, could have achieved better results, but Israel completely abandoned this path.
It is not surprising that after all this, Egypt's willingness to come forward to meet Israel's interests is somewhat reserved.
Why does Israel act this way?
Qatar represents the "Muslim Brotherhood" as opposed to Egypt, which fears the "Muslim Brotherhood" like a plague, and whose interest is to control "Hamas-Gaza."
Anyone who searches carefully will find Qatar's fingerprints next to those of Iran, even in the scandalous genocide lawsuit filed by South Africa against Israel, in riots on campuses and in the streets around the world.
If this is the case, how is it possible that Israel has been working for years to advance Qatar's interests while harming Egyptian interests?
There are three possible answers:
- The entire analysis above is wrong, and Qatar is actually among the Righteous Among the Nations.
- A serious strategic failure by the State of Israel and its leader, related to the concept of buying peace with money, regardless of where the money comes from.
- Someone in the leadership of the State of Israel is acting out of foreign considerations in favor of Qatar.
- The first option is a joke.
The second option is certainly plausible – another serious strategic failure of many kinds, by those who have led the State of Israel in recent years.
I had a hard time imagining the third option, which sounds completely conspiratorial, but then I came across documentation about the Raven Project that began to arouse my doubts.
Now, the recent Qatar-gate affair has been added, which has only strengthened these doubts. This affair is still classified, but from what has been published, it is quite clear that Qatar had a foothold in the Prime Minister's office.
Project Raven
In Project Raven, several graduates of the US National Security Agency (NSA) collected information for the United Arab Emirates, revealing classified Qatari documents.
The subject is covered in detail on the MMRI website, and I refer anyone interested to opalIt is better, of course, to read the things in the original, and see the documents themselves.
Below are the relevant quotes:
"Five documents - classified correspondence between the heads of the Qatari government - deal with Israeli politicians.
Three letters from 2012 concerning alleged grants of $15 million to Benjamin Netanyahu and $5 million to Avigdor Lieberman, for the Likud-Beytenu bloc, for an election campaign in which they participated, and two from 2018 concerning an alleged grant of $50 million to Netanyahu alone for an election campaign.
...
According to Mark Eicheniger, mentioned above, the documents were delivered in February 2021 to the Israeli ambassador in Switzerland, Ms. Yifat Rashef, along with a photocopy of his passport. Mark Eicheniger is ready to testify to this in court."
In fairness, we must admit that there is no proof that the funds actually reached their destination (and obviously, we would not see an overt transfer here. There are other channels for that, such as Swiss banking…).
What can be said is that someone in Qatar seems to see a Qatari interest in promoting the election of Benjamin Netanyahu as Israeli prime minister. This is a very uncomfortable thought.
Mamri (MMRI) is an independent non-profit institute for Middle East media research, founded by Yigal Carmon, a former adviser on counter-terrorism matters to three of the Prime Ministers of Israel and the head of the Civil Administration in Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip. Mamri's publications are considered highly reliable.
Proofs?
A better headline: Qatar leading the Israeli rot.
The terrorism against Jews in the Land of Israel began more than a hundred years ago, they called it "events", the Fatah Fedayeen and the Popular Front for Liberation were founded many years before Qatar gained independence...