Is Qatar, That Built Hamas's Empire of Terrorism, An Honest Broker?

by Bassam Tawil

• If the ruler of Qatar really wanted to end the hostage saga, all he has to do is issue an ultimatum to Hamas that if the hostages are not released within, say, 48 hours, he will expel all the Hamas leaders who are still in Qatar and stop funding and providing political support to the group. Arab dictators are not known to be merciful toward those who defy them.
• Apparently, Qatar does not feel that it is under any pressure from the Biden administration to end the ordeal of the hostages.
• If Hamas released the hostages and laid down its weapons, the war would end tomorrow. However, with Biden and Blinken handling both Iran and Hamas's patrons in Qatar with kid gloves, Doha and Tehran have no reason whatever to stop it.

If Hamas released the hostages and laid down its weapons, the war would end tomorrow. However, with President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken handling both Iran and Hamas's patrons in Qatar with kid gloves, Doha and Tehran have no reason whatever to stop it. Pictured: Blinken and Qatar's Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani at a press conference in Doha on January 7, 2024. (Photo by Karim Jaafar/AFP via Getty Images)

The Biden administration is evidently continuing to pretend that Qatar, the Gulf state that funds and sponsors Hamas, is an honest broker in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Qatar, in addition to the billions of dollars it has been pouring on Hamas, is still hosting several leaders of Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist terror group, whose members, on October 7, 2023, beheaded, raped, tortured, burned alive more than 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped hundreds more.

Not only is Qatar far from being a neutral mediator, it is massively biased in favor of Hamas and other Islamist terror groups, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and Shiite militias in Iraq and Syria.

Qatar's Al-Jazeera Arabic-language television channel has long served as a central platform for actively promoting the messages of Hamas and other Iranian terror proxies in the Middle East.

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