Qatar Sovereignty Enfeebled By its Complicity With Hamas

"Israel carried out the very strike it once warned the GCC [Gulf Cooperative Council] would face from Iran -- turning its own warning into action."

"[The attack will bring the realization that] the United States security umbrella is no longer full coverage -- it leaves out protection from Israel, and that cannot be undone."

Abdulaziz Al-Anjeri, head, Reconnaissance Research, Kuwait 

 

"If  you are an Arab country that  hoists U.S. bases or a NATO member like Turkey, and then a major U.S. ally attacks Qatar, you are going to deeply question that American security umbrella you've paid top dollar for."

Ellie Geranmayeh, deputy program director, Middle East and North Africa, European Council on Foreign Relations

 

"Israel has now proved itself as a direct threat to the Arab Gulf security, and those countries are not equipped to handle this."

"The attack on Qatar should trigger a rethinking of how GCC nations view their relationship with the United States."

Hasan Alhasan, senior fellow, Middle East policy, International Institute for Strategic Studies, Bahrain 

Israel's attack on Qatar's capital was condemned by Western leaders, for its location more than its targets. (Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters)

"They gathered in Doha – the leaders of the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation – to show support for Qatar in the wake of Israel’s strike last week on a meeting of Hamas leaders in the city."

"When the summit ended, they issued a wordy communique condemning Israel and reaffirming solidarity with Qatar. Missing in the communique, however, was any concrete action."

"It was an exercise in futility, underscoring how great wealth has not translated into real power. That despite the huge strides made by countries like Qatar and Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, they are either unable (or unwilling) to do anything to pressure Israel, and its principle backer, the United States, to end the war in Gaza."

Ben Wedeman, CNN

Attendees of the emergency Arab-Islamic leaders' summit to discuss the Israeli attack on Hamas on Qatari territory, pose for a family photo, in Doha, Qatar September 15. Qatar News Agency/Reuters

 

Lost in the international condemnations of Israel's ballistic missile strikes on Doha, targeting Hamas officials, the terrorist chiefs who live relaxed, luxurious lives in Qatar, far from the fray they order in Israel and Gaza is that international conflict convention validates the right of an attacked state to pursue its attackers wherever they are, and if they happen to be protected in a state haven elsewhere than their origins, those states are fair game in the pursuit. 

 

In point of fact, Qatar and Turkey have both given shelter to terrorists. It is both governments' sympathies to the role of Palestinian terrorists in their zeal to uphold their raison d'etre which commands the destruction of the Jewish state that inspire them to fund and support these groups which owe their allegiance to the Islamic Republic of Iran whose al-Quds branch of the Islamic Republican Guard Corps trained, armed and funded both the Shia (Hezbollah) and Sunni (Hamas/Palestinian Islamic Jihad) groups.

 

Qatar and Turkey are actively involved in infiltrating Western democracies along with the oldest, most linked-in of Islamist groups, the Muslim Brotherhood. All pose as 'friends' of the West, eager to be seen as peaceful and cooperative while working clandestinely (and occasionally overtly) to undermine Western democracy, justice systems, heritage and social values. The half-conscious slumber of Western intelligence in identifying the threat they pose is eclipsed only by the oblivion of the governments they answer to. 

 

The airstrikes targeted Hamas leadership in Doha. A Middle East expert says the arrangement to have those leaders live in Qatar was established 'with the very explicit support of the U.S. and Israel.' (Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters)

 

Posing as a trusted mediator between Israel and the terrorist group whose covenant declares its intention to annihilate the Jewish state, Qatar in point of fact, has aided Hamas 'negotiators' in every conceivable way to buy time before a 'ceasefire' is declared. Posing as a humanitarian government interested only in promoting peace, Qatar has made no effort of any value in persuading Hamas to surrender the handful of still-living Israeli hostages, much less the dead bodies of those they retain as hostages in their grotesquely sadistic exploitation of Israeli angst over the fate of its citizens.

 

One ceasefire offer after another mediated by Egypt, Qatar and the United States, accepted by Israel, but acceptance withheld by Hamas, refusing to accede to Israeli demands. To fully comprehend the total insanity of the situation -- the terrorist group enfeebled by the loss of many of its major elite leaders, the loss of most of its territory, the death of Palestinian civilians orchestrated by the very fact that Hamas embeds itself among the population to draw returning fire from missile launches it places near schools and mosques as fodder for its claims of Palestinian victimhood in collateral deaths it engineers -- is under the illusion that is in charge. 

 

Qatar, which has given the security of protected haven to Hamas leaders, which has spent  untold millions in supporting the terrorist group, which gives it a measure of diplomatic immunity from Israeli retribution for the thousands of Israelis killed by Hamas operatives, poses as an objective, human-rights-supporting interlocutor, a friend of the United States and by extension, Israel, its viperous double-tongued assurances lending it an aura of trustworthiness.

 

Decrying the Israeli assault on the sovereignty of Qatar is the final word in international hypocrisy. Giving haven and support to terrorists makes the state involved fully complicit in terrorism by default, but there is also covert intention at play. As for the Arab Gulf Sunni countries making common cause with the minority Shiite nations led by Iran, detested by the majority Sunni nations, all coming together in a brotherhood of condemnation against Israel; this is a reflection of the usual tribal/religious bonds at play against outsiders. 

 

"As far as the President’s been clear on the ongoing issues in Gaza, and that is that every single hostage, both living and deceased, needs to be home immediately.  Hamas can no longer continue to exist as an armed element that threatens the peace and security not just of Israel but of the world, and that the people of Gaza deserve a better future, one that cannot begin until Hamas is eliminated and until all of the hostages – both living and deceased – are home.  And he remains committed firmly to that objective, and that’s what we seek to talk about today, have talked about today, and will continue to talk about, and that is the road forward on how to achieve those things.  Those objectives remain.  Those objectives remain in place."

"Beyond that, obviously we’ve cooperated and we’re involved together just a few weeks ago on the issue of Iran and Iran’s desire to posses not just nuclear weapons but short- and mid-range missiles with the capability of threatening our presence here in this hemisphere – in this region, and of course the safety and security of the Jewish state.  But I would venture to say a threat that actually extends well beyond that to the kingdoms of the Gulf and eventually even into Europe.  In fact, some of the missiles they’re trying to develop now can already range countries in Europe." 

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio