As I write these words at the end of November, Qatar brokered a deal to release hostages held by Hamas. Just as the deal seemed to be on the verge of unraveling, a Qatari jet landed at Ben-Gurion Airport flying in negotiators to salvage it. It was the first public visit by Qatari officials to Israel, and it marked a new era for the two countries, which have no official diplomatic relations. Later, Mossad director David Barnea flew to Doha for talks with CIA director William Burns and top Qatari officials.
Who is this tiny nation anyway, bordering the Persian Gulf, that has made itself a key player in the Mideast and the world?
This is the story of Qatar and its friends-for-all policy, including massive financial support of Hamas. In this, Qatar is complicit in the infamy of October 7 – but only with the full, misguided collaboration of Israeli governments for over 15 years.
Israel and Qatar have much in common. Both nations are small and wealthy. Both live in bad neighborhoods, with hostile neighbors. Both face existential challenges. Here, the similarity ends.
Israel built its security on strategic military deterrence. On October 7, that deterrence failed – with terrible consequences. Qatar? It uses its vast oil and gas wealth to buy friends – on every side of every conflict. And so far, this has worked very well for it. Who would risk angering a sugar daddy?
Islamists? Anti-Islamists? Hamas? Muslim Brotherhood? Shiites? Iran? Israel? America? Who’s your daddy? It’s Qatar: “Welcome to Doha. Ahlan Wa Sahlan. Our checkbook is open.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fostered a coalition government that for almost a year pitted us Israelis one against another. In contrast, Qatar has for many years used money and diplomacy to make friends, and buy friends, or at least non-enemies – while eschewing signing the Abraham Accords that normalize relations with Israel, lest it offend some Muslims. Qatar tiptoes between the toxic raindrops of the Arab world with great diligence – and billions of dollars.
Qatar: A cosmic practical joke
I have iron-clad proof that God has a sense of humor. Why? He has given untold oil and gas wealth to the most unlikely and unworthy spots in the world.
Qatar is on the Persian Gulf, opposite Iran. It is ruled by the House of Thani and has been since it cut a deal with its colonial power Britain in 1868. Qatar was under Ottoman rule for a time, until 1916, then was a British protectorate, and became independent in 1971. Its population of 2.9 million is comprised of only 330,000 Qataris; the rest, 89%, are foreign workers, many from India.
Qatar is rich. This is solely because it has the world’s third-largest oil and gas reserves and is the world’s largest exporter of LNG (liquified natural gas). Qatar’s economic growth was the fastest in the world during 2000-2010. Qatar is the fourth-richest nation in the world in GDP per capita – $114,000, double that of Israel. Its 12,000 sq. km. is just over half that of Green Line Israel.
Paraphrasing Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof: Lord of the Universe, would it have disturbed the cosmic order if you gave generous oil and gas wealth to the ten poorest nations in the world (South Sudan, Burundi, Central African Republic, Somalia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Niger, Malawi, Chad, and Liberia) together with tiny Qatar?
To add to the irony, Russia’s war on Ukraine created an energy shortage in Europe that made Qatar’s natural gas super-important. Qatar made up 10%-15% of Europe’s gas shortfall, after Russian gas was cut off, and earned a lot of Brownie points. Saudi Arabia, in contrast, turned down US President Joe Biden’s request to expand its oil exports.
As Qatar’s oil reserves dwindled, it fashioned a new strategic plan – National Vision 2030 – that aims to transform Qatar into a diversified economy far less dependent on hydrocarbons.
Qatar actively courts the US. The Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar is the largest US military installation in the Mideast, home of the US Central Command, built at Qatari expense. The US is expanding Hamad Port that hosts a large and growing American fleet. In the past, together the bases served as key hubs for overseas operations against Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria.
American troops are stationed at the air base. The US has further reinforced its forces there in the wake of the October 7 war, including fighter aircraft.
Armies? Or friends?
Armies are expensive. Ask Israel. Israel’s annual defense budget is over $24 billion, to maintain a regular army of 170,000 soldiers and 465,000 reservists, of whom about two-thirds were rapidly mobilized. Israel spends 5% of its GDP on defense.
Tiny Qatar has greatly boosted its defense spending, to $15.4 billion last year, and has sought to buy US F-35 jets. But for decades, it has single-mindedly pursued a policy of befriending and financing current and potential enemies. Qatar cultivates its role as mediator, facilitator, friend, in almost every theater, as an insurance policy for its very existence.
And chief among Qatari friends is the US.
In a report published by the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), Yoel Guzansky notes that Qatar’s foreign relations have greatly improved over the past year. Qatar mediates between the US and Iran, provides millions of dollars in humanitarian aid for Ukraine, and hosted the 2022 World Cup soccer tournament in style.
Qatar’s prime minister stated in 2022 that his country’s unique position has enabled it to open “reliable channels of communication” between warring nations, “resulting in vital ceasefires, dialogues, and peace and security arrangements.” And, he might have added, made Qatar more valuable as a mediator, banker, and friend than as an enemy.
The same leader stated publicly on October 24 that the international community must not grant Israel “unrestricted authorization to kill Palestinians.”
Recall how Iraq’s despot Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait on August 2, 1990, coveting Kuwait’s oil wealth and initiating the First Gulf War. Qatar is well aware that its neighbors, too, covet its vast energy wealth. Iran is only 510 miles away, across the Persian Gulf, and has 30 times Qatar’s population. Saudi Arabia is just 300 miles away. Tiny Qatar uses bucks, not bullets, to navigate in a hostile, dangerous neighborhood.
Al Jazeera: Hamas mouthpiece
At great expense, Qatar founded the global media company Al Jazeera (in Arabic, “peninsula,” after the Qatari Peninsula in the Gulf). It has 70 bureaus around the world, including one in Israel. Al Jazeera is rabidly pro-Hamas, antisemitic and anti-Israel. It is infamous for once broadcasting a seven-minute video online, stating that Israel was the “greatest beneficiary” of the Holocaust. The video was withdrawn following furious protests.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken demanded that the Qatari government tone down Al Jazeera’s Arabic coverage of the war in Gaza “because it is full of anti-Israel incitement.” So far, it hasn’t . Al Jazeera continues to openly operate a branch in Israel. On November 13, Israel withdrew its threat to close it. Why? Apparently, because Qatar is a crucial go-between in the hostage release. Hence, Israel must hold its nose and tolerate Al Jazeera.
Suitcases stuffed with cash
The moon has a dark side. So does Qatari’s friend-of-all strategy.
We have known for many years that Qatari wealth flows to some of the world’s most dangerous terrorists.
Qatar began financing Hamas in 2007, right after Hamas staged a violent coup to displace the Palestinian Authority. Between 2007 and 2014, Qatar pumped massive funds into Hamas without limit, scrutiny, or approbation. From 2014 on, the funding was done in coordination with Israel, the US, and the UN.
In 2013, some $250 million was transferred from the Central Bank of Qatar to the Hamas Political Bureau, safely ensconced in Doha, Qatar. In 2014, the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee reported that in 2011, the Emir of Qatar visited Gaza and pledged $400 million for “infrastructure,” ultimately used for “building terror tunnels to attack Israel.”
“[Qatar] has become a permissive terrorist-financing environment, including funding of the Muslim Brotherhood and…along with Kuwait, has become a major source of funding for ISIS,” the report stated. “We cannot continue to allow Qatari funds to go to terrorist groups, Hamas or any other, unabated and unaddressed.”
But it continued. And Israel facilitated it.
Qatar claimed it channeled money only to the needy, on a “name” basis. But Hamas benefited directly, and many of the Qatari dollars clearly found their way to Hamas pockets.
Haaretz reported in 2019 that “Qatar has provided Hamas in the Gaza Strip with over $1.1 billion from 2012 to 2018, with the approval of the Israeli government.... Israeli government professional staff confirmed the data.”
In 2018 alone, Qatar gave Hamas in Gaza $200 million for humanitarian aid, fuel, and government salaries – and pledged to provide hundreds of millions of dollars more through United Nations aid groups.
On November 8, 2018, The Jerusalem Post reported: “In a scene reminiscent of a Mafia movie, a vehicle with three suitcases stuffed with $15 million in cash passed through the Erez crossing on Thursday.”
Last year, the Times of Israel reported that “Jerusalem engages with Doha to grant permissions for the distribution of Qatari aid in the Gaza Strip.” The sums involved were massive.
Israel’s disastrous conception was that the more Hamas accumulates economic assets, the less appetite it will have to implement its murderous overt ideology.
Wrong. Dollars are fungible. Money that feeds and houses people frees money for weapons, rockets, and tunnels. That is kindergarten economics.
Hamas for years has been supported by a sophisticated global financial network, with, for instance, vast real estate holdings held under other names. Hamas’s October 7 terrorist assault on Israeli towns and kibbutzim was expensive. Hamas worked to prepare it for years and years. Qatari dollars helped fund it. Israel was an accomplice.
Just four days before the murderous assault, on October 4 Haaretz reported that “Qatar is still undecided about whether it will provide additional economic aid to the Gaza Strip as part of their efforts to restore calm to the Strip,” despite Hamas appealing to the Gulf emirate “to increase its financial support of Gaza residents due to their difficult economic conditions.”
We know now where much of the Qatari money went. It did not go to buy bread for hungry Gazans and milk for their babies.
Qatar fed the beast. We actively helped them. Is it any wonder the beast came to devour our sons and daughters? ■
The writer heads the Zvi Griliches Research Data Center at S. Neaman Institute, Technion and blogs at www.timnovate.wordpress.com.