Hamas funding is a key to Qatar dispute with other Arab states

streiff:
There are two key reasons behind the decision of a Saudi-led Arab coalition to cut diplomatic and commercial ties with the Gulf State of Qatar. First, Qatar is crapping itself trying to keep the Iranians appeased. Second, Qatar funds just about any terror organization that you care to mention. This is not to say the Saudis don’t have a history of funding terrorists but the Saudi oligarchs are careful to not fund terrorists that are hostile to the House of Saud, like ISIS and the Muslim Brotherhood. Qatar funds both of those groups.

Yesterday, the Saudi foreign minister reiterated that Qatar has to cut funding for terror groups and he specifically named Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. He said Hamas undermined the Palestinian Authority (somewhat true) and the Muslim Brotherhood undermined the government of Egypt (definitely true).

This underscores an interesting alignment of forces in the Middle East. When Trump went to Saudi Arabia, one of his missions was to pitch sort of an Arab NATO with the US in an advise/assist role and with Israel providing technical and intelligence support. The suggestion wasn’t laughed at because the Arabs in the region are realizing that Iran is the existential threat to their existence.

The main beneficiary of the Saudi demand, though, is Israel. The Palestinian Authority allows Hamas to govern Gaza and has no real desire to change the situation–this, of course, is one of the reasons that a “two state solution” is so hard to broker in Israel, there are actually three governments involved–and Qatar has pledged $400 million to Hamas, this is money the Palestinian Authority doesn’t have to spend.

Hamas, understandably, is crapping bricks. Without Qatar money, Hamas dies.
...
Iran is another reason why everyone is upset with Qatar and Hamas.  While Qatar is a major funding source for the Hamas genocidal religious bigots, the other key to their survivability is Iran which provides not only funding but arms.  Iran is an existential threat to the entire Arab Middle East and it is trying to outflank them in Syria, Yemen, Iraq, and the Gaza Strip.

The move against Qatar is an attempt to restore a strategic balance in the region.  These governments also realize that Israel is not a threat to them but a potential strategic partner in the coming conflict with Iran.  While some in the Pentagon may be worried about their base of operations in Qatar, the Arab states have a bigger worry with Qatar's alliance with its enemies.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Should Republicans go ahead and add Supreme Court Justices to head off Democrats

Washington Post: Some Democrats eye adding more justices to the Supreme Court to change its ideological bent The once-remote idea has gained the attention of liberals angered by the GOP push to remake the federal courts. Probably the easy way to defeat this court-packing scheme is for Trump to propose doing the same thing now.  It would lead to Democrat denunciations and claims that it would be wrong, thereby blowing up any attempt by them in the unfortunate event of Democrats winning a presidential election.
Read more

29 % of companies say they are unlikely to keep insurance after Obamacare

Conn Carroll: A new survey of 368 midsize to large companies found that 29% of them are considering terminating their active employee health care plans when Obamacare is full implemented in 2014. Only 71% of employers surveyed said they did not expect to drop their health coverage, while 20% said they did not know and 9% said they were planning to exit. The latest survey, conducted by Towers Watson, echoes an ealier survey by McKinsey & Co. finding that 30% of private-sector employers were planning to drop their employee health insurance coverage by 2014. When the Congressional Budget Office crunched Obamacare's spending numbers, they estimated that only 7% of employees currently covered by employer-sponsored plans would lose their plans. ... This means the cost of the health care fiasco will be hundreds of billions more than estimated by the CBO and Congressional Democrat. It is also clear that Obama's pledge that you could keep your health care plan if you wanted t
Read more

Bin Laden's concern about Zarqawi's remains

James Robbins: ... Bin Laden suggests that President Bush should allow Zarqawi’s body to be returned to his family in Jordan, but this is a matter that is up to the Jordanian government, which so far has not shown much interest in facilitating a homecoming. Bin Laden mocks King Abdullah II, calling him a Coalition minion, and asking “w hat scares you about Abu Musab after he’s dead? You know that his funeral, if allowed to happen, would be a huge funeral showing the extent of sympathy with the mujahedin.” A large crowd would definitely turn out, though most people would be on hand to demonstrate their anger and disgust. Last November’s hotel bombings in Amman , masterminded by Zarqawi, are still fresh in people’s memory, and mentioning them to Jordanians has the same visceral impact as memory of the 9/11 attacks does here. Jordan has adopted a zero-tolerance policy towards those who choose to mourn the country’s least favorite son, and four opposition members of parliament who paid con
Read more