US President Donald Trump's recent statements regarding Qatar's role in reaching the Israel-Hamas ceasefire-hostage deal surprised many, especially those who are familiar with the Gulf state's longtime support for radical Islamist groups.
"Qatar is absolutely trying to help," Trump told reporters in Washington. "I know them well, and they're doing everything they can. Very tough situation, but they're absolutely trying to help."
Many other people also know Qatar very well. They know, for example, that Qatar is Hamas's most important financial backer and foreign ally. Then Qatari ruler Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani was the first state leader to visit the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip in 2012. Qatar, in addition, has reportedly transferred $1.8 billion to Hamas over the past two decades.
For many years, Qatar hosted several leaders of Hamas, including Khaled Mashaal and Ismail Haniyeh. They lived in hotels and villas in Doha and were treated as heads of state.
After the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, resulting in the murder of 1,200 Israelis, the wounding of thousands others and the kidnapping of more than 250, Qatar's foreign ministry released a statement holding "Israel alone responsible" for the massacre.
Qatar also uses its television empire, Al-Jazeera, to promote Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood and other terror groups. For years, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the Muslim Brotherhood cleric who endorsed suicide bombings against Israelis, hosted a program on Al-Jazeera. After the October 7 massacre, the network broadcast Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif's call to arms. It also aired incendiary statements from Haniyeh and his deputy, Saleh al-Arouri. Haniyeh appeared on Al-Jazeera praising Hamas's "great triumph" and calling on "the sons of the entire nation, in their various locations, to join this battle in any way they can."
Al-Jazeera's support for Hamas not only prompted Israel to ban the network from operating in the country; even the Palestinian Authority (PA) also banned it from operating in the West Bank. The PA accused the network of broadcasting "inciteful content, spreading misinformation, and interfering in internal Palestinian affairs, which stirred division and instability." Last month, the PA detained two Al-Jazeera correspondents – Givara Budeiri and Mohammed al-Atrash, for allegedly violating the ban.
According to an investigative report by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI):
"Al-Jazeera's role in providing a platform for promoting extremist Islamist ideologies goes back decades. The case of promoting Al-Qaeda is of particular interest. Two months before 9/11, Al-Jazeera gave an Al-Qaeda spokesman, Suliman Abu Ghaith, free rein to speak uninterrupted for 10 minutes, and to call for 12,000 mujahideen [jihad warriors] to join Al-Qaeda.
"Al-Jazeera employed a correspondent, Tayseer Allouni, who was sentenced in Spain to seven years in prison for transferring funds to Al-Qaeda...
"As for ISIS, Al-Jazeera allowed a pledge of allegiance to its leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi live on air. In the middle of a TV debate on Al-Jazeera, an Islamic scholar pledged allegiance to the leader of ISIS....
"The Qatari-owned network also allowed terrorist Anis Al-Naqqash to call for terror attacks against American oil installations, also in a live broadcast."
Since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has disclosed that intelligence information and numerous documents found in the Gaza Strip confirm the military affiliation of six Al-Jazeera journalists with Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. They are: Anas Al-Sharif, Alaa Salama, Hossam Shabat, Ashraf Saraj, Ismail Abu Omar and Talal Aruki.
The Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas and other Palestinians on October 7, 2023 could have been released a long time ago had the Biden administration exerted pressure on Qatar to use its good relations with the Islamist group to force it to do so.
All Qatar had to do was to summon the Hamas leaders in Doha and give them an ultimatum to release all the hostages immediately or face deportation from the Gulf state. It is hard to see how the Hamas leaders would have been able to say no to their major political and financial patrons and backers.
There was a lot the Biden administration could have done to pressure Qatar. It could, for example, have threatened to withdraw US forces from Qatar's Al-Udeid Air Base. The presence of the U.S. Air Force Central Command headquarters there is vital for Qatar's national security and stability: it deters its enemies from attacking the Gulf state. American forces stationed at that base, in other words, preserve Qatar's regime.
The Biden administration could also have threatened to impose economic sanctions on Qatar, or designate it as a "state sponsored of terrorism" if it did not put pressure on Hamas to release the hostages.
The Biden administration, however, chose to ignore Qatar's role in supporting Islamist terrorism. The Qataris were never under the slightest pressure.
In 2017, a number of Arab states – Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, Yemen and the United Arab Emirates – cut diplomatic relations with Qatar due to its support for the all the extremist Islamic terror organizations, including the Muslim Brotherhood, ISIS and Al-Qaeda. Although these countries later restored their ties with Qatar, the Gulf state and its Al-Jazeera television network continue to this day to support Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.
"For years, Qatar supported the Taliban, and last year [2021] it helped it in its coup against the democratically elected Afghan government," notes Yigal Carmon, President and founder of MEMRI, who served as counterterrorism advisor to two Israeli prime ministers, "and 13 American service members were killed in the violence. Today, Qatar is doing everything it can to give the Taliban international legitimacy and aid."
"Any Arab who hears American officials say that Qatar is America's ally would burst into laughter," states Carmon.
"Ask Egypt, not just the rulers, but the people and journalists. Ask the Emirates, the government and people. Ask Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan. They all know that for decades Qatar has been promoting Islamist and terrorist organizations. There are lawsuits against Qatar in the U.S. and Europe in connection with its support for terrorism."
It is time for the new US administration to understand that Qatar is the problem, not the solution. That Qatar is permitted to serve as a mediator between Israel and Hamas is ridiculous since, in actuality, "Qatar is Hamas and Hamas is Qatar; Qatar Launched a War Against Israel By Means of Hamas; The Declaration of War Was Aired on Al-Jazeera TV."
The Trump administration needs to understand what Arabs have known for years: that Qatar's support for Hamas and other extremist Islamist groups is the main reason thousands of Israelis and Palestinians have died over the past few years.
It is time for the US administration to revise its policy towards Qatar and hold it accountable for backing Islamist murderers and rapists whose goal is to murder Jews and destroy Israel. Qatar's leaders might claim to condemn terrorism, but they fund terrorists. In their eyes, there is no difference between Israel and the US.
Khaled Abu Toameh is an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem.