Free Republic

A glossy brochure labeled “Qatar City, Arizona, USA” has begun circulating online. It shows a 6,000-acre state land auction and a massive proposed development project strategically placed near Arizona’s TSMC high-tech zone. The name? Qatar City. The plan? Unclear. The funding? Opaque. The timing? Disturbing. The proposal was submitted under the name Khaled A. Shair, listing a contact email at kshair@lasaintl.com and a Nevada phone number. At first glance, it looks like a standard development pitch. But peel back even one layer, and the warning signs multiply. There is no public record of where Khaled A. Shair is actually from....

Some time in the coming days, a governmental committee is to convene to decide whether a new Qatari-funded Arab city in the heart of Samaria will be populated. It is currently expected that Israel will remove the last barrier blocking the city—which is already nearly completely built—and allow the city to be connected to Israel’s water supply. […] However, as the grassroots “Cities of Israel” (Mattot Arim) organization has pointed out, the security implications of a Qatar-funded city in Israel have not been sufficiently taken into account—especially now that the extent of Qatari support for Hamas during the recent war...

Sometime in the coming days a governmental committee is to convene to decide whether a new Qatari-funded Arab city in the heart of Samaria will be populated. It is currently expected that Israel will remove the last barrier blocking the city – which is already near completely-built – and allow the city to be connected to Israel's water supply. The "Joint Water Committee for Israel and the Palestinians," established in the framework of the Oslo Accords, is to vote on the final approval. Both Israel and the PA have veto power over any project brought for approval – and have...