The Qataris funded Hamas for years, harbored its leaders and legitimized it as a political power. But everything it did was done with full Israeli consent and encouragement. Now, as Qatar is a sort of ‘swing state’ in Middle Eastern politics, its critics better acknowledge that it will have a key role in a reconfigured region
critics say Qatar lavishly funded Hamas, harbored Hamas leaders and enabled the group by legitimizing it as a political power. In short, It’s all Qatar’s fault.
This might be true, but it’s totally devoid of the political context. As such, it is a lazily convenient way of designating a fall guy so as to detract and deflect criticism, and shift the responsibility away from those who should bear it – particularly Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
First, Hamas committed the atrocities, not Qatar. Second, Qatar funneled money into Gaza to maintain the Hamas regime at Israel’s request. Third, when Qatar was deliberating whether to stop the payments in 2018, Israel sent high-level emissaries to Doha to plead with the Qataris to continue. Fourth, Qatar is indispensable in mediating the release of Israeli hostages. It has done so already and continues to do so. Fifth, in the broader geopolitical dimensions of a postwar Middle East, Qatar could and should be a central part of the solution, and certainly not the problem.
Law, Power, and Justice 
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