Khaled Abu Toameh
Gatestone Institute, May 19, 2025
“Qatar has enough influence over Hamas to instruct it to release all the hostages. Qatar could have used its influence from the beginning to force Hamas to release all of them; but it did not.”
As US President Donald J. Trump was being hosted in Saudi Arabia by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto ruler of the kingdom, the Iran-backed Houthi militia in Yemen fired another ballistic missile at Israel.
The missile, which flew over Saudi Arabia on its way to Israel, was fortunately intercepted by the Israel Defence Forces before reaching its intended target.
The Houthis, in fact, fired three ballistic missiles at Israel, right over the Crown Prince’s head.
The missile attacks came less than a week after Trump announced that he had reached a separate ceasefire deal with the Houthis to end their attacks on American-flagged vessels in the Red Sea. “They just don’t want to fight, and we will honor that,” Trump said.
“We will stop the bombings, and they have capitulated. But more importantly, we will take their word. They said they will not be blowing up any ships anymore.”
Sadly, anyone who takes the word of a terrorist group is living in a dream world. Just look at Afghanistan. The Taliban could not wait to break their vow to make sure that women’s rights would be protected. Women have been erased. They can no longer “work, sing travel, study” or even appear near a window.
Israel took the word of Hamas when the terror group repeatedly indicated its desire to maintain a truce. In the end, however, on October 7, 2023, Israel paid a heavy price for its gullibility. Thousands of Hamas terrorists invaded Israel, murdered 1,200 people, many of whom were attending a music festival, wounded thousands, and kidnapped 251 others, dragging them into the Gaza Strip. Of those, 58 are still being held by Hamas. Only 23 are believed to still be alive. …SOURCE