Yoav Limor
Israel Hayom, Feb. 14, 2025
“At some point, it appears, Qatar began investing in Israel as well. Presumably, it did so to buy influence and immunity for itself – sometimes in that order and sometimes in reverse.”
The fact that Israel urged Qatar to increase aid to Gaza has been known for a long time, but the alleged involvement of Netanyahu’s office officials in “laundering” the emirate’s image must be thoroughly investigated. We must not accept a reality where senior officials in the prime minister’s environment work for an entity that is not defined as an enemy state, but functions as such in every way. And despite the beating of war drums in the cabinet after Trump’s “hell” declaration, no minister said what Israel would do differently compared to the last 16 months.
Qatar
There is no escaping investigating the suspicion of Qatari involvement at the highest levels of Israeli leadership. The suspicions and stench are too heavy for this affair to be allowed to fizzle out. Moreover, there is concern that behind the heavy smokescreen, additional issues are hidden, which are not known, whose severity is even greater.
Let’s put things in order for a moment. Qatar is not the main funder of Hamas. Iran has been responsible for most of the organization’s military budget in recent years. It transferred billions to it in various ways – from weapons smuggled into Gaza through tunnels and physical money transferred in various ways, to the “hawala” method – transferring money through money changers, mainly in Istanbul and Beirut.
The method is simple: The funder (Iran) transfers the cash to money changers abroad, let’s say $10 million. They receive it and contact money changers in Gaza with whom there is absolute trust. The Gaza money changers hand over $10 million in cash to Hamas. They receive the physical money from the sale of goods purchased abroad with the original money and imported to Gaza.
Israel has been fighting terrorism financing for over two decades. The great difficulty is in locating its sources. Sometimes these are charity organizations spread around the world that collect money from innocent people for good causes – widows, orphans, treating the wounded, and more. They transfer the money through bank accounts to organizations registered in Gaza. Some of it reaches its destination: the other part, sometimes the main part, is taken by Hamas. …SOURCE