WarSclerotic

Foreign Policy Guru Elliot Abrams Asks: What the Heck is Kerry Doing?

Pans Kerry’s Push To Make Qatar Mediator Between Israel and Hamas

7.18.2014 Israel RevoltJeff Dunetz

via Foreign Policy Guru Elliot Abrams Asks: What the Heck is Kerry Doing? | Truth Revolt.

ecretary of State Kerry has been reaching out to Qatar, one of the major financiers of Islamist terrorism, to mediate between Israel and Hamas in an attempt to gain a cease-fire. Elliot Abrams, who has served in foreign policy roles for Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, expostulated, “What is Kerry doing?… We should be trying to marginalize the Qatari role, not preserve it or enhance it.”

The State Department’s latest annual Country Reports on Terrorism, covering 2013, refers to the “significant terrorist financing risk” of Qatar-based fundraisers. This diplomatic language downplays the common perception among U.S. experts that Kuwait is “the epicenter of fundraising for terrorist groups in Syria,” and that Qatar is “a permissive terrorist financing environment,” as articulated in a March 4 speech by David Cohen, the Treasury Department’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.

Elements in Qatar are known to provide financing for terrorist organizations such as Hamas and ISIS, which is one of the reasons Abrams wrote the post below for the Council on Foreign Relations:

Sympathy and support for Hamas are much lower in the Arab world than in past Israeli-Hamas conflicts–except in Qatar, whose government has a special relationship with Hamas. Indeed Hamas’s political leader Khaled Meshal spends most of his time in Qatar’s capital, Doha. Qatar has poured money into Hamas-ruled Gaza.

So what’s the American position on the negotiation of a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas? Do we want Egypt, with its hostility to the terrorist group and desire to weaken it, to be the negotiator, or Qatar? The answer should be obvious: we want Egypt to play this role, because Egypt will push Hamas harder, show it less sympathy, and try to ensure that it emerges from the war without any gains.

But that has not been the American position. Secretary of State Kerry has happily kept the Qataris in the loop from the start, as if whether they or the Egyptians play the key role is a matter of indifference to us. Israeli and Egyptian officials have noticed and have been at a loss to understand his position. “What is Kerry doing?” has been the tone of the comments. The United States should be insisting that Egypt, with its long border with Israel and its border with Gaza, must be the mediator.

“What is Kerry doing?” is, on this point, a fair question. We should be trying to marginalize the Qatari role, not preserve it or enhance it.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Israel’s government agrees with Abrams:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, however, is wary about any role for Qatar as a go-between with Hamas since Israeli officials believe the island state funds some of the most radical Sunni militant groups fighting in neighboring Syria. Israel also believes Qatar is one of the primary sources of financing for Hamas.

“We don’t associate Qatar as being a responsible actor,” a senior Israeli official said.

Qatari officials have said they view Hamas as a legitimate nationalist movement that deserves the support of Arab states.

This entry was posted on July 19, 2014 at 11:51 AM and is filed under Uncategorized. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: Anti Semitism, Arabs, Islam, Israel, Palestinians, USA