July 24, 2014 | Quote

Experts: Don’t Reward Qatar and Turkey By Letting Them Dictate Israel/Hamas Ceasefire

Responding to reports that the United States, anxious to facilitate a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, “may be looking to Qatar and Turkey to help negotiate an end to the hostilities,” Jonathan Schanzer and David A. Weinberg, respectively vice president for research and senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, warn that seeking such aid would be “a huge mistake.”

Schanzer and Weinberg point out:

“Since 2011, Qatar has been the home of the aforementioned Khaled Meshal, who runs Hamas’s leadership. During a recent appearance on Qatar’s media network Al Jazeera Arabic, Meshal blessed the individuals who kidnapped and ultimately murdered three Israeli teenagers. He boasted that Hamas was a unified movement and that its military wing reports to him and his associates in the political bureau. American officials have revealed that Qatar also hosts several other Hamas leaders. Israeli authorities reportedly intercepted an individual in April on his way back from meeting a member of Hamas’s military wing in Qatar who gave him money and directives intended for Hamas cells in the West Bank…”

Turkey is also home to Salah Al-Arouri, founder of the West Bank branch of the Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ military wing. He reportedly has been given “sole control” of Hamas’s military operations in the West Bank, and two Palestinians arrested last year for smuggling money for Hamas into the West Bank admitted they were doing so on Al-Arouri’s orders. He is also suspected of being behind a recent surge in kidnapping plots from the West Bank. An Israeli security official recently noted, “I have no doubt that Al-Arouri was connected to the act” of kidnapping that helped set off the latest round of violence between the parties, which has seen hundreds killed and thousands wounded, nearly all of them Palestinians.

Given the support Qatar and Turkey have given Hamas, Schanzer and Weinberg conclude “that America must set the bar higher for the behavior of its allies and not reward them for bad behavior.”

Issues:

Israel Turkey