Netanyahu Mossad's strategy to block Qatar by providing hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to Hamas
The New York Times reported that Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu and Mossad have been using a gambling policy of 'blockade' by providing hundreds of millions of dollars in funds from Qatar to Hamas.
NYT said, “Allowing billions of dollars in aid over seven years was a gamble that Prime Minister Netanyahu would maintain peace in the Gaza Strip, the ultimate starting point of the October 7 attack, and force Hamas to focus on governance rather than fighting.” “Qatar’s payments to Hamas, while ostensibly secret, have been widely publicized and discussed in the Israeli news media for several years,” he said in a report on the 10th, based on interviews with more than 20 current and former Israeli, U.S. and Qatari officials, as well as other Middle Eastern government officials.
For years, the Qatari government has sent millions of dollars to Gaza every month, money that has helped prop up the Hamas government.
The NYT said, “Prime Minister Netanyahu not only tolerated these payments, but encouraged them,” and added, “Prime Minister Netanyahu’s critics disparage these policies as part of his ‘living quietly strategy,’ which has been in the midst of a merciless reassessment since the attack. “He refuted the criticism that he was trying to give power to Hamas, saying it was ‘nonsense.’”
Just weeks before Hamas launched its deadly attack on Israel on October 7, Mossad Director David Barnea arrived in Doha, Qatar, to meet with Qatari officials, according to several people familiar with the secret talks. During a September meeting with officials, the Mossad chief was asked a question that was not on the agenda.
NYT said, “The Netanyahu government recently decided to continue this policy, Director Barnea said ‘yes’ and the Israeli government still welcomed money from Doha,” and “Hamas has always expressed its will to eliminate the Israeli state.” "Each payment, as has been made public, is evidence of the Israeli government's view that Hamas is a low-level nuisance and even a political asset," he said.
In its coverage of Prime Minister Netanyahu's critics, the NYT said, "Critics say the core of his approach to Hamas has a cynical political agenda," and "is intended as a means to stay in power without addressing the threat from Hamas or simmering Palestinian grievances." “The goal is to silence Gaza,” he said.
“For years and a half, Netanyahu’s thinking was that if we just buy in quietly and pretend the problem doesn’t exist, the problem will go away,” Eyal Hulata, who served as Israel’s national security adviser from 2021 until early this year, told the NYT.
After the 2014 Hamas war, Prime Minister Netanyahu charted a new course, emphasizing a strategy of "containment" against Hamas while Israel focused on Iran's nuclear program and proxy forces such as Hezbollah.
This strategy has been underpinned by repeated intelligence assessments that Netanyahu's Hamas is neither interested nor capable of carrying out significant attacks inside Israel.
During this period, Qatar became a key source of funds for the reconstruction and government operations of the Gaza Strip.
Qatar is the world's wealthiest country and has long championed the Palestinian cause, establishing the closest relationship with Hamas among its neighbors.
Prime Minister Netanyahu lobbied Washington for Qatar, dispatching senior Israeli defense officials to Washington in 2017 when the Republican Party imposed financial sanctions on Qatar for supporting Hamas. Israel has told U.S. lawmakers that Qatar has played a positive role in the Gaza Strip, a source familiar with the relationship told the NYT.
Yossi Kuperwasser, a former head of research at Israel's Military Intelligence Service, said some officials saw the benefit of maintaining a "balance" in Gaza. "Israel's logic is that Hamas must be strong enough to rule Gaza; “The idea was that Israel had to be weak enough to stop it,” he told the NYT.
NYT reports Barack Obama (Democratic Party), Donald J. Trump (Republican Party), and Joe. The administrations of three U.S. presidents, Biden (Democrat), said they “broadly supported” Qatar’s direct role in financing the Gaza operation.
Shlomo Brom, a retired general and former adviser to Israel's national security adviser, said Hamas' rise to power helped Netanyahu avoid negotiations over a Palestinian state.
“One effective way to prevent a two-state solution is to divide Gaza and the West Bank,” he said. “This division gives Prime Minister Netanyahu an excuse to withdraw from peace talks. That way, I can say, ‘I don’t have a partner,’” he told the NYT.
Prime Minister Netanyahu has not publicly stated this strategy, but some on the Israeli right have not hesitated.
"The Palestinian Authority is a burden. Hamas is an asset," Bezalel Smotrich, the far-right finance minister of Prime Minister Netanyahu, said in 2015 when he was elected to parliament, and after the Hamas surprise attack he announced the "use of nuclear bombs" in the attack. .
At a cabinet meeting in 2018, Netanyahu's aides revealed that the new plan would see "the Qatari government pay millions of dollars in direct cash to Gaza residents every month as part of a cease-fire agreement with Hamas."
Hamas' domestic intelligence agency, Shin Bet, has established a beneficiary list surveillance to ensure that Hamas military members do not receive direct benefits.
Former Defense Secretary Lieberman, an opponent, viewed the plan as a surrender and resigned in 2018. He publicly accused Netanyahu of "buying short-term peace at the cost of serious damage to long-term national security."
In the years that followed, Lieberman became one of Netanyahu's fiercest critics.
“The decisions he made in 2018 led directly to the attacks on October 7,” Lieberman told the NYT in his office. “The only thing that really matters to Netanyahu is to stay in power at any cost. To stay in power, he has to do it.” “I preferred to pay for peace,” he said.
Avigdor Lieberman wrote a secret memo to Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Israeli military chief of staff a few months after becoming defense minister in 2016.
He said Hamas was slowly building up its military capabilities to attack Israel, and argued that Israel should attack first, and wrote in the memo that Israel's goal was "to ensure that the next confrontation between Israel and Hamas will be the final showdown."
A copy of Medo was obtained and reviewed by the NYT. The memo said a preemptive strike could eliminate most of the "Hamas military leadership."
Prime Minister Netanyahu rejected this plan, preferring a blockade to confrontation.
Suitcases full of cash soon began crossing the border into Gaza.
Every month, Israeli security officials met with Qatari diplomat Mohammed al-Emadi at the border between Israel and Jordan. From there, Israeli intelligence agencies took him to the Kerem Shalom border crossing and took him to Gaza.
Based on reporting by former Israeli and U.S. officials, the NYT said, “At first, Qatari diplomat Emadi brought $150,000 and distributed the dollars to each household approved by the Israeli government at a designated location,” adding, “These funds were used for salary and other expenses. It was to pay other expenses, but a senior Western diplomat who was stationed in Israel until last year said Western governments have long assessed that Hamas was diverting cash outlays.
“Money is fungible,” Chip Usher, the CIA’s senior Middle East analyst who retired this year, told the New York Times. “Anything Hamas didn’t need to use in its own budget, it could free up money for other things.” .
In another article analyzing the war, the NYT said, “Analysts are more skeptical about Israel's ability to end Hamas rule in the Gaza Strip, and they point out that Israel's vision for post-Hamas territory remains blurry,” adding, “Prime Minister Netanyahu “The internationally-backed Palestinian Authority, which administers part of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, has ruled out the possibility of taking control of the Gaza Strip under its current leadership and is in conflict with U.S. officials over this idea,” he told ‘End of War.’ In response to the US demand for the end of this month, Netanyahu stated that the gap would be 'by the end of January'.