RUTHFULLY YOURS

Qatar and Egypt are now spearheading efforts to bring the Palestinian Authority (PA) back to the Gaza Strip. The two countries are apparently trying to persuade the US administration to back the idea.

If the PA has been unable, or perhaps unwilling, to rein in dozens of gunmen in the West Bank, how can anyone expect it to take control of the Gaza Strip, where thousands of terrorists from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) continue to operate? PA President Mahmoud Abbas is not foolish enough to send his men to the Gaza Strip, where they are likely to be slaughtered again, as they were in 2007.

In the eyes of Hamas and many Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, Abbas and the PA are traitors, mainly because they conduct security coordination with Israel in the West Bank. Abbas is aware that if and when he dares to enter the Gaza Strip, he will meet the same fate as Palestinians suspected of “collaboration” with Israel: he will be murdered.

Since the US-brokered ceasefire-for-hostages agreement between Israel and Hamas went into effect last month, Hamas has executed several Palestinians and shot others in the legs after accusing them of “collaboration” with Israel. The executions are aimed at sending a message to Abbas as to what awaits him and his men should they set foot in the Gaza Strip.

A few weeks ago, the Palestinian Authority launched a major security operation against Iran-backed armed groups in Jenin Refugee Camp in the northern West Bank, which were threatening Abbas’s rule.

After besieging the camp for 40 days and killing and arresting several Palestinians, the PA and the gunmen, most of whom belong to Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas, reached an agreement to end the PA operation. According to the agreement, the PA security forces would stop pursuing the gunmen in the camp and release detainees. In return, PA forces would be allowed to remain in the camp. The agreement, however, did not end the “presence of armed groups” in the camp, thereby signaling the failure of the PA’s security operation. It is estimated that dozens of gunmen continue to operate inside the camp, as well as in several nearby Palestinian towns.

The failure of the Palestinian Authority’s security operation against the Jenin gunmen shows why the PA cannot be trusted to assume control over the Gaza Strip, where thousands of Hamas and PIJ terrorists continue to operate, especially after the recent US-brokered ceasefire-hostages deal between Israel and Hamas.

Immediately after the ceasefire-hostages agreement was announced, thousands of armed Hamas and PIJ terrorists reappeared on the streets of the Gaza Strip. The vast majority of the terrorists had been hiding in tunnels, hospitals and humanitarian zones during the 15-month Israel-Hamas war, which started after the Hamas-led invasion of Israel on October 7, 2023. More than 1,200 Israelis were murdered and thousands wounded during the attack. Another 250 Israelis, including children, women and the elderly, were kidnapped by Hamas terrorists and “ordinary” Palestinians.

As Abbas’s security operation was underway in Jenin Refugee Camp, Hamas denounced the Palestinian Authority for its “catastrophic [security] coordination” with Israel. Hamas also held the PA responsible for the Palestinian “bloodletting” and accused it of committing a crime against the Palestinian people. Hamas, in other words, is saying that Abbas is a traitor who has Palestinian blood on his hands.

It is wrong to assume that Hamas or any other terrorist organization would consent to the PA regaining security control of the Gaza Strip. At most, Hamas will permit the PA to renter the Gaza Strip as a civilian body tasked with funding reconstruction efforts and paying salaries.

For now, Abbas feels safer living under Israeli security control in the West Bank than being with the masked terrorists of Hamas and PIJ in the Gaza Strip. Like Abbas, no Arab country will invest in or get involved in the Gaza Strip as long as Iran’s Islamist proxies continue to dominate it. Given the recent return of hundreds of convicted terrorists released from Israeli prisons to the streets in exchange for hostages — many of whom are dead — the possibility of another October 7-style atrocity against Israelis is still all too real.

President Donald J. Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, may have the best of intentions, but unfortunately appears to have placed his trust in his real estate business associate, Qatar, which is a major funder of Hamas. Witkoff recently sold to Qatar the Park Lane Hotel in New York City, “once called the world’s greatest site for development.”

Witkoff, who regrettably took a terrible, ready-to-wear deal from the Biden administration — a deal ensuring that Hamas will remain in power in the Gaza Strip — is proving an unfortunate embarrassment to Trump.

From the beginning, the deal should have been, as then-President-elect Trump put it, that all the hostages must be released before his inauguration or “all hell will break out.” Such a warning presupposes that all the hostages, dead and alive, are placed at the border, on a certain date at a certain time. No negotiations, no release of hundreds of terrorists, nothing — just like the release of American hostages from Iran under President Ronald Reagan in 1981. It would be interesting to know how Trump’s strong, original vision got so badly derailed.

Qatar is a major funder of Hamas, with donations of more than $1 billion annually.

Qatar has also for decades been a state sponsor of Islamist terrorism in general (see here, here, here, here, here, here and here).

According to Ehud Levi, retired head of the Mossad’s unit for economic warfare against terrorist organizations, “Qatar is at the top of funding terrorism worldwide, even more than Iran.”

Qatar’s plan undoubtedly is to see that Hamas, one of its preeminent clients, remains in power. As the mouthpiece for the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas through its vast television empire, Al Jazeera, Qatar does not want to see Israel in the region any more than Hamas does.

Qatar has “spent nearly $6 billion since 2007 lobbying the American government and funneling cash to the United States’ top universities,” according to the investigative journalist Adam Kredo of the Free Beacon.

“In 2023, the country spent $5 million lobbying the American government. Another $11 million was spent on nongovernment lobbying expenses, according to public records. From 2020 to 2022, Doha spent more than $130 million on government and nongovernment lobbying efforts.

“Qatar also has invested heavily in America, spending more than $30 billion as of 2019 through its sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority, according to the State Department.”

There is only one viable way to address the Gaza Strip’s problems: discard Qatar as a supposedly honest broker (it is not), designate the Muslim Brotherhood a Foreign Terrorist Organization (it is), disarm all the terrorist groups, and oust Hamas completely from power.

Khaled Abu Toameh is an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem.