World Affairs Brief, November 17, 2023 Commentary and Insights on a Troubled World.
Copyright Joel Skousen. Partial quotations with attribution permitted. Cite source as Joel Skousen’s World Affairs Brief (http://www.worldaffairsbrief.com).
ISRAEL CAUGHT ENCOURAGING QATAR TO KEEP FUNDING HAMAS
As I have documented, not only did Israel leave the southern area of their country completely unprotected so that the IDF would not be able to response to the Hamas attack (which they had to know about) but now we find out that Israel is pushing Qatar to continue funding Hamas. No less than the Times of Israel reports that,
Yisrael Beytenu party chief [and former Minister of Defense] Avigdor Liberman claimed Saturday night that, Mossad chief Yossi Cohen and the top officer of the Israel Defense Forces in charge of Gaza, Herzi Halevi, visited Qatar earlier this month on the instructions of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to plead with its leaders to continue their periodical payments to Hamas. Liberman censured Netanyahu for having “begged” the Qataris to continue supporting the Gaza-based terror group.
“On Wednesday two weeks ago the head of Mossad… and the head of [IDF] Southern Command visit Qatar on an errand from Netanyahu, and they simply beg the Qataris to keep sending money to Hamas after March 30. The Qataris have said they will stop sending money on March 30,” Liberman said.
With Israel’s approval, Qatar since 2018 has periodically provided millions of dollars in cash to Hamas to pay for fuel for the Strip’s power plant, allow the group to pay its civil servants and provide aid to tens of thousands of impoverished families.
How does Israel justify this?
Israel has reportedly done so in exchange for Hamas ensuring calm in the south and as part of efforts to reach a long-term ceasefire with the terror group.
Yes, there is always some semi-plausible excuse. Even when they know the excuse is a lie that will never play out in the end. I think the real reason is that Netanyahu is a globalist protegee of Henry Kissinger and, therefore, is following the globalist conflict creation agenda—assuredly aimed at justifying a wider war on Iran. Iran isn’t taking the bait, though. They just announced they will not be entering the war on behalf of Hamas.
Unless the US or Israel directly attacks Iran, this means there won’t be a wider Middle East war as I feared. Iran, like China, is not dumb. Apparently they aren’t ready yet to take on the West, and so are determined to postpone any offensive actions, for now. But it will eventually come.
But there are many other indications that Israel is marching to the same globalist agenda that is being pushed onto America. Look at the massive vaccine mandate and all the Covid restrictions Israel suffered. Israeli blogger Efrat Fenigsen just outlined several other wartime changes in Israeli policies affecting basic freedoms that point to globalist direction:
1. FOIA law is suspended temporarily, time now to respond [is] extended to 9 months, and only if war permits.
2. Live fire against Israeli protesters by police is now authorized if they block roads during war times, which only needs the approval of a senior officer.
3. The Chief of Police said he won’t allow any protests, but then backtracked and said protests will be allowed but highly restricted.
4. Incitement and Conspiracy theories. Police have censored 1000s of posts against the government. A sub-commissioner has decried conspiracy theories about an “inside job” as “completely unfounded.” If Israeli citizens are involved in spreading these fake stories, they will soon find themselves in Police interrogation rooms.”
5. The Ministry of Agriculture has opened a “war room” to track criticism of the “food security” policies [limiting food supplies]. Rather than helping farmers who are in dire need, because of [a] lack of Arab workers, they are only interested in controlling speech. After many protests and volunteer efforts of Israelis to help harvest crops, the MoA [is] finally starting to help farmers financially
6. The new Terrorism Bill will go after people who even read or “consume” any Hamas propaganda.
Because of these and many other draconian policies, PM Netanyahu is very unpopular in Israel right now. He has been under indictment for much of his decades-long tenure. Avigdor Lieberman has these comments on the election in the Times of Israel link above:
Yisrael Beytenu [a small political party] leader Leiberman has become a leading critic of Netanyahu’s, and twice frustrated Netanyahu’s efforts to form a majority coalition after elections last April and September. Israel goes to the polls for the third time in a year on March 2.
In the TV interview, Liberman also said that Netanyahu will seek a plea bargain after the elections, having been indicted for graft in three cases. The prime minister’s trial is set to start on March 17. Netanyahu “is not running in these elections in order to put a government together. He’s running in order [to strengthen his position] to seal a plea bargain,” said Liberman.