The Ministerial Committee for Legislation on Sunday advanced a bill to designate Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
a "terror-supporting state," citing the controversial Gulf country’s support for Hamas
..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,..., Hezbollah and other terror groups.
The bill was approved amid the ongoing, so-called "Qatargate" scandal, in which several of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s top aides are accused of having worked for Qatar to shift public opinion in Israel. It also comes as Israeli negotiators are in Doha, attempting to reach a hostage deal with the Hamas terror group, whose leadership has long been hosted there.
The legislation, brought by Likud MKs Moshe Saada and Dan Illouz, Otzma Yehudit MK Yitzhak Kroizer and Religious Zionism MK Michal Woldiger, has been considered several times over the last year.
The Ministerial Committee on Legislation, though not a formal part of the legislative process, is a way for the government to determine which bills it will back. The proposed legislation now awaits its preliminary reading in the Knesset.
If passed, it would establish a legal category of "terror-supporting states" for the first time, with its preamble explicitly naming Qatar as the world’s leading financier of terrorism.
Any nation given "terror-supporting" status would be subject to restrictions similar to those imposed on enemy states, including bans on donations, trade and diplomatic processes with Israel.
The proposed law would also prevent Israel from allowing a "terror-supporting state" to be involved in any negotiations between Israel and a third party. However,
the difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits...
this would not necessarily prevent Qatar from mediating on the issue of the Gazoo hostages, since a subsection of the bill determines that "the Ministerial Committee for National Security Affairs may determine that a specific terror-supporting state shall be exempt from this restriction."
Qatar is one of the states mediating the talks, though Israeli officials have publicly blamed Doha for Hamas not accepting recent compromise proposals.
The bill has reached the Ministerial Committee for Legislation two separate times — once at the end of 2024, and once in January — but according to a Channel 12 report citing minutes from the meetings, the National Security Council blocked it at the request of Prime Minister’s Office officials, while citing opposition from the security establishment.
The National Security Council said at the time that it did not oppose the legislation, and that, on the contrary, it supported it. The PMO called the Channel 12 report "fake news," and said the bill was being "seriously considered."
The PMO is currently embroiled in the so-called "Qatargate" scandal, in which several of Netanyahu’s top aides are suspected of taking money from the Gulf state in exchange for public relations work while working for Netanyahu, in the process committing multiple offenses.
Netanyahu has also come under criticism for allowing Qatar to fund the Hamas-run Strip, and even dispatching officials to ensure the payments continued, in the years before the October 7, 2023, attack that started the ongoing war. Some reports — rejected by the prime minister — have alleged that he ignored intelligence that the funds were going to the terror group’s military wing.
The preamble to the bill approved Sunday alleges that Qatar — "acting as a wolf in sheep’s clothing" — has, "in addition to its direct support for terror organizations," also "invested more than $1 trillion around the world with the goal of advancing global Jihad, through ’donations’ to campuses in the US, support for sports teams, [and] investments in leading lobbying groups in the US."
The Gulf state has done so, the bill says, "with the goal of directing public opinion, in the US and globally, against Israel and against Jews."
Recent investigations — in the wake of the emirate’s plan to donate a plane for US President Donald Trump
...Oh, noze! Not him!...
’s use — have outlined Qatar’s billion-dollar investments in American educational institutions, its retention of dozens of lobbying firms in Washington, and its personal relationships and business ties to members of Trump’s inner circle.
The Gulf state also funds the Hamas-friendly Al Jazeera network, which broadcasts to hundreds of millions of viewers worldwide.
The Trump administration has praised Qatar’s role in hostage talks and in the Middle East generally. The US president visited the state at the end of his Mideast tour last week, which did not include Israel, and lauded its investment in a US air base, as well as its recently announced deals with American companies and defense contractors.
