An Israeli invasion of Gaza could come, literally, at any moment. Hamas terrorists crouching in the rubble of their bases of operation in Gaza will be facing the full might and rage of the Israel Defense Forces.
The cadre of old men that make up Hamas's "leaders," however, are living in the lap of luxury 2,000 kilometers away in opulent hotel rooms in Doha, Qatar -- the same city that hosts the United States military's Central Command.
On October 7, as Hamas gunmen rampaged across southern Israel, a group of middle-aged men in a luxury suite in Doha, Qatar gathered in front of a camera.
Hamas leaders, led by Ismail Haniyeh, recorded themselves showing surprise about the attacks from the news on a large-screen television, and then kneeling to give thanks to Allah for the success of the operation.
This episode served as a reminder that while innocent civilians in Gaza die in their hundreds from aerial bombing and tens of thousands more are rendered homeless, Hamas's leaders exist above the fray in air-conditioned comfort 2,000 kilometres away as guests of Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani.
That's right: Qatar, supposedly a U.S. ally, to the point where the Pentagon has located a major joint command in their capital, is allowing these people to stay in Qatar as guests of the king.
The U.S. Treasury Department released a statement on Wednesday (Oct 18) describing how they intend to put the squeeze on Hamas' finances:
Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed sanctions on ten key Hamas terrorist group members, operatives, and financial facilitators in Gaza and elsewhere including Sudan, Türkiye, Algeria, and Qatar. This action targets members managing assets in a secret Hamas investment portfolio, a Qatar-based financial facilitator with close ties to the Iranian regime, a key Hamas commander, and a Gaza-based virtual currency exchange and its operator. Today’s designations are part of a continuous effort by the United States to root out Hamas’s sources of revenue in the West Bank and Gaza and across the region and is taken in close coordination with regional partners and allies. To date, Treasury has targeted nearly 1,000 individuals and entities connected to terrorism and terrorist financing by the Iranian regime and its proxies, including Hamas, Hizballah, and other Iran-aligned terrorist groups in the region.
It remains to be seen how effective this will be; Hamas's leadership already controls portfolios worth hundreds of millions, and unlike Iran and Russia, Hamas is not a nation-state; the tangled web of companies and holdings will be difficult to sort out, and it's safe to assume that Hamas' leaders will have that money moving within hours of Treasury making any effort to seize or freeze funds.
There are, however, two other factors that have to be brought up here.
First: There can be no word for the old men huddled in luxury suites in Qatar but "cowards." They are great at rabble-rousing, and evidently adept at propagandizing and fund-raising, but when it comes to facing the music, not so much. It's unlikely that Qatar will extradite these men to stand trial; not when they are the personal guests of Emir Al-Thani. Oh, the President could demand that Qatar turn Hamas' leaders over to face Israeli justice, but given the weakness and fecklessness of this administration, President Biden just doesn't have much leverage.
Second: Israel intends to dig Hamas out of Gaza, root and branch. But the savages hiding in Gaza are Hamas' arms and hands, its legs and feet. Hamas's heart and brains are in Qatar, and until those men face justice for their role in building Hamas up to the point where they were able to carry out the attacks of October 7th, the task just plain won't be completed.
At the end of the Second World War, war criminals were rounded up and put on trial, not only concentration camp commanders and guards but also senior Nazi leadership. The victorious Allies put men like Hermann Goering, Rudolf Hess, Joachim Peiper, Martin Weiss, Masaharu Homma, Takuma Nishimura, and Hideki Tojo on trial. The Allies hanged a lot of them. That, if you ask me, is the appropriate end for a war criminal the likes of these; it's an appropriate end for anyone convicted of murdering children, of massacring peaceful concert-goers, of murdering entire families.
It's also an appropriate end for the men who planned, financed, and supported these atrocities, and who celebrated them afterward. If hanging was good enough for Ernst Kaltenbrunner, then it's good enough for Ismail Haniyeh.
Then Israel will be able to call the job finished.