Antisemitism Knows No Limits

Middle East Forum posted an article titled “The U.S. Should Beware of Qatar,” authored by Gregg Roman on December 7, 2023. His opening warning stated that as Israel wages its righteous war against Hamas, it is important for the U.S. to be wary of Qatar, which has attempted to establish itself as a mediator.

In June 2017, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt severed relations with Qatar, accusing it of “adopting various terrorist and sectarian groups aimed at destabilizing the region.” The four countries issued 13 demands to the Qatari monarchy, the most significant of which was to break military and politicTheal relations with Iran. Qatar ignored them.

In 2021, the Israeli government reported Qatar’s financing of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Iran’s instrument of terrorism and oppression, tasked with maintaining the Iranian revolution at home and exporting it abroad. Qatar also seeks to spread its malign influence in America. It is the single largest foreign donor to American universities, donating at least $4.7 billion between 2001 and 2021. Qatar’s propaganda is disseminated via Al Jazeera, which it owns. The network provides a platform to the genocidal leaders of Hamas, including the group’s chief Ismail Haniyeh (who calls Doha home) and Ghazi Hamad, who threatened:

“We must teach Israel a lesson, and we will do this again and again. The Al-Aqsa Flood [Hamas’s name for the October 7 massacre] is just the first time. There will be a second, a third, a fourth.”

The late Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader Yusuf al-Qaradawi, based in Doha, was notorious for calling on God “to kill the Jewish Zionists, every last one of them.” On another occasion, he said:
“Throughout history, Allah has imposed upon the [Jewish] people those who would punish them for their corruption. The last punishment was carried out by Hitler.” Qaradawi also praised and sanctioned Palestinian suicide bombers on the Al Jazeera network. Likewise, Al Jazeera has often served as a platform for virulent anti-Americanism. In 2004, it broadcast a speech by Osama bin Laden in which the terror mastermind justified the 9/11 attacks and threatened Americans with further terrorism.

Its broadcasters have called suicide bombers “martyrs” and prominently supported the anti-American Muslim Brotherhood regime in Egypt. While Qatar tries to portray itself as a neutral arbiter—a “grown-up” that can be trusted to act prudently and engage all sides—this is a lie. Qatar uses its ostensible “neutrality” to advance the interests of Iran and global terrorism. It offers a comfortable home to terrorist leaders and provides a platform for dangerous radicals to spread hateful and genocidal rhetoric. The discovery of oil in the mid-20th century transformed Qatar into a wealthy nation, and it gained full independence in 1971.

In National Review, in “Presidential Mistakes” (April 15, 2010), David Pryce-Jones recounted President Obama stating that American policy toward Israel was “costing us significantly in blood and treasure.”

First mistake: It’s the other way around. Israel is holding the front line against Iran, whose power is spreading through the region via Syria, Hezbollah, and Hamas. If Israel were not doing so, the U.S. would face a difficult and uncomfortable choice: either to confront Iran directly or to concede that Pax Americana had failed and withdraw from the Middle East with as little humiliation as possible. Obama believed that the Israeli–Palestinian issue held the key to Middle East stability.

Second mistake: Even if genuine peace and a Palestinian state were on the horizon, it would make no difference to the Sunni-Shia divide, to the ambitions of Osama bin Laden or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to the civil war in Yemen, to the sectarian conflict in Lebanon, or to the despotic regimes in Egypt and Syria.

Third mistake: The Palestinians are irreparably divided between Fatah and Hamas. A state would likely trigger a civil war over which faction would control it. From this swamp of misconception and ignorance, Obama began weighing whether to use his presidency to impose a solution on Israel.

Fourth mistake: No such solution exists. Any attempt at imposition would compel Israel to treat its existence as a matter of urgent self-defense and survival. The consequences would be catastrophic. In the White House, it seemed, someone was playing with fire.

David Pryce-Jones has long been an indispensable guide to the realities of the Arab world. Through his chilling books, he exposes the threat political Islam poses to us all. As Norman Podhoretz remarked, Pryce-Jones helps awaken us to this menace. In Commentary, “The Islamization of Europe” (December 2004), Pryce-Jones began with this observation: “An imported extremism has flourished on the continent, as has a new form of liberal fellow-traveling.”

He recalled that not long ago, mass-murder attacks in the name of Islam—such as those on September 11—would have seemed like a thriller writer’s fantasy. Who could have imagined that Islamist bombings could swing a general election in Europe? That a Dutch filmmaker would be shot dead for a film about the abuse of women in Islam? Or that we would one day see, on live television, the beheadings of Western hostages by men crying “Allahu Akbar” over their savage deeds?

Pakistan had a nuclear bomb, often described as an “Islamic bomb.” The Islamist leaders of Iran could barely conceal their eagerness to perfect and use their own version of it. A watchful observer, Winston Churchill, wrote of Islam then called Mohammedanism—in The River War (1899): “Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step. Were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome.”

Bat Ye’or, the historian of dhimmitude, wrote that Europe has evolved from a Judeo-Christian civilization with Enlightenment and secular elements to a “secular Muslim transitional society” in which traditional Judeo-Christian mores are rapidly disappearing. She called this new entity Eurabia. Germany, in particular, has played a disproportionate role in terrorism and Islamist militancy. At a rally in London organized by a radical offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, many demonstrators were clearly not of Middle Eastern origin. At a trial in Cairo, where three British citizens were convicted for subversion and intended terrorism, two were English-born with English names.

If Bassam Tibi is correct in saying, “Either Islam gets Europeanized or Europe gets Islamized,” then powerful forces are already working to decide the outcome. Many books have examined terrorism driven by antisemitic motives. The Iron Swords War—the longest and most difficult in Israel’s history—has been accompanied by an unprecedented wave of antisemitism, leading to a surge in hate crimes targeting Jews around the world. This dangerous trend poses an immense challenge to policymakers and law enforcement authorities, many of whom appear to be struggling to respond effectively.

Londonistan remains one of the most compelling books ever written on the rise of Islamic fundamentalism, violence, and intimidation in the West. For more than a decade, Britain was the European hub of Islamist extremism. Under the noses of British intelligence, a network of terrorists and sympathizers used the UK as a base to plot, finance, recruit, and train for atrocities in the United States and beyond.

Ayatollah Khomeini said in his Programme for the Establishment of an Islamic Government (1979):

“We must protest and make the people aware that the Jews and their foreign backers are opposed to the very foundations of Islam and wish to establish Jewish domination throughout the world… They are cunning and resourceful… and—God forbid—may one day achieve this goal… May God never let us see such a day.”
Bruce Bawer’s While Europe Slept (2007) exposed how radical Islam is “destroying the West from within.” He wrote:

“When Hirsi Ali revealed in February that she was living in a marine complex for protection—and that her parliamentary colleague Geert Wilders was spending his nights in a prison cell—many Parliament members, instead of being outraged, blamed them for their own plight. Several journalists and MPs even suggested, shamefully, that the two should resign.”

Benjamin Franklin’s words seem more relevant than ever: “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”

Meanwhile, Hirsi Ali was being sued by an Islamic foundation for “blasphemy.” Though the judge ruled in her favor, he advised her to be more circumspect. Khaled Abu Toameh noted:

“Among the Islamist terrorist organizations that Qatar and Al Jazeera have supported over the years are the Muslim Brotherhood, Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, Hezbollah, the Al-Nusra Front/Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, ISIS, Hamas, and even the Houthi rebels in Yemen.”

Qatar’s main objective is to safeguard its allies in Hamas, continue promoting radical Islam, and deceive the West into believing jihadists are a better alternative to existing Arab regimes. Whether the current U.S. administration will be as gullible as others remains to be seen.

In conclusion, the incitement to carry out terrorist attacks is often fueled by ethnic and religious divisions, political interests, and bitter rivalries. The danger is clear. The response, so far, is not.