Qatar, Hamas and Netanyahu’s government

Who Was Funding the Enemy While Israel Slept?

For years, Benjamin Netanyahu presented himself to the Israeli people as the leader best equipped to guarantee their security. His message was always clear: a firm hand against terrorism, no concessions to Hamas, and a foreign policy designed to protect the State of Israel.

But behind that rhetoric, a far more disturbing reality was unfolding.

While Hamas was building tunnels, accumulating weapons, and preparing its forces to attack Israel, millions of dollars from Qatar were entering the Gaza Strip with the knowledge and approval of the Israeli government.

This was not a clandestine operation. It was a deliberate policy.

Beginning in 2018, Netanyahu’s government permitted Qatari funds to enter Gaza, arguing that the money would help prevent a humanitarian crisis and maintain calm along Israel’s southern border.

The question is simple: How could a government that fully understood the terrorist nature of Hamas believe that financially sustaining the territory under its control would strengthen Israel’s security?

The answer may be even more troubling.

Investigations and political analyses have suggested that maintaining the division between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority also served a political objective: preventing the emergence of a unified Palestinian leadership and reducing the prospects of establishing a Palestinian state.

In other words, a terrorist organization may have been considered politically useful to an Israeli government.

And that strategy ended in catastrophe.

On October 7, 2023, Hamas carried out the deadliest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. Approximately 1,200 people were murdered, and 251 were abducted and taken into Gaza.

Then came the investigations, the ignored warnings, and the questions that remain unanswered.

Subsequent reporting raised serious concerns about whether the financial arrangements with Qatar had indirectly strengthened Hamas, even when the funds were officially designated for civilian purposes.

Netanyahu’s government has defended the policy, arguing that the money was intended for humanitarian needs and that the arrangements were supported by security officials.

But even accepting that explanation, one fundamental question remains:

Who was politically responsible for ensuring that the money did not strengthen the enemy?

And then there is Qatar itself.

The same country that hosted Hamas’s political leadership, maintained financial ties with Gaza, and acted as a mediator in hostage negotiations has also appeared at the center of an investigation into alleged payments and influence operations involving individuals close to Israel’s prime minister.

The scandal known as Qatargate raises questions that no Israeli citizen should be expected to ignore.

Were people close to the highest levels of Israeli power working to improve the image of a foreign government while Israel was fighting a war against Hamas?

Could private financial interests have interfered with matters of national security?

And to what extent might those alleged relationships have influenced the information presented to the Israeli public?

These are allegations under investigation, not judicially established conclusions. But their seriousness demands transparent answers.

There is another issue that is even more painful: the hostages.

For months, their families demanded agreements that would bring their loved ones home. Meanwhile, political opponents and other critics accused the government of allowing domestic political considerations, including the survival of its coalition, to influence the negotiations.

Such accusations cannot be treated as proven facts. But neither should they be dismissed without thorough examination when human lives were at stake.

Israel’s security does not belong to any political party.

The life of a soldier, a hostage, or an ordinary citizen must never become an instrument for the political survival of a government.

I am an ordinary Israeli citizen. I do not belong to any political party, nor do I pretend to have all the answers. But as a citizen of Israel, I have the right to demand explanations from those who govern in my name and make decisions affecting our security, our families, and our future.

I am not interested in a political witch hunt.

I want to know who made the decisions, who authorized them, who issued the warnings, and who chose not to listen.

And above all, who benefited from a policy that ultimately weakened our security?

I am not asking for favors or voluntary explanations.

I am demanding accountability. Because in a democracy, governments must answer to their citizens, not the other way around.

Responsibility for the October 7 massacre belongs to the Hamas terrorists who planned and carried it out.

But that does not absolve our political leaders of responsibility for decisions and failures that may have made the catastrophe possible.

Israel has the right to know the whole truth.

Because if Qatari money helped strengthen Hamas, if individuals close to the government received payments connected to Qatari interests, and if political decisions compromised our national security, then we are not merely facing a possible corruption scandal.

We are facing a crisis of national responsibility.

And no democracy can afford to allow the truth to be buried beneath the interests of those in power.