Israel Matzav

Qatar auction: buy the Ferrari and you will help Gaza

Fiamma Nirenstein - a former EU legislator who lives in Israel - emailed me this English translation of her Tuesday column in Italy's Il Giornale.

One may think that the situation in the Middle East is no laughing matter. Yesterday, in his speech to the UN, Netanyahu gave a concerned list: there is ISIS, which wants to achieve a worldwide caliphate by chopping people’s heads off; there is Iran, which is trying to do the same thing by building the atomic bomb; and there are other terrorist groups as well, which are thriving also among us, despite the international effort... Not an amusing picture at all.

But, as it seems, there still is a humorist around, and it is Qatar, the same old tightrope walker, house of thousands oil wells (eighty thousand barrels per day), financial backer of all the Arab springs, but also of FIFA, father of Al Jazeera, sympathizer and host of the Muslim Brotherhood and of Hamas, until it kicked both of them off in order to join Obama’s coalition.

But as Qatar is so nice, it organized a lovely initiative to help the poor residents of Gaza after the war: the “Red Crescent Movement” held a fundraising event, selling what princes and their buddies had to spare, namely a Lamborghini 2013 (pretty aged, isn’t it?), two Ferraris, one MacLaren and some other modest trifles. Three million dollars, but don’t mention it, it’s peanuts...all in the line of duty, sir.

Qatar is truly amazing: some say it financially supported ISIS too, and now it fights it. Also, it threw the Muslim Brotherhood out, but let its leader, Yusuf Al Qaradawi, speak at that charity car auction.

It is kicking Khaled Mashaal out too (so they say), while sending its luxury leftovers to the Palestinian children. Maybe, in this respect, it could have economized before, when it was providing money for Hamas’ weapons. This is too funny. If we can say so.

If Meshaal is kicked out of Qatar, it will be for not being radical enough.

Labels: financing terror, Gaza, Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, Muslim Brotherhood, Qatar

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:22 PM