| ... the only Israeli that President Obama likes... |
"Qatar does not have the right to send money for rockets and tunnels which are fired at innocent civilians," the outgoing statesman told UN Secretary General
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan...
in Jerusalem. "Their funding of terror must stop. If they want to build then they should, but they must not be allowed to destroy."
A front man for Peres would not comment on the information on which the president was basing his accusation, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's former security adviser said Qatar was relentlessly financing Hamas terror.
Qatar's recently attempted to transfer funds for the salaries of Hamas civil servants in Gaza, following the formation of a Palestinian unity government, but was blocked by the United States, which pressured the Arab Bank not to process them. But former national security adviser Maj. Gen. (res) Yaakov Amidror told The Times of Israel that the emirate's funding for the organization's terror apparatus, including tunnel diggers and rocket launchers, has continued unabated.
"Hamas currently has two 'true friends' in the world: Qatar and Turkey," Amidror said. The small Gulf state is currently Hamas's closest ally in the Arab world, after the movement's relations with Egypt soured following the ouster of Muslim Brotherhood president Mohammed Morsi in June 2013. Qatar, which has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in reconstruction and infrastructure projects in Gaza, is also home to the movement's political leader Khaled Mashaal in Doha.
"The one supporting this organization financially, almost alone, is Qatar," Amidror said.