The Emir of Qatar paid an official visit to Gaza today.
I think the general public in the West underestimates the influence that the Qataris have in the region and over American foreign policy.
They are pretty much at a point where they can give AIPAC a run for their money, and after all, money is what it's all about.
Sheikh Hamad is the first head of state to grace the Gaza enclave with an official visit. It comes six years after Hamas won fair and square elections that had been heavily promoted by the Nations of Virtue, who assumed that Israeli stooge Mahmoud Abbas and his Palestinian Authority would prevail.
Alas, that was not to be. The Palestinian Authority seemed to lose most of its authority with the demise of Arafat
The triumph of Hamas in Gaza was a bitter irony. Hamas originally had at least the tacit support of Israel and the Nations of Virtue, who saw them as a pliable alternative to Arafat.
What a miscalculation that was!
The Qataris are the money and the brains behind Al Jazeera. They are the money and the brains behind the Syrian uprising. When the leader of Qatar pays a visit to those terror masterminds in Gaza, we ignore the ramifications at our peril.
By "rehabilitation" we are not talking about a substantive change in Hamas ideology. We are talking about a PR rehabilitation.
Look for broadly sympathetic features about daily life in Gaza, coming soon to the New York Times.
And it's just a matter of time before we see Piers Morgan interviewing Ismail Haniyah on CNN.
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