The US needs to hold Qatar responsible for funding Hamas - opinion

It was another heart-wrenching week in Israel, another awful reminder that to much of the world, Jewish blood is cheap.

The news of the execution of six hostages – Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Ori Danino, Carmel Gat, Alexander Lobanov, and Almog Sarusi – has shattered us all. It isn’t just that they were found dead; it’s the barbaric and inhumane manner in which they were murdered. Our bodies are reacting in the same way they did in the weeks following October 7, when stress and despair completely took over.

The most devastating aspect is that all six hostages were alive for 11 months, held captive just one kilometer away from where Qaid Farhan Alkadi, a Bedouin hostage, was found only days earlier. The Hamas terrorists who held the six hostages executed them solely to prevent the IDF from rescuing them alive.

There is deep pain and division across the country about who should be held accountable for these murders. There are many moving parts here, and it is crucial that the public does not confuse or weaponize the protests occurring in Israel – though many media outlets and public figures have already done so. Make no mistake: even the protesters demanding more action from the Israeli government understand that Hamas is solely responsible for these murders.

This genocidal organization took innocent people captive, held them hostage for 11 months, and murdered them in cold blood. Anyone attempting to draw a moral equivalency between Hamas and the actions of the Israeli government is either delusional or actively trying to whitewash Hamas’s crimes.

That said, I have much to say about the actions and accountability of my leadership here in Israel. Yet, I know my words will be weaponized and twisted to harm Jews and Israelis. So, instead, I choose to focus on the harmful policies of the United States administration that have emboldened Hamas and led them to believe they can get away with such atrocities.

It has been 11 months of war, and the Biden administration has handled the conflict between Israel and Hamas appallingly. What is worse is that the US is not treating Hamas’s backers as state sponsors of terrorism.

The sanctions relief on Iran has allowed the regime to access $10 billion in previously frozen funds, giving it much-needed budget relief – the same Iran that supported and trained Hamas to carry out the October 7 massacre. Then there is Qatar, designated a major non-NATO ally by President Joe Biden on January 31, 2022, in recognition of its assistance during the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The US has praised Qatar for its negotiation efforts

The United States has praised Qatar for being an intermediary with Hamas over the past 11 months – the same Qatar that has been a key financial supporter of Hamas, transferring over $1.8 billion to them over the years. This is the same Qatar that houses Hamas leaders, who live in luxury at the expense of the Palestinian people. These are the Qataris who are supposed to be our partners in brokering a deal.

Then there is Egypt, a country that warned Israel not to enter Rafah, where many of our hostages were found, along with a labyrinth of Hamas terror tunnels along the Rafah border and the Philadelphi Corridor. What repercussions will Cairo face for disregarding the 180 tunnels that enabled Hamas to become the power it is in Gaza today?

There is also Lebanon, where Hamas has a base of operations alongside Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps. There’s also Turkey, a NATO ally, where just in the past few days, Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal openly called for more suicide bombings in Israel.

Can you imagine how different this conflict might have looked over the past 11 months if these state sponsors of Hamas were appropriately held accountable? If the world placed more sanctions on Iran, if more assets were seized and frozen, if the benefits of certain designations were revoked – Hamas might not have felt so emboldened to continue rejecting hostage deals. Instead, the United States has praised some of these countries as respected intermediaries in supposed hostage negotiations with the very terror group they are funding and supporting.

The US strategy has failed and has turned to pressuring Israel into making more concessions. While I am no fan of the way the Netanyahu government has managed this war, I hold the Biden administration responsible for allowing Hamas to believe that if it waits long enough, the world will pressure Israel into ending the war with Hamas intact.

As much as I understand that diplomatic channels in this region are essential, the reality is that Hamas slaughtered about 40 Americans on October 7, executed one American in captivity, and is still holding seven more hostages (three of whom are believed to be dead). The fact that Hamas had the audacity to execute someone with an American passport should tell you everything you need to know about what they think of President Biden and the United States.

All of these victims were and are America’s responsibility just as much as they are Israel’s, and yet America is not acting like these are their own people. The time for self-reflection is now; the US needs to reassess its strategy and determine how to dismantle the terror infrastructure that enables Hamas to continue murdering Israelis and Americans.

In the end, while it is important to be critical of failed policies, the world must remember that the party that is responsible for murdering these six hostages is Hamas and the heads of the snake in Iran. No matter where you stand on Biden or Netanyahu, we cannot lose perspective on these terrorist entities, who they are, and their goals in destroying both Israel and America.

The writer is a social media activist with over 10 years of experience working for Israeli and Jewish causes and cause-based NGOs. She is the co-founder and COO of Social Lite Creative, a digital marketing firm specializing in geopolitics.