Emir of Qatar embraces Hamas
Israel calls official visit to Gaza ‘astounding’
GAZA CITY — The emir of Qatar embraced the Hamas leadership of Gaza on Tuesday with an official visit that broke the isolation of the Palestinian Islamist movement, to the dismay of Israel and rival, western-backed Palestinian leaders.
Israel said it was “astounding” that Qatar, a U.S.-allied Gulf state whose oil and gas permit it to punch way above its diplomatic weight, would take sides in the Palestinian dispute and endorse Hamas, branded as terrorists in the West. The emir had “thrown peace under the bus,” an Israeli spokesman said.
But some analysts saw a daring move, aimed at rehabilitating Hamas in western eyes to coax it into the peace camp at a time when the Arab Spring revolts, and civil war in Syria, have been reshaping power balances across the Middle East.
The emir, who is rare among Arab rulers in having met senior Israeli officials, denounced Israel’s policies and praised people in Gaza for standing up to it with “bare chests.” But he also urged rival Palestinian leaders to abandon their feuds.
The Gaza Strip is all but cut off from the world under a land and sea blockade by Israel and Egypt that is intended to obstruct the import of arms to Hamas. A Sunni Islamist group, like several others supported by Qatar elsewhere, it has long been aided by Shiite Iran and its allies Syria and Hezbollah.
In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Authority of President Mahmoud Abbas, Hamas’s archrival, said it hoped the Qatari visit would not hinder the rebuilding of Palestinian unity, nor endorse a separate Palestinian territory in Gaza.
Embarking on what was a state visit in all but name, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani and his wife, Sheikha Mozah, crossed from Egypt with a large delegation, to be greeted by Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and an honour guard.
Hundreds of Palestinians lined his route, waving Palestinian and Qatari flags.
“Today we declare victory over the blockade through this historic visit,” Haniyeh told the Qatari monarch at the site of a new town to be built with the emirate’s money.