Outgoing President Shimon Peres warned Qatar on Wednesday to stop supporting terrorism in Israel’s back yard.
“If they are providing funds to support the construction of hospitals and schools and helping to build a productive infrastructure, that is a good thing. But if they are sending money to purchase rockets and build tunnels, then let them stop it,” he said firmly.
Qatar is one of two nations chosen by Hamas to negotiate on its behalf in cease fire talks in Cairo; the other is Turkey. Both Islamist nations are strong supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood organization that founded Hamas. Qatar, home of the Al Jazeera satellite television network, is a wealthy nation that has provided a great deal of financial support to Hamas activities for years from various venues around the world, including the United States. Recently Al Jazeera purchased a cable television network from former U.S. vice president Al Gore and opened an English-language American Al Jazeera television cable station which some have contended is being used to give Qatar a quiet foreign policy base in the United States.
During his Wednesday breakfast meeting with United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in Jerusalem, Peres also took the opportunity to thank the world body leader for his friendship with the Jewish State. But he made it clear that now is the time for the U.N. to step up to the plate to help Israel deal with the nightmare in its back yard.
“Now we have to stand together and reject the danger and ugliness of terrorism,” he said.
“No state in the world would be willing to accept rockets fired at its mothers and children from the sky and terrorists emerging from tunnels to kill innocent people for no reason, and with no justification.”
Peres pointed out that the Hamas terrorist rulers of Gaza have even transformed the U.N.’s Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) into a tool for terrorism, using its schools as storage facilities for missiles it fires at Israel. “Mr. Secretary-General, they even use your UNRWA schools to store their rockets. The behavior of Hamas is a criminal act against their own people and ours.
“The death of innocent civilians pains me personally and it pains our people. We sanctify life, every life. Hamas glorifies death and they are the ones responsible for the deaths in Gaza. We must say clearly – terrorism will never bring peace. The way to peace is through negotiations, dialogue and compromise.”
For the second time in less than a week, UNRWA inspectors ‘discovered’ an untold number of missiles on Tuesday stashed in one of its schools. As it did last Thursday, however, the agency immediately handed over the ordnance to the Hamas terrorist organization.