John Kerry, Hamas, Qatar, Iran And Treachery

I spent most of a rainy Sunday morning watching the talking heads on the Sunday political talk shows and sat in amazement at the veiled anti-Semitism on parade.  I was especially appalled at the heavy-handed manner in which CNN’s Candy Crowley kept nudging the conversation in the direction of blaming Israel for the bitter war between the Israelis and the genocidal terrorist organization Hamas.  A bitter war, I might add, that Israel sought earnestly to avoid.

Mike Rogers (R-MI), Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee appeared on Meet The Press and Face The Nation.  It was the Face The Nation interview that yielded the most telling evidence of just how complicit the mainstream media has been by choosing, yes choosing, to portray Israel as some horrible aggressor.

The point at which this became evident was when the host, Bob Schieffer asked, as though inexplicably shocked, “But I thought the Qataris were our allies here?”

Here’s the transcript:

"That's what's so frustrating with the administration," he said "All of this works together. You can't just pick and choose one particular region; it has to work in concert. So when you free up $2.8 billion for Iran, when they're already cash strapped because of sanctions, that means they can continue to do bad activities in the Gaza Strip, including we believe at least missile components."

He said that Qatar, which acts as a U.S. ally on other issues, are also funneling money to Hamas, as are some sources inside of Saudi Arabia. And, Rogers added, the militant group also takes legitimate foreign aid dollars coming into the region to put toward building tunnels into Israel that the Israeli government is working to destroy.

"Think about how obscene that is, the hundreds of millions of dollars they've had over a decade. Twenty percent of the people in Gaza Strip aren't connected to a water source. Ninety percent of all the water there doesn't meet international standards. But they've got, I think the Israelis disclosed, 35 tunnels. So they're diverting legitimate money. And you have Iran that is aligned into this particular interest in a way that's very, very dangerous," he said.

In an earlier interview on "Face the Nation," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the army had discovered a "vast underground terror kingdom" meant to give Hamas a way to carry out attacks in Israel. He promised Israel would not stop trying to destroy the tunnels, although he did not specify whether there would be an expansion of the current ground invasion.

But Rogers warned that the combination of Iranian and Qatari support for Hamas and for certain factions in Syria is "intertwined in a way that makes it a very dangerous stew indeed."

SCHIEFFER: Mr. Chairman, let's just go back to Israel for a minute. Hamas continues to fire these rockets.  They have poured all this concrete, as you heard Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu talk about.  Where are they getting this stuff? 

SCHIEFFER: But I thought the Qataris were our allies here? 

ROGERS: Well, this is what makes this region so interesting. 

So, you have Iran and the Qataris are supporting Hamas, and certainly factions thereof. They're also supporting places in Syria. So, that is why this is so intertwined in a way that makes it a very dangerous stew, indeed. 

It is one common thing that the Shias and the Sunnis do not like, and that is a Jewish Israel state. That is confirmed. And I think they have found an outlet to try to do this. And it's spreading to other areas, Bob. This is what is the other problem. There is the unseen war in this particular event, and that is the new cyber front. 

There are not only what you see coming from Hamas, attacks on Israel, but now we have nation states engaged in the region in cyber-conflict that could cause this to escalate in a way that is very, very dangerous for stability. 

SCHIEFFER: How much do you think they have? How much money do you think has been poured into these tunnels? It's literally millions of dollars which, as I understand it, came in there to build schools and things of that nature. 

ROGERS: Well, again, I think they diverted some of the legitimate money. Clearly, that happened. Instead of building wells or water infrastructure, they diverted that money to build these tunnels. 

And I think that they are getting money again from Iran, who has been a maligned force in that whole entire region. Think about it. They are putting Hezbollah in the fight in Syria and supplying Hamas in the Gaza Strip with weapons. That is the difficult part here. 

And what is concerning about that is just about 10 days ago or so, the United States agreed to allow Iran to have another $2.8 billion released just for them to continue nuclear negotiations. And that is what is so frustrating with the administration now. 

All of this works together. You can't just pick and choose one particular region. It has to work in concert. When you free up $2.8 billion for Iran, when they are already cash-strapped because of sanctions that means they can continue to do bad activities in the Gaza Strip, including missile—we believe, at least missile components. What they have—we understand, according to public reports, they have even offered to help hide those missile systems, and their work in Syria with supporting the Assad regime. 

It's not working in concert that is helping us cause this confusion around the Middle East. 

SCHIEFFER: Well, Congressman, I want to tell you, you have explained and made this thing even more dire than I understood it at the beginning of this broadcast.

More dire.

Avi Issacharoff reported the content of John Kerry’s ceasefire proposal writing, “Israel and the US are meant to be allies; the US is meant to be committed to the protection of Israel in this most ruthless of neighborhoods; together, the US and Israel are meant to be trying to marginalize the murderous Islamic extremism that threatens the free world. Yet here was the top US diplomat appearing to accommodate a vicious terrorist organization bent on Israel’s destruction, with a formula that would leave Hamas better equipped to achieve that goal.”

[SNIP]

Whether through ineptitude, malice, or both, Kerry’s intervention was not a case of America’s top diplomat coming to our region to help ensure, through astute negotiation, the protection of a key ally. This was a betrayal.

Read his entire piece here.

Apparently John Kerry thinks the Israeli media is state-controlled, like it is in Washington http://t.co/273hruD82w
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) July 28, 2014