thanks Baker
Top Secret: In a 2018 Letter, Netanyahu Asks Qatar to Fund Hamas
In letter seen by handful of people, PM urges Doha to deliver $30 million to Gaza monthly, claiming funding Hamas would preserve regional stability and avert humanitarian crisis.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged the government of Qatar to continue the transfer of money to Gaza, in a secret letter sent to the Qatari leadership in 2018 and only seen by a handful of people since. In the letter, Netanyahu explained that the funding would reduce the motivation of terror groups there to carry out attacks, would prevent a humanitarian crisis and was vital for preserving regional stability.
There are two different time periods for Qatari funding of the Gaza Strip, which allowed Hamas to grow from an insignificant terror organization into a military empire with battalions, an underground network of tunnels and the fire power of a small army.
Between 2007 and 2014, Qatar provided Hamas with funds, away from any international oversight or review and from2014 on, funding from Qatar was coordinated with the United States and Israel.
The 2014 war in Gaza was the turning point. The U.S., UN, Israel and Qatar decided soon after the war to set up a new system in which $30 million would be delivered to the coastal strip by Doha each month. Some $10 million was to buy fuel from Israel, needed to operate Gaza's power station, $10 million to pay the salaries of government employees, and the final $10 million was to be given in $100 stipends to some 100,000 Gazan families in need.
Until 2018, Qatari funds were not given to Gaza on a regular basis and delivered only occasionally with approval from Israel and the Palestinian Authority. "The PA said it would no longer agree to fund Hamas and rather than let the terror group collapse, Israel decided on an alternative route for its funding," says Dr. Udi Levi, who was the Mossad official charged with fighting the funding of terror until 2016. "That was part of Israel's policy to buy quiet. Hamas demanded that the $30 million per month would be delivered directly to the ruling faction. It was naïve to believe Hamas would provide the money to the population in Gaza."
Then-U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin, who was in charge of finance for the campaign to reelect Donald Trump and who is Jewish, agreed to a request from Netanyahu and sent an additional letter to Doha, this time from Washington, in effect, ensuring Qatar that the funding of Hamas would not be considered funding terror.
Sauce: https://www.ynetnews.com/article/bk8mgcefr