"Palestinian civilians are cowering on the border with Egypt, fearing for their lives, while Hamas is hiding in its tunnels under the Gaza Strip - at least its military wing. The terrorist group's political arm is doing even better: Hamas's leadership is not hiding underground, but abroad. The Hamas leadership seems to particularly like Qatari luxury hotels. Not cheap fun, says Hans-Jakob Schindler from the Counter Extremism Project (CEP). 'Of course the gentlemen have to pay rent,' he says in the 'Again Something Learned” podcast from ntv.de. "Qatar is not a cheap country and they don't live on the poverty line.'"

CEP Senior Director Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler said: "Hamas over the years has made sure that it has several overlapping income streams, so that if you pressure one of them, it can substitute it with others. So the biggest pots really are, until about the beginning of October, anything that went on in Gaza. So any economic activity, but also taxes and levies on any aid money that came into Gaza, this is unfortunately a sad truth. Secondly, strategically, Qatar. $30 million per month was the official sum they admitted, very likely much more than that. In part from the Qatari government, but also Qatari donors directly into the Hams coffers. Iran has already been mentioned, material support within weapons, arms, ammunitions, trainings, but also money. And then we have the investment portfolio. Unfortunately, Hamas is not yet classified by a terrorist organization in many countries of the world..."

"Hans-Jakob Schindler of the international NGO Counter-Extremism Project recently stated that 'Hamas aims to create gruesome images of dead Palestinian civilians and thereby drag Iran and its proxies into the conflict.'"

"When warning about civilian casualties from the Israeli offensive, Western governments are also thinking about the dangers of regional escalation. 'Hamas is interested in producing horrific images of dead Palestinian civilians and thereby dragging Iran and its proxies into this conflict,' Hans-Jakob Schindler from the international organization Counter Extremism Project recently told Deutsche Welle."

CEP CEO Ambassador Mark Wallace interviewed: "The way the Qataris pulled this off is by whitewashing their role in supporting Islamic extremism, by supporting businesses and investing vast sums of hydrocarbon wealth across places in London, in the United States, and elsewhere.

"...The perpetrators of these acts are hiding in plain sight, not even hiding, posted in plain sight in luxury." 

"Qatar has had every opportunity to hand over the perpetrators of Oct. 7 to face justice. It has flatly refused. We at the Counter Extremism Project will continue our campaign for the economic and diplomatic isolation of Qatar until every hostage is released, every Hamas leader is arrested and Qatar makes clear by its actions—not only words—that in the war against terrorism it is on our side.

Joseph Lieberman

Frances F. Townsend

Mark D. Wallace"

" And the Islamic State, the senior director of the Counter Extremism Project tells O’Donnell, 'is clearly trying to show its relevance.' The effect of competition on transnational terror groups is more pronounced than on localized groups for reasons that should be obvious: The financial rewards and the recruiting grounds are nearly limitless."