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building public schools. We should not be
building a waste water treatment plant or
waste water networks or water reservoirs,"
he told me. "Unfortunately we have to do
that because the Palestinian Authority does
not have the funding and the donors let [the
PA] down."

There might be a political calculation
behind Qatar's decision to throw an amount
of money equivalent to two years of U.S.
financial aid to the PA behind a single
private-sector figure like Masri. Qatar
recently announced plans to invest nearly
$400 million in the Hamas-controlled Gaza
Strip, and in October of 2012, Qatari Emir
Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani
became the first head of state to visit the
Strip after the Islamist militant group's
2007 takeover. Hamas politburo chief
Khaled Meshaal lives in Doha, and Qatar
Diar is financing a major development in
Sudan, whose cash-strapped government
enjoys close relations with Iran, and has
facilitated the transfer of long-range
rockets to Hamas. In short, Qatar supports
an E.U. and U.S. listed terrorist
organization bitterly opposed to both Israel
and the current PA leadership. And it also
has no problem investing in Rawabi.

According to Kamran Bokhari, vice
president of Middle Eastern and South
Asian affairs for Stratfor, Qatari support for
Hamas is part of the sheikhdom's larger,
post-Arab Spring strategy of siding with

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