O Jerusalem, awake, awake. We will never succumb to the darkness. O Jerusalem, rise up, rise up. Revive the memory of [Izz al-Din] al-Qassam. O Jerusalem, shoot flames of fire.
So tweeted the Qatari regime confidant Sa’oud bin Abd al-Rahman bin Hassan Al Thani, now deputy prime minister and minister of state for defense affairs, during the 2014 outbreak of fighting between the Gaza-based Islamist terrorist organization Hamas and the state of Israel. Seven years later, on November 30, 2021, Al Thani tweeted that “Israel’s control of the U.S. is clear. We must plan how to influence the decision-makers in the U.S.” Per a MEMRI report on the Qatari defense minister’s now-deleted social media, a follower responded: “I wish it were that easy,” to which Al Thani answered, “With correct planning and a strong will, everything is possible.”
Indeed, it is.
Qatar, a tiny emirate of fewer than three million people, long traveled under the radar; it was influential, but far from a Washington byword. On the plus side, Qatar is home to the largest U.S. airbase in the Middle East, al-Udeid, and pays the freight for its costs. But Doha is also home to Hamas, a Taliban delegation, sundry al-Qaeda types, and billions in Iranian money. Yes, the emirate has landed itself in hot water repeatedly thanks to its state-funded Al Jazeera network—accused by the United States of working with al-Qaeda during the Iraq war, and by the Saudis of seeking to undermine the ruling family in 2017—but by dint of an open checkbook and unparalleled influence operations in the United States, the Qatari royal family is once again riding high. How open is that checkbook?
Per Politico, Qatar has some three dozen “lobbying and PR firms” on its tab. Members of the Trump administration who have appeared on the Qatari payroll include the FBI director Kash Patel, the EPA director Lee Zeldin, Attorney-General Pam Bondi, and the ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee. Then there’s the president’s son, Eric Trump, who, along with the Gaza/Ukraine/Iran envoy Steve Witkoff’s son, Zack, is building a golf resort in Qatar, which is being financed by a Saudi developer (DarGlobal) in partnership with the firm Qatari Diar, which is owned by the Qatari government.
But where the government of Qatar has truly made its mark is on the American education system, both K-12 and at the university level. Between 1986 and 2024, the Qatari government poured $6.3 billion into American universities, with fully one third of that lucre handed over since 2021. Is that money related to the anti-Semitic extremism that grew quietly on American campuses, only to explode after October 7, 2023? Probably.
Here’s how it works: in most cases, analysts have not traced funds from foreign governments—Qatar, for instance—directly into the bank account of a Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter at a particular university. The mechanism is more indirect. Research by the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP) points instead to a web of connections between universities and overseas donors—chiefly Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates—that helps cultivate an atmosphere in which anti-Semitic rhetoric can thrive. In the case of Qatar, much of this funding flows through a variety of entities—some state agencies and others, like the fully government-financed Qatar Foundation, officially described as “private.” Additional transfers occur through the creation of branch campuses in Qatar, typically bound by restrictive contracts that give the donor power over matters such as which courses may be offered. Such institutions as Texas A&M, Georgetown, Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, Northwestern, and Virginia Commonwealth have all benefited from substantial Qatari contributions (though Texas A&M will wind down its presence in Qatar by 2028).
The central conclusion from ISGAP is stark: between 2015 and 2020—well before October 7—U.S. universities accepting money from Middle Eastern sources saw, “on average, 300-percent more anti-Semitic incidents than those institutions that did not.” That conclusion is bolstered by a study done by the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI), which found that “foreign funding provided by member countries of the Organization for Islamic Cooperation or by authoritarian countries was associated with elevated levels of campus anti-Semitism and anti-Zionist incidents.”
Note that most of the research finding correlations between campus anti-Semitism and foreign funding relied almost exclusively on foreign funding that had been declared under Section 117 of the Higher Education Act, which requires universities to disclose any foreign donation over $250,000. But the first Trump administration found widespread evasion of Section 117 requirements, with a failure to report more than $6 billion in donations. In addition, the funding for anti-Semitic groups like SJP and others remains opaque, with no requirements for non-profits, or the non-profit foundations that in turn fund them, to disclose foreign donations, public or private.
The government of Qatar is now trying to push back against efforts to require additional disclosure, and is using substantial sums to combat studies like ISGAP’s. Recent Department of Justice disclosures reveal that the former education secretary Bill Bennett has registered as a foreign agent to the tune of $30,000 a month to defend Doha from charges of fomenting anti-Semitism. “I accepted this role,” Bennett wrote to Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, “so I could apply my experience and independent judgment to a growing body of accusations against Qatar. Many of these allegations appear to be driven more by politics and international rivalries than by genuine concern for educational integrity. I have already conducted substantial research and reviewed a wide range of commentary and reporting about Qatar’s partnerships with U.S. academic institutions. Some of the more serious criticisms, including claims that Qatar exerts malign influence or promotes anti-Semitism through its educational engagements, are not supported by the evidence I have seen.”
The eighty-two-year-old Bennett, who friends tell me is seriously ill, goes on to assert the existence of “a coordinated campaign of distortion led primarily by third-party advocacy groups whose motivations and funding sources deserve far more scrutiny than they have received. . . . Some of these groups appear to be acting in coordination with, or in support of, the interests of other foreign governments.” That accusation, in a vein familiar to scholars of anti-Semitism, likely relates to previous Israeli government funding for ISGAP.
Is Qatar the only driver of campus anti-Semitism? Absolutely not. The resurgence of Marxist thought, critical race theory, and the “intersectionality” that demands that Jews must be reviled along with racism, fossil fuels, “settler colonialists,” and social conservatives deserves a significant chunk of the blame. But there should be little doubt that, in a campus environment hostile to Israel, Zionists, and Jews, the contributions of a country well known for its support for the Muslim Brotherhood and its Hamas progeny is a significant factor. And Qatar isn’t going away any time soon. If American universities are to become more welcoming places for Jews—indeed, if they are to become better institutions altogether—federal and state governments will have to crack down thoroughly on foreign funding, and administrators will have to exercise some restraint and just say no to money that fosters Jew hatred.
