Antisemitism is not an American tradition
Much is imported from Qatar under the cloak of the U.S. military
In the wake of the October 7 mass killings in Israel, we hear more about Qatar and its role in mediating ceasefire and hostage release negotiations, while also sheltering Hamas’ leadership in luxurious residences within. Qatar seems in the middle of every discussion and proposal in this conflict. Why Qatar, and are they a neutral arbiter? What are Qatar’s interests? The answers are troubling yet help us understand how antisemitism is spread from its source across the globe and to America. Much of modern American discord is funded, organized, and imported from abroad.
Antisemites are found all over the world, including in America. You can find vestiges in the U.S. today, as elite clubs and universities of the northeast practiced it well into the last century. Yet Antisemitism is in no way an inherent part of American life. In fact, America has long been Israel’s most ardent supporter and benefactor, with a thriving, vibrant, and fully integrated Jewish population. Antisemitism is a hard-to-explain and impossible-to-eradicate disease that perplexes and endangers to this day. In a nation such as the U.S, why do we now have an explosion of naked antisemitism across too many leading universities? Who are those protesting Israel and its response to such atrocities, blaming Israel for the war?
The existence of a corrosive uniformity of thought at our top universities broke wide open into public view recently with the resignation of Presidents Claudine Gay at Harvard and Liz Magill at Penn, soon after their poorly received testimonies before Congress in December. Both seemed rather unbothered by the open displays against Jews and Israel, some even threatening of violence, which took place on their campuses in the wake of October 7. Where are leadership’s priorities at these schools?
Many Americans are awakening to a culture on our campuses we do not recognize from our college days and wonder from whence all this came. A rising chorus of protests continue to call for a ceasefire from Israel rather than the end of Iran’s destructive aims on the people of Israel. Are these protests spontaneous outpourings of widely held beliefs in America, or more the purchased participation of advocates sponsored elsewhere? Are there outside influences perhaps at work to massage and move thought in a particular way that might be harmful to American unity?
Outsiders benefit from American division and disunity
Our adversaries around the world have long attempted to undermine our society from within, understanding that cohesion and unity are among our core historical strengths. We have known particularly of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) interest in spreading its visions on U.S. campuses via the Confucius Institutes, the Thousand Talents collaboration recruitment of scientists, professors and engineers, and other less visible channels. We have been responding wisely by closing the Confucius Institutes and clamping down on conflicted academics and scientists being paid in the Thousand Talents program. Nonetheless the battle continues against CCP attempts to manipulate and influence American thought.
Yet China is only one of many nations working openly as well as discretely to upend our social balance and sow division within. Some of our adversaries spend inordinate amounts of time trying to undermine our progress as an adjunct to advancing on their own. Iran’s mullahs and their Islamist surrogates including Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis share a common goal to eradicate Jews and infidels from the earth and eliminate Israel.
Enter Qatar
Less forthright, and yet nearly as responsible as Iran’s leaders for spreading hatred of Jews in the U.S. and elsewhere, is Qatar and its ruling Al Thani family. Granted independence from British control in 1971, the tiny emirate, the size of Connecticut with the population of Houston, is the second largest exporter of liquified natural gas in the world. This gives them the means with which to buy influence. The cover for that influence lies in the U.S. Air Force base in Qatar at Al Udeid, our largest military base in the Middle East, which also serves as the forward headquarters of U.S. Central Command. Built by Qatar, the U.S. moved its major Middle East air operations there from Saudi Arabia after 9/11. It can host more than 10,000 U.S. military personnel. Nearby Camp As Sayliyah serves primarily as a prepositioning facility for U.S. military equipment and supplies in the region. Established in the early 1990s, it has since grown into one of the largest U.S. military prepositioning sites in the world.
This massive military presence gives Qatar the friendly veneer of a trusted host of critical U.S. assets while allowing influence buying into the U.S. on a large scale. Qatar was recently designated a major non-NATO ally because of its close ties with the U.S. military. Its role as a valued U.S. ally and a supporter of some of America’s deadliest foes represents a remarkable diplomatic feat.
Some analysts have opined about the Air Force base in Qatar- “Far from being an American strategic asset in the Arabian Gulf, Al Udeid is, in fact, a Qatari asset in Washington.” After the hasty withdrawal from Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan in 2021, our reliance on Al Udeid has only grown. Qatar has leveraged its position with the Pentagon to create a sprawling multi-billion-dollar campaign to buy leverage and influence wherever possible.
Turn on the faucet
Qatar has maintained friendly relations with the Muslim Brotherhood, treating it as a legitimate political and social force. During the Arab Spring uprisings in 2011, Qatar openly supported Islamist movements opposed by the United States, and has housed former leaders of both Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood for many years. Qatar’s state-owned media outlet, Al Jazeera, has provided a platform for Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood leaders and supporters to broadcast their views around the Arab world. Moderate Arab states including Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE severed diplomatic ties with Qatar in 2017 due to its support for Islamist movements and instituted a short-term blockade. Calls for sanctions from the U.S. were made but not implemented as Qatar toned down some of its pro-jihad rhetoric (and pointed out the strategic value of Al Udeid to America).
American universities, think tanks and high military officials have all been on the receiving end of Qatari largesse in a long pattern of influence buying. The Brookings Institution is one high-profile think tank caught up in Qatar’s influence web, beginning with the establishment of its Doha Center in 2007. While taking in at least $22 million from Qatar from 2013 to 2017, its research director Shadi Hamid often argued in support of the Muslim Brotherhood - which spawned Hamas – and fought efforts to have it branded as a terrorist organization. Brookings ceased accepting Qatari donations in 2017 amid Congressional scrutiny.
Another influential think tank, International Crisis Group, received Qatari funding prior to its President, Robert Malley being hired by President Biden in 2021 to reconstruct the nuclear negotiations with Iran. Malley has since been stripped of his security clearance and suspended for suspicion of mishandling classified information.
Lubricating universities, infecting thoughts
Qatar’s efforts to influence higher education in America have been all-planet. According to the National Association of Scholars, the emirate has been the largest foreign donor to American universities since 2001, contributing at least $4.7 billion. More than England, China and Saudi Arabia. Why would a small middle eastern emirate contribute such vast sums to American universities?
The plans germinated with the establishment of Education City in Doha in 1997, designed to be the site of satellite campuses for select international universities. Virginia Commonwealth was the first, followed by Cornell Weill Medical School, Texas A&M, Carnegie Mellon, Georgetown, Northwestern, and two other non-U.S. schools. Texas A&M regents have just voted to close its Doha campus in 2028 amid concerns about information sharing with the Qataris, after the university received $500 million from the emirate since 2013.
In addition to the Education City members, Qatar has donated billions to other leading universities such as Harvard for the development of Middle Eastern studies programs, endowed chairs, and spawned departments aimed at the nurturing of Islamic cultures and opinions. Lucrative research contracts often allowed for the sharing of the resulting intellectual property, and sometimes in dual-use commercial and military applications. The non-transparent nature of these donations and contracts have led to questions about academic freedom and potential influence of research and teaching agendas across elite academia. These leading universities receive billions of dollars of opaque donations and grants from foreign nations without any national security oversight or review. We are learning many of these imported programs have infused an intentionally divisive thought pattern targeting our youth.
Despite its connection to terrorist groups and state sponsors of terror, the U.S. and its allies believe the benefits of using Qatar as an intermediary to the world’s pariahs outweigh its costs. It seems there will be no immediate answer to the Qatari conundrum given the recent agreement to extend the U.S. presence at Al Udeid for the next ten years. The money and influence wheel will continue to turn, importing toxic antisemitism from abroad. We would do well to resist as best we can.