Going undercovered: Who's funding the campus protests?

BONUS: Memorial Day greetings from 45

Scenes of the reinstated Gaza Solidarity Encampment at Columbia University on its fourth day. -Wikipedia

Back to the rebellious students — albeit briefly. The previously unexplored question of who is funding the anti-Israel protests on college campuses is beginning to see the light of day, though while the Israeli press is all over the story, there is still minimal coverage in the U.S. media.

The question centers around Qatar, a tiny hereditary monarchy bordering Saudi Arabia and a key backer of Hamas, the terrorist organization that savagely attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Oil-rich Qatar has funded Hamas to the tune of $1.8 billion since 2012. Moreover, a non-profit research center, the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI), recently produced a report that included some possibly damning information.

As Bari Weiss over at The Free Press put it:

The report finds that at least 200 American colleges and universities illegally withheld information on approximately $13 billion in undisclosed contributions from foreign regimes, many of which are authoritarian.

Guess who is by far the largest largest foreign donor to colleges and universities in the Unites States. I’ll give you a hint: it begins with a Q and rhymes with either “guitar” or “butter” — depending on which pronunciation you use. And that nation is not only a major funder of Hamas but it’s where most of the terrorist group’s leaders reside.

As Orange County Register columnist Thomas D. Elias has also reported, “Other reports confirm that between the 2001 Twin Towers attack and 2021, Qatar contributed $4.7 billion to American universities” — the largest foreign donor to American higher education during that period.

Indeed, Northwestern University, a site of major demonstrations, has received $690 million in funds originating from Qatar since 2007, according to US Department of Education records. Administrators at Northwestern acceeded to many of the protesters’ demands, including providing a pathway for the university to divest from Israeli businesses, according to the Daily Northwestern.

Northwestern also received $45.3 million from Qatar to run a campus in the Qatari capital of Doha. The campus, which is part of the so-called Education City and includes several other U.S. satellite campuses, mostly (and ironically) offers degrees in communications and journalism in a nation where freedom of the press is a scarcity. “Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, Georgetown, Texas A&M and Virginia Commonwealth universities all struck the same bargain with Qatari leaders,” the Washington Post reported (gift link).

Moreover, Weiss continues, “while correlation is not causation, [the NCRI study] found that the number of reported antisemitic incidents on a given campus has a meaningful relationship to whether that university has received funding (disclosed and undisclosed) from regimes, or entities tied to regimes, in the Middle East.”

Students for Justice in Palestine, the pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel student activism organization that played a major role in organizing the recent student demonstrations, is funded in part by Qatar.

A 2020 study by the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism & Policy reveals a direct correlation between donations to universities by Qatar and other Gulf States and the presence of SJP groups on campus, The Hill has reported.

It should be pointed out that there is no smoking gun here — at least not yet — but the law of averages tells us it’s very unlikely there is zero connection between the Qatari donations, antisemitic activity on campus, the craven way administrators reacted to the demonstrations and the accompanying cheerleading by some professors.

As podcaster and NYU business school professor Scott Galloway said recently, foreign funding of universities is an undercovered story that is very much worth covering. Fast forward to 1:05:44:

Do you know where 40% of that funding comes from? Qatar has given $4.7 billion … there is a statistically significant correlation between these protests and the amount of funding these universities have gotten from Qatar … nothing’s for free …

$4.7 of the $40 billion comes from a nation of 2.3 million people? What do you think? They’re just fascinated with Wolverine football? Wake the fuck up, people!

A day to honor the fallen

First of all, I hope everyone acknowledges the solemn occasion of today’s national holiday, Memorial Day, honoring those who died as a result of serving our country in uniform — the ultimate sacrifice and expression of patriotism. My son served as a Marine Corps officer for five years and in the reserves while he was in college. Thankfully, he never saw combat and is alive and well in San Antonio, Texas, where the high temperature today will be nearly 100.

Finally, a poignant Memorial Day greeting from the former president of the United States of America: