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Why Qatar Was Left Out of the DETERRENT Act — and Why That’s a Mistake
Former US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is greeted by Qatari Minister of State Dr. Mohammed bin Abdulaziz Al-Khulaifi, in Doha, Qatar, Aug. 20, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Mohatt/Pool
The US House of Representatives recently passed the DETERRENT Act, aiming to increase transparency about foreign funding in American universities.
While the bill targets foreign financial influence from adversaries like China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia, one critical country was notably absent from this list: Qatar.
While Qatar presents itself as an ally of the US, its financial influence on US institutions should have raised red flags — especially when it comes to its support for anti-Israel narratives and its ties to extremist groups.
This oversight isn’t just a diplomatic blunder; it undermines the safety and integrity of American interests. The DETERRENT Act was designed to protect US universities from foreign powers that manipulate US policies and public opinion. Qatar, despite its ostensible ally status, has been using its financial influence to shape US academia, subtly pushing a narrative that often runs counter to American and Israeli security interests.
Qatar’s financial footprint in higher education is large. Universities such as Yale, Harvard, and Georgetown have received millions of dollars from the Gulf nation, yet much of this funding has been underreported or not fully disclosed. For example, Yale received nearly $16 million from Qatar, but only $284,668 was officially reported. This lack of transparency about Qatar’s role in shaping academic discourse should be concerning, especially given Qatar’s backing of extremist groups like Hamas and its indirect undermining of US policy in the region.
Qatar’s influence doesn’t just stop at universities. The country funds think tanks, media outlets, and cultural institutions across the US. Its state-run network, Al Jazeera, has long been a platform for anti-Western, anti-Israel rhetoric, influencing public opinion both in the US and globally. While Qatar’s financial investments may appear benign, they are a calculated effort to shape the narrative on Middle Eastern politics, often casting Israel in a negative light and presenting Qatar as a neutral actor in a region rife with conflict.
By omitting Qatar from the DETERRENT Act, Congress has essentially overlooked the more covert influence Qatar wields in shaping American perceptions and policies. While Iran and China are obvious threats to US national security and are appropriately targeted by the bill, Qatar’s financial influence operates more insidiously.
Qatar’s ties to terrorism are another significant factor that should not be ignored. The country’s financial support for groups like Hamas, which advocates for the destruction of Israel, makes it incompatible with American and Israeli interests. Yet, Qatar continues to be treated as a strategic ally, partly because of its role in hosting the US military’s largest base in the region. But military cooperation should not be a free pass for Qatar to continue influencing US academic institutions and shaping policy in its favor, especially when its values run counter to those of the US and its closest allies.
The recent vote in Congress against Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI)’s amendments targeting Israel — a move aimed at isolating Israel by adding it to the list of countries of concern — shows bipartisan support for Israel and a clear rejection of efforts to undermine the US-Israel alliance. Israel plays a critical role in countering regional threats and sharing vital intelligence that enhances US security. However, the DETERRENT Act still fails to address Qatar’s under-the-radar influence in American universities, leaving US interests vulnerable to manipulation.
For lawmakers, it’s essential that they recognize Qatar’s role in shaping public opinion and policy through financial means. Qatar’s growing influence in the academic world poses a serious challenge to US transparency and national security.
In the long run, leaving Qatar out of the DETERRENT Act sends the wrong message to both domestic and foreign actors. US interests and Israel’s security should always come first. Congress must rethink its approach to foreign influence in US education and ensure that Qatar’s financial ties to US institutions are held to the same standards of transparency as those of adversarial nations.
Amine Ayoub, a fellow at the Middle East Forum, is a policy analyst and writer based in Morocco. Follow him on X: @amineayoubx
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Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials
FILE PHOTO: The atomic symbol and the Iranian flag are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
i24 News – Iranian and Iran-affiliated media claimed on Saturday that the Islamic Republic had obtained a trove of “strategic and sensitive” Israeli intelligence materials related to Israel’s nuclear facilities and defense plans.
“Iran’s intelligence apparatus has obtained a vast quantity of strategic and sensitive information and documents belonging to the Zionist regime,” Iran’s state broadcaster said, referring to Israel in the manner accepted in those Muslim or Arab states that don’t recognize its legitimacy. The statement was also relayed by the Lebanese site Al-Mayadeen, affiliated with the Iran-backed jihadists of Hezbollah.
The reports did not include any details on the documents or how Iran had obtained them.
The intelligence reportedly included “thousands of documents related to that regime’s nuclear plans and facilities,” it added.
According to the reports, “the data haul was extracted during a covert operation and included a vast volume of materials including documents, images, and videos.”
The report comes amid high tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, over which it is in talks with the US administration of President Donald Trump.
Iranian-Israeli tensions reached an all-time high since the October 7 massacre and the subsequent Gaza war, including Iranian rocket fire on Israel and Israeli aerial raids in Iran that devastated much of the regime’s air defenses.
Israel, which regards the prospect of the antisemitic mullah regime obtaining a nuclear weapon as an existential threat, has indicated it could resort to a military strike against Iran’s installations should talks fail to curb uranium enrichment.
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Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz looks on, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Nov. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday.
Nattapong Pinta’s body was held by a Palestinian terrorist group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified.
Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza.
Israel’s military said Pinta had been abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved earlier this week.
There was no immediate comment from the Mujahedeen Brigades, who have previously denied killing their captives, or from Hamas. The Israeli military said the Brigades were still holding the body of another foreign national. Only 20 of the 55 remaining hostages are believed to still be alive.
The Mujahedeen Brigades also held and killed Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, according to Israeli authorities. Their bodies were returned during a two-month ceasefire, which collapsed in March after the two sides could not agree on terms for extending it to a second phase.
Israel has since expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as US, Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered.
US-BACKED AID GROUP HALTS DISTRIBUTIONS
The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade of the enclave, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling.
Aid distribution was halted on Friday after the US-and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said overcrowding had made it unsafe to continue operations. It was unclear whether aid had resumed on Saturday.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. It says it has provided around 9 million meals so far.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that 350 trucks of humanitarian aid belonging to U.N. and other international relief groups were transferred this week via the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.
The war erupted after Hamas-led terrorists took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the October 7, 2023 attack, Israel’s single deadliest day.
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US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
The State Department is weighing giving $500 million to the new foundation providing aid to war-shattered Gaza, according to two knowledgeable sources and two former US officials, a move that would involve the US more deeply in a controversial aid effort that has been beset by violence and chaos.
The sources and former US officials, all of whom requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that money for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) would come from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which is being folded into the US State Department.
The plan has met resistance from some US officials concerned with the deadly shootings of Palestinians near aid distribution sites and the competence of the GHF, the two sources said.
The GHF, which has been fiercely criticized by humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, for an alleged lack of neutrality, began distributing aid last week amid warnings that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli aid blockade, which was lifted on May 19 when limited deliveries were allowed to resume.
The foundation has seen senior personnel quit and had to pause handouts twice this week after crowds overwhelmed its distribution hubs.
The State Department and GHF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reuters has been unable to establish who is currently funding the GHF operations, which began in Gaza last week. The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to transport aid into Gaza for distribution at so-called secure distribution sites.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that a Chicago-based private equity firm, McNally Capital, has an “economic interest” in the for-profit US contractor overseeing the logistics and security of GHF’s aid distribution hubs in the enclave.
While US President Donald Trump’s administration and Israel say they don’t finance the GHF operation, both have been pressing the United Nations and international aid groups to work with it.
The US and Israel argue that aid distributed by a long-established U.N. aid network was diverted to Hamas. Hamas has denied that.
USAID has been all but dismantled. Some 80 percent of its programs have been canceled and its staff face termination as part of President Donald Trump’s drive to align US foreign policy with his “America First” agenda.
One source with knowledge of the matter and one former senior official said the proposal to give the $500 million to GHF has been championed by acting deputy USAID Administrator Ken Jackson, who has helped oversee the agency’s dismemberment.
The source said that Israel requested the funds to underwrite GHF’s operations for 180 days.
The Israeli government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The two sources said that some US officials have concerns with the plan because of the overcrowding that has affected the aid distribution hubs run by GHF’s contractor, and violence nearby.
Those officials also want well-established non-governmental organizations experienced in running aid operations in Gaza and elsewhere to be involved in the operation if the State Department approves the funds for GHF, a position that Israel likely will oppose, the sources said.
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