Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) leaves the US Capitol after the last votes of the week on Sept. 4, 2025. Photo: Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect

US Rep. Randy Fine, a Jewish Republican from Florida, on Monday indicated he has no intention of backing down after receiving a sharp repudiation from the Qatari embassy in Washington following remarks he made suggesting Qatar was funding unrest on American college campuses and posing a threat through Muslim fighter pilots training in the United States.

In the two-page letter, Qatar’s ambassador to Washington, Meshal Al Thani, accused Fine of making “observations about Qatar that are not accurate,” after the Florida Republican’s appearance on “Loomer Unleashed,” the podcast hosted by Laura Loomer, a far-right activist and ally of US President Donald Trump.

Fine reportedly claimed that Qatar “funds most of the institutions that are damaging” the United States and is “responsible for” anti-Israel protests on US campuses. The ambassador strongly denied those assertions, citing US intelligence reports and congressional testimony that found no evidence linking Qatar to antisemitic incidents or unrest at American universities.

“Qatar condemns antisemitism, and all forms of religious or ethnic intolerance,” Al Thani wrote.

The letter emphasized that most of Qatar’s financial contributions to American universities fund the operating costs of six branch campuses in Doha, not US-based programs, and claimed that the country ranks 35th among foreign donors to American universities, behind Thailand, with $312.5 million in gifts.

Various reports, however, have found that Qatar, which the US government has designated as a “major non-NATO ally,” has in total given billions of dollars to US universities.

In June, for example, the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism Policy (ISGAP) released a study showing that Georgetown University has received over $1 billion in funding from the Qatari government over the last two decades.

ISGAP found in a previous report that, from 2014-2019, Qatar gave American universities a striking $2.7 billion in undocumented funds, topping its list of foreign countries.

Doha has reportedly poured nearly $6 billion into US universities since 1981, making it the largest Arab donor in American higher education. Just between 2023 and 2024, it donated $527 million.

US lawmakers have grown increasingly critical of Qatari donations to American universities, expressing concern that such funding could influence academic discourse, especially since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel. Doha has backed the Palestinian terrorist group for years, providing Hamas with money and diplomatic support while hosting and sheltering its top leadership.

Beyond education, the Middle East Forum released its own report in May exposing the extent of Qatar’s far-reaching financial entanglements within American institutions, shedding light on what experts described as a coordinated effort to influence US policy making and public opinion in Doha’s favor. The findings showed that Qatar has attempted to expand its soft power in the US by spending $33.4 billion on business and real estate projects, over $6 billion on universities, and $72 million on American lobbyists since 2012.

Fine has also criticized the seemingly cozy relationship that Trump shares with Qatar, suggesting that the American leader has been too friendly to the monarchal country with deep ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.

“Look, I trust President Trump’s judgment. And I think he has adopted the approach that by trying to embrace them, by trying to pull them and show them the benefits of working with America, he can get them to be a good actor on the world stage. But I am not a fan of Qatar. Let me be clear,” Fine said on “Loomer Unleashed.”

Trump has received criticism even from political allies regarding his relationship with and conduct toward Qatar. pointing to his highly controversial decision to accept a $400 million jet from the Qatari government.

Trump also raised eyebrows after allowing the Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, to board Air Force One on Friday. Trump and the Qatari royal were pictured smiling and jovially chatting aboard the aircraft after it landed for refueling at Al-Udeid Air Base, the largest US military base in the Middle East, on the way to Malaysia.

In the second page of the Qatari letter, the ambassador also addressed comments Fine made about Muslim fighter pilots training at a US Air Force base in Idaho, an arrangement Al Thani described as routine among American allies.

The ambassador added that Qatar’s F-15 purchases and training programs contribute “thousands of jobs” in the US defense sector and strengthen military cooperation between the two countries.

Al Thani further urged Fine to avoid conflating criticism of Qatar with fear of Muslims, noting that 3.5 million Muslims live in the United States — including 127,000 in Florida.

The letter closed on a diplomatic note, with Al Thani offering to answer any questions Fine might have about Qatar’s role as “an ally and friend of the United States,” referencing Qatar’s mediation in the Gaza ceasefire and hostage-release negotiated with US assistance.

The Algemeiner has reported in recent weeks about growing concern among Israel and other US allies in the Middle East that Qatar may use its influence to strengthen Hamas amid reconstruction efforts in Gaza.

Since entering the US Congress, Fine has established himself as an outspoken advocate for Israel and critic of Islam. Earlier this month, Fine posted online that “Dear of Islam is rational. Islamophobia is a lie.” He also wrote that Islam is not “compatible with American values” and has argued that radical Islam poses an existential threat to the United States and Jewish Americans in particular.

British Airways has dropped its sponsorship of documentarian Louis Theroux’s podcast following an interview with British punk musician Bobby Vylan where the artist defended his chants of “death, death to the IDF” at the Glastonbury music festival.

Following the band’s Glastonbury performance in June, the two members of Bob Vylan had their U.S. visas revoked by the State Department ahead of a planned tour this month. The BBC also said the livestream of the performance broke its guidelines because Bob Vylan’s chants could “fairly be characterised as antisemitic.”

Bob Vylan’s frontman, whose real name is Pascal Robinson-Foster, Theroux that he did not regret the chants during the interview.

“If I was to go on Glastonbury again tomorrow? Yeah, I would do it again. I’m not regretful of it,” said Vylan. “I’d do it again tomorrow, twice on Sundays. I’m not regretful of it at all. Like, the subsequent backlash that I’ve faced is minimal. It’s minimal compared to what people in Palestine are going through.”

Robinson-Foster also criticized a report by the Community Security Trust, British Jewry’s antisemitism watchdog, that found antisemitic incidents had spiked the day after Bob Vylan’s set, telling Theroux that it was unclear what the group was “counting as antisemitic.”

“I don’t think I have created an unsafe atmosphere for the Jewish community,” said Robinson-Foster. “If there were large numbers of people being like, going out and ‘Bob Vylan made me do this,’ then maybe I might go, woof, I’ve had a negative impact here. Again, in that report, what definition are they going by? We don’t know that.”

During the interview, Robinson-Foster also said that the “focus” should not have been placed on the “death to the IDF” chant, but rather “on the conditions that allow for that chant to exist.”

“Ultimately, the fight is against white supremacy, right?,” said Robinson-Foster. “That is what the fight is against. And I think white supremacy is displayed so vividly in Zionists.”

In response, Theroux replied, “They say we’re not white, we’re Jewish, right?”

Later, Theroux appeared to agree with Robinson-Foster’s assertion that the “Zionist movement and the war crimes being committed by Israel” should be viewed through the “lens of white supremacy.”

“I think I’d add to that, there’s an even more macro lens which you can put on it, which is that Jewish identity in the Jewish community, as expressed in Israel, has become almost like an acceptable quote, unquote, way of understanding ethno-nationalism,” said Theroux, later adding that “this sense of post-Holocaust Jewish exceptionalism or Zionist exceptionalism, has become a role model on the national stage for what these white identitarians would like to do in their own countries.”

Following the interview, Theroux drew criticism for failing to challenge Robinson-Foster’s defense of his chants during the interview.

“Louis Theroux has every right to interview whoever he wants, but with that right comes responsibility,” Jewish film producer Leo Pearlman told the British outlet Jewish News. “When you give a microphone to someone who proudly repeats a genocidal chant that played a part in inspiring attacks on Jews across Britain, you’re not probing hate, you’re amplifying it.”

Dave Rich, the head of policy at the Community Service Trust, wrote in a blog post that he had been distressed that Theroux did not note that Robinson-Foster had publicly undercut the idea that his chant of “death to the IDF” was not meant as a call to voice when he commented at another concert, “We are for an armed resistance. We wanna make that explicitly f–king clear.” Rich also criticized the decision to release the interview even after the attack on a Manchester, England, synagogue in which two people were killed on Yom Kippur.

“Theroux’s podcast was recorded before the Manchester attack, which he acknowledges in the introduction,” Rich wrote. “But they still went ahead and published it anyway, as if the death of two Jews due to an Israel-hating jihadist doesn’t change the context of an interview with someone who became famous for calling for death for Israelis.”

After the interview aired on Spotify last Friday, British Airways issued a statement to announce it had dropped its sponsorship of Theroux’s show.

“Our sponsorship of the series has now been paused and the advert has been removed,” the airline wrote in a statement shared with the British outlet Jewish News. “We’re grateful that this was brought to our attention, as the content clearly breaches our sponsorship policy in relation to politically sensitive or controversial subject matters.”

The episode follows the release, in April, of a documentary by Theroux titled “The Settlers” that served a searing portrayal of the far-right Israeli settler movement in the West Bank.

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The Mossad stated on Oct. 26, 2025, that Iranian operative Sardar Amar was behind antisemitic attacks in Australia and European countries. Photo: Israeli Prime Minister’s Office

Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad has revealed that an Iranian commander directed multiple foiled attacks on Israeli and Jewish targets worldwide over the past two years, exposing what it described as Iran’s campaign of global terrorism.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office on Sunday released a statement on behalf of the Mossad identifying Sardar Amar — a senior figure in the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a powerful Iranian military force and internationally designated terrorist organization — as the man responsible for overseeing and coordinating the thwarted plots.

“Amidst the Iranian regime’s persistent attempts to promote terrorism against Israeli and Jewish targets worldwide, the Mossad is revealing new details for the first time about those responsible for major attempted attacks thwarted in Australia, Greece, and Germany in 2024-2025,” the statement read.

“Since the events of Oct. 7, Iran has expanded its efforts to target Israeli and Jewish interests worldwide,” the statement continued, referring to Iran-backed Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel. “Thanks to intensive operations by the Mossad, together with intelligence and security agencies in Israel and around the world, dozens of attack channels promoted by Iran have been thwarted. These counter-terrorism operations have saved many lives and enabled investigative and legal steps to be taken against those involved in terrorism.”

The Mossad explained that “one of the prominent mechanisms now being exposed for the first time is that of Sardar Amar, a senior commander in the Revolutionary Guard, who heads Corps 11,000 under the command of Ismail Qa’ani, commander of the Quds Force.”

Under Amar’s command, according to Israel, “a significant mechanism was established to promote attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets both in Israel and abroad. This mechanism is directly responsible for the attempted attacks exposed in Greece, Australia, and Germany in the past year alone, and its numerous failures led to the wave of arrests and its exposure.”

The Mossad noted some of the diplomatic consequences that Iran has faced for its aggression, including the expulsion of its ambassador from Australia and the summoning of its top diplomat in Germany for reprimand.

“These unprecedented steps are intended to send a clear message of zero tolerance for terrorist activity on their soil,” the statement continued.

In August, Australia announced that Iran had orchestrated two antisemitic arson attacks in the cities of Sydney and Melbourne, targeting a kosher restaurant and a synagogue, respectively.

The Algemeiner has reported extensively on the antisemitic crime wave in Australia over the past year and officials’ suspicions of its foreign origins.

In January, Australia Federal Police (AFP) Commissioner Reece Kershaw said his investigators had determined that “criminals-for-hire may be behind some incidents.” He said that his team had then reviewed “whether overseas actors or individuals have paid local criminals in Australia to carry out some of these crimes in our suburbs” and that “we are looking at if — or how — they have been paid, for example in cryptocurrency, which can take longer to identify.”

On Aug. 27, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke described the terrorism methodology in an interview, saying that “you have a series of intermediaries so that people performing different actions don’t in fact know who is directing them or don’t necessarily know who is directing them.”

The Mossad explained that Iran has used terrorism for years to target Israelis and Jews abroad.

“For years, the Iranian regime has viewed terrorism as a tool to exact a price from Israel by harming innocent people worldwide, without paying military, diplomatic, or economic costs,” the agency said in its statement. “Under this logic, the terrorist bodies operate while maintaining plausible deniability and a separation between the violent activity and Iran. The first-time exposure of Sardar Amar’s attack mechanism as being behind the attempted attacks in Greece, Germany, and Australia proves the failed management of the mechanism in its efforts and undermines the Iranian attempts to operate covertly, beneath the radar.”

The United Kingdom also spoke out this month about the severity of the Iranian espionage threat. On Oct. 16, MI5 Director General Ken McCallum revealed a 35 percent increase in individuals investigated for foreign spy penetration, naming Russia and Iran as behind them, with some of the plots uncovered as “potentially lethal.”

On Oct. 20, Russia announced its intent to continue strengthening ties with Iran, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov proclaiming that the country is “definitely ready to expand cooperation with Iran in all areas. Iran is our partner, and our relations are developing very dynamically.”