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Why Is Qatar Getting Away with Undermining US Interests?
The Al Jazeera Media Network logo is seen on its headquarters building in Doha, Qatar, June 8, 2017. Photo: REUTERS/Naseem Zeitoon
While much of the American foreign policy conversation is consumed by China, Russia, and Iran, a far more insidious actor has been hiding in plain sight: Qatar.
This tiny Gulf state has managed to infiltrate the American political ecosystem with surgical precision — through influence operations, media manipulation, academic funding, and elite lobbying. Its endgame? To bend US policy in its favor while funding the very extremists we claim to be fighting.
For too long, Washington has treated Qatar as a quirky ally — an oil-rich outlier hosting the largest American military base in the Middle East — Al Udeid. But behind the airbase is a monarchy that plays both arsonist and firefighter: funding Islamist terror groups like Hamas while simultaneously branding itself as a necessary “mediator.” That’s not diplomacy — it’s blackmail.
Qatar isn’t challenging US power head-on; it’s buying access, shaping discourse, and laundering its image through think tanks, universities, and former officials. The result is a foreign policy establishment increasingly compromised by Qatari influence — and unwilling to hold Doha accountable.
Qatar has spent billions pouring into America’s elite institutions: Georgetown, Brookings, RAND, and more. These aren’t charitable donations; they’re strategic investments in influence. What happens when the same think tanks advising US policymakers are on the Qatari payroll? What happens when former diplomats and retired generals take consulting fees from a regime that funds Hamas and cheers on Al Jazeera’s anti-Western propaganda?
After the October 7 Hamas massacre — one of the most brutal acts of terrorism in modern memory — Qatar remained untouched. While its ties to Hamas were public and long-standing, Qatar wasn’t sanctioned, pressured, or even criticized. Instead, it was elevated as a “key negotiator” in hostage talks. Imagine that: a state that hosts Hamas leaders in five-star hotels was rewarded with diplomatic prestige after the terrorists it bankrolls slaughtered civilians. That is influence at work.
The fact that the US continues to rely on Qatar as a go-between reveals the depth of the problem. US institutions — media, government, academia — have been too thoroughly compromised to challenge the narrative. Every time the US spares Qatar from consequences, it sends a clear message: American foreign policy is for sale.
In Israel, a corruption scandal now dubbed “Qatargate” has exposed how deep Qatar’s reach extends. Israeli media reported secret payments, PR services, and cozy ties between Netanyahu’s communications team and Qatari operatives. Arrests were made. Gag orders issued. The Shin Bet launched an investigation. The scandal has rocked the Israeli government — not because Qatar did something unusual, but because someone finally got caught.
If Qatar can manipulate a tightly surveilled, security-conscious country like Israel, what has it already done in a distracted, divided, lobby-saturated Washington?
Qatar has retained some of the most powerful lobbying firms in D.C., from those connected to Democratic insiders to Republican powerbrokers. It has poured resources into shaping US discourse, often by proxy. It funds conferences, media outlets, cultural programs, and fellowships. It hires former White House staffers and Pentagon officials to lobby Congress, and feed op-eds into major newspapers. The goal isn’t short-term gain. It’s long-term positioning: to ensure that no matter which party is in power, Doha remains untouchable.
Unlike China or Russia, Qatar operates with a velvet glove. There are no cyberattacks or airspace violations — just cash, contracts, and calculated charm. And because its methods don’t trigger alarms, it has gotten away with it.
Qatar undermines US allies like Egypt, funds the Muslim Brotherhood, gives voice to anti-American demagogues, and manipulates Western media through platforms like Al Jazeera. It hosts Taliban leaders one day and strikes multi-billion-dollar gas deals with US companies the next. It’s not an ally. It’s a shapeshifter — wearing whatever mask serves its interests.
The American people need to wake up. Qatar is not simply playing both sides. Its billions buy silence, its PR campaigns buy credibility, and its influence buys exemption from the consequences that any other terror-sponsoring regime would face.
Congress should immediately investigate Qatari lobbying efforts in the United States, including all funding to universities, think tanks, nonprofits, and media organizations. Every foreign donation to a US institution should be publicly disclosed. Any American policymaker, academic, or analyst who takes Qatari money must register it and explain it — clearly.
The Pentagon should reconsider the military relationship with Qatar until a full review of its terror ties and foreign interference operations is conducted. Hosting a US base does not make you an ally. If anything, it makes you more dangerous — because it shields your true motives behind a curtain of cooperation.
We must also reassert moral clarity. There is no world in which funding Hamas and being a responsible stakeholder are compatible. If Qatar wants the privileges of Western partnership, it must be held to Western standards. Until then, it should be treated like any other hostile regime that funds terror, meddles in democracy, and manipulates American policy for its own ends.
This is not about partisanship. Qatar gives to Republicans and Democrats. It hires former officials from both parties. This is about national sovereignty — and the basic principle that American foreign policy should serve the American people, not the ambitions of a royal family in Doha.
Amine Ayoub, a fellow at the Middle East Forum, is a policy analyst and writer based in Morocco. Follow him on X: @amineayoubx
The post Why Is Qatar Getting Away with Undermining US Interests? first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Federal Lawmakers Launch Investigation Into Antisemitism at US Medical Schools
Illustrative: A pro-Hamas demonstrator uses a bullhorn during a protest at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) on March 11, 2025. Photo: Daniel Cole via Reuters Connect
Campus antisemitism at US medical schools is next in line to be examined by the federal government following the announcement on Monday of a major probe to be conducted by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.
US lawmakers announced an investigation into three institutions: the University of California, Los Angeles’ (UCLA) David Geffen School of Medicine, the University of Illinois College of Medicine, and the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine.
“This investigation will aid the committee in considering whether potential legislative changes, including legislation to specifically address antisemitism discrimination, are needed, ” education committee chairman Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI) wrote in a letter to Steven Dubinett, dean of UCLA’s Geffen School. “The committee has become aware that Jewish students and faculty have experienced hostility and fear at the hands of peers, colleagues, and administrators at UCLA Med, and it has not been demonstrated that the university has meaningfully responded to address and mitigate this problem.”
As previously reported by The Algemeiner, a Jewish faculty group at UCLA’s medical school, titled Jewish Faculty Resilience Group (JFrg), first sounded the alarm about antisemitism on the campus in February, issuing an open letter which called attention to a slew of indignities to which they have been subjected since the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel.
The primary agent of anti-Jewish hatred identified by JFrg is the Task Force on Anti-Palestinian, Anti-Arab, and Anti-Muslim Racism (AAAR), a university-created body that has allegedly violated its mission to promote pluralism by lodging defaming accusations at the pro-Israel Jewish community in a series of reports, one of which contained what JFrg described as intolerable distortions of fact.
JFRG’s letter went on to enumerate a litany of falsehoods spread by AAAR, including that Jewish faculty have conspired to undermine academic freedom with “coordinated repression, involving university and non-university actors,” aligned itself with conservative groups, and harmed minority students by opposing “racial justice.”
The letter listed nearly a dozen other incidents previously unknown to the public, including a seminar on “Structural Racism and Health Equity” which categorized Jews as white to disparage both groups and displayed images of “‘capitalists’ with long hooked noses”; a medical group engaging in atrocity-denial, issuing a statement charging that Hamas kidnapped no one on Oct. 7; and an administrator attending an event which glorified self-immolation and whose organizers attacked Jewish faculty as “anti-black racists” for criticizing Hamas.
Walberg said that choosing not to respond to such incidents may have violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and requested a trove of documents from UCLA “related to reports or complaints of antisemitic acts” filed with administrative officials. He asked the same of the UC San Francisco School of Medicine and University of Illinois College of Medicine, where he said Jewish students conceal their Jewish identities from medical workers for fear of being targeted for intentional malpractice and are denied the chance to hold public events to raise awareness of antisemitism.
Antisemitism in university medical schools is fostering noxious environments which deprive Jewish health-care professionals of their civil right to work in spaces free from discrimination and hate, a study published by the StandWithUs Data & Analytics Department in May found.
Titled “Antisemitism in American Healthcare: The Role of Workplace Environment,” the study contained survey data showing that 62.8 percent of Jewish health-care professionals employed by campus-based medical centers reported experiencing antisemitism, a far higher rate than those working in private practice and community hospitals. Fueling the rise in hate, it added, were repeated failures of DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) initiatives to educate workers about antisemitism, increasing, the report said, the likelihood of antisemitic activity.
The research was not StandWithUs’ first contribution to the study of antisemitism in medicine. In December, its Data & Analytics Department published a study which found that nearly 40 percent of Jewish American health-care professionals have encountered antisemitism in the workplace, either as witnesses or victims. That study included a survey of 645 Jewish health workers, a substantial number of whom said they were subject to “social and professional isolation.” The problem left over one quarter of the survey cohort, 26.4 percent, fearful of threats to safety.
“Academia today is increasingly cultivating an environment which is hostile to Jews, as well as members of other religious and ethnic groups,” StandWithUs director of data and analytics and study co-author Alexandra Fishman said in May. “Academic institutions should be upholding the integrity of scholarship, prioritizing civil discourse, rather than allowing bias or personal agendas to guide academic culture.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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Polish Soccer Fans Display Offensive Banner Saying Poland ‘Regrets Saving Jews’ During Holocaust
Worshipers wrapped in Israeli flags at a prayer service in Warsaw, Poland. Photo: Reuters/Kacper Pempel
Fans of the Polish soccer team Górnik Zabrze displayed a banner that featured a hateful message referencing the Holocaust and a crossed-out Israeli flag at a match on Saturday against fellow Polish club GKS Katowice.
At the beginning of the second half of the game, Górnik fans unfurled a banner that said, “Our ancestors died to save Jews. We are starting to regret it,” according to Polish media. Saturday’s game ended with Górnik winning 3-0.
Górnik- Gks pic.twitter.com/FaplWZpZB6
— Gładki82 (@adki82) August 23, 2025
The messaging may have been in response to a banner that said in English “Murderers since 1939” which was displayed by fans of Maccabi Haifa on Aug. 14 during the Israeli team’s UEFA Conference League qualifying match against Poland’s Raków Częstochowa that took place in Debrecen, Hungary. The banner showcased by Maccabi Haifa fans referenced the year Germany invaded Poland and seemingly criticized Poland’s complicity in the atrocities committed during Nazi occupation. More than 3 million Polish Jews were subsequently killed during the Holocaust, as well as 3 million non-Jewish citizens.
UEFA launched disciplinary proceedings against Maccabi Haifa because of the anti-Polish banner and fined Raków more than $11,000 “for transmitting a message unfit for a sports event” at the same match. The Polish team was also fined close to $35,000 and banned from selling tickets to its fans for the next UEFA competition match after supporters lit fireworks at the Aug. 14 game.
A week before the Maccabi Haifa game, Rakow Częstochowa fans displayed a banner that said in Polish: “Israel Murders and the World Is Silent.” It was featured at a match on Aug. 7 between Maccabi Haifa and Rakow Częstochowa in Czestochowa, Poland.
Earlier this month, the UEFA invited two refugee children from the Gaza Strip to participate in the medal ceremony at the UEFA Super Cup final in Udine, Italy, and had several refugee children display a banner on the pitch that read: “Stop killing children – Stop killing civilians.”
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Hundreds of Film Industry Professionals Pressure Venice Film Festival to Condemn ‘Genocide’ in Gaza
Workers set up the red carpet a day before the start of the 82nd Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, Aug. 26, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Yara Nardi
Hundreds of professionals in the Italian and international film industry signed an open letter on Saturday that calls on organizers of the 82nd Venice International Film Festival to take a “clear and unambiguous” stand and condemn what they describe as a genocide and ethnic cleansing taking place in the Gaza Strip.
Actor Toni Servillo – star of this year’s Venice opening film “La Grazia” – director siblings Alba and Alice Rohrwacher, director Marco Bellocchio, and filmmaker Matteo Garrone are among the Italians who have gathered under the banner V4P (Venice4Palestine) to publish the open letter. They call on the Venice Film Festival, its parent body the Biennale di Venezia, and the festival’s independent parallel sections Venice Days and the International Critics’ Week “to be more courageous and clear in condemning the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the ethnic cleansing across Palestine carried out by the Israeli government and army.”
“Stop the clocks, turn off the stars,” reads the first line of the open letter, which is written in Italian. “The burden is too much to carry on living as before. For almost two years now, we have been seeing images of unmistakable clarity from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Incredulous and powerless, we keep witnessing the torment of a genocide carried out live by the State of Israel in Palestine. No one will ever be able to say: ‘I couldn’t know, I couldn’t imagine, I couldn’t believe.’”
“It is time not only for empathy but also for responsibility,” they added. “Semantics, language, words, and images are not accessories, especially for those who believe in art: they are a form of fundamental and necessary resistance. Otherwise we should surrender to the evidence that being a filmmaker or journalist today no longer makes any sense.”
Members of the film industry outside of Italy who signed the letter include French Venice Golden Lion-winning director of “The Happening” Audrey Diwan, fellow French director Céline Sciamm, Iranian-French filmmaker Sepideh Farsi, and French-Swiss director-actor Laetitia Dosch.
Others who signed the open letter are British filmmaker Ken Loach, French actor Swann Arlaud, Bulgarian director Kostantin Bojanov, British actor Charles Dance, and Palestinian brothers Arab and Tarzan Nasser. The duo from Gaza together won Best Director in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival this year for their film “Once Upon a Time in Gaza.”
Saturday’s letter also includes accusations that Israel has been persecuting Palestinians even before the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack, and that it is time for members of the film industry to take a stand “to uphold the truth about ethnic cleansing, apartheid, illegal occupation of Palestinian territories, colonialism, and all the crimes against humanity committed by Israel for decades.”
“As the spotlight turns on the Venice Film Festival, we’re in danger of going through yet another major event that remains indifferent to this human, civil, and political tragedy. ‘The show must go on,’ we are told, as we’re urged to look away — as if the ‘film world’ had nothing to do with the ‘real world,’” the letter states. “The Biennale and the Venice International Film Festival should celebrate the power of art as a means of transformation, testimony, representation of humanity, and development of critical consciousness. And it is precisely this that makes art an extraordinary means for reflection, active participation and resistance.” The letter concludes with the proclamation “Free Palestine!”
The 82nd Venice Film Festival starts on Aug. 27, almost six weeks to the second anniversary of the deadly Hamas-led terror attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7 2023, in which 1,200 people were murdered and 251 hostages were kidnapped to Gaza.
The Biennale released a statement in response to the open letter earlier this week, according to Variety. The cultural organization said it and the festival “have always been, throughout their history, places of open discussion and sensitivity to all the most pressing issues facing society and the world.”
“The evidence of this is, first and foremost, the works that are being presented [at the festival],” the Biennale noted, before giving as an example the film “The Voice of Hind Rajab” by Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania. The political drama, which is in competition this year at the festival, is about the killing of a five-year-old Palestinian girl, who was trapped in a car that had allegedly come under fire by Israeli forces in Gaza in 2024. The Biennale further noted in its statement that last year’s Venice Film Festival featured “Of Dogs and Men” by Israeli director Dani Rosenberg. The film is about a 16-year-old named Dar who returns to her kibbutz in Israel to look for the dog she lost during the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.
“The Biennale is, as always, open to dialogue,” the organization said in conclusion.