When al Qaeda and Iranian Ayatollah Ali Khamenei praised America’s pro-Hamas students, they were applauding something larger than collegiate intramural hate teams. They were relishing the results of a multibillion-dollar scheme that began before Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel — one that will likely continue long after the last campus encampment is cleared.
The Iranian regime and al Qaeda are both well aware of something they would prefer Americans ignore: anti-Israel countries have pumped billions of dollars into elite U.S. colleges. Money buys influence, and that influence poisons campus culture.
Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Kuwait spent a combined $10.3 billion on American higher education between 1986 and 2020, according to transparency nonprofit organization Open the Books. More than $5 billion of that money came from Qatar, the nation that harbors…
