Follow the Money: Part Two –

College Presidents Stumble

By Shlomo Maital

  The New York Times reported:  “Support for the presidents of Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and M.I.T. eroded quickly on Wednesday, after they seemed to evade what seemed like a rather simple question during a contentious Congressional hearing: Would they discipline students calling for the genocide of Jews? Their lawyerly replies to that question and others during a four-hour hearing drew incredulous responses.”

      The President of Harvard, Claudine Gay, a brilliant scholar, said, I believe, that the answer is ‘context-specific’.   Same for the other two: Elizabeth Magill (Penn) and Sally Kornbluth (MIT).  

       Three extraordinarily brilliant, accomplished women.

       What the hell?

        Follow the money.

        According to a rather-ignored report by the National Association of Academics – between 2001 and 2021, Qatar gave $4.7 billion to US universities (terror washing).  It began just after 9/11.  In addition, Qatar funded establishment of US universities in Qatar.  Cornell, an Ivy League school, got $1.8 billion to set up a medical school in Qatar. Georgetown got $750 m. (govt. school), Northwestern got $600 m. for a journalism school.  The list is long:  Texas A&M ($740 m., computer science), Virginia Commonwealth ($103 m.).

        In October, the UK Daily Mail reported this:  “Top American Ivy League universities including Cornell and Harvard have received over $8 billion in the last 35 years from Arab countries, a report has revealed.  According to a report by the Executive Director of the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise, Cornell University received over $1.5 billion from the Middle East.   The report, authored by Dr. Mitchell Bard, was originally released in 2021 and showed how the Ivy League school received 127 gifts totaling $1,513,778,660.”

        But wait.  Is Harvard penniless?  Desperate for the Arab money?   Harvard’s endowment is currently $51 b.   The return on it is low, 2.9% — but that is still $3 billion yearly. 

         Once, it was the case that Jewish students were disproportionately welcomed to Ivy League schools.  Some 40-50 years ago, up to 20-25% of the student body were Jews in some Ivy League schools.  This has sharply fallen in recent years, partly due to affirmative action .  But even now, Harvard is said by the Hillel Organization to be 10% Jewish.    Columbia, once 40% Jewish, is now said to be about 22.3%; and it is a hotbed of pro-Palestine protests.

         In my recent Jerusalem Report column, I noted how Qatar fed the Hamas beast with hundreds of millions of dollars – with Israel’s acquiescence and even support.  Qatar, I noted, is everybody’s sugar daddy, to keep them from assaulting this tiny super-rich nation with only 330,000 Qatari citizens, and some 2 million foreign workers.  Qatar has used its financial wealth to buy US support, Islamic support, — basically everyone.  Saudi Arabia has done the same; its US lobby is huge and has deep pockets.

          Follow the money. Universities ask, why would we risk offending a rich donor, just to take a morally-just stand?   Are you serious?  Especially when college enrollment is about to take a steep dive? [1]  Jewish donors?  Well, they are well-healed, but nowhere near the scale of Qatar, UAE and Saudi Arabia. 

          Summing up this blog and the previous one —  To understand a) rampant anti-Semitism in the US on campuses, and university leadership’s inaction; and b) the impotence of COP annual conferences to even begin to address the climate crisis,  and even c) funding for Hamas’ tunnel system, (they have no bread? Let them eat tunnels)…. follow the money.  

      The Lord of the Universe gave vast oil and gas riches to tiny Arab countries.  They are using it for self-preservation.  But it’s not doing a whole lot of good for the world. 

[1] A CNBC report notes:  “There’s a growing cohort of people who start college but then withdraw, and fewer international students are choosing to study in the U.S. More would-be undergraduates are also deciding to forgo college altogether, citing the high cost among other factors. Meanwhile, the overall population of college-age students is shrinking — a demographic trend commonly referred to as the “enrollment cliff.” The number of high school graduates will turn down in 2026 and then fall rapidly through the following decade, said Doug Shapiro, executive director of the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.”