To release their new “Document of General Principles and Policies,” leaders of Hamas held a press conference at a hotel in Qatar, where the organization’s main office is located. Clifford May explains why Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, emir of the small but wealthy country, hosts the terrorist group:

[Sheikh al-Thani] is extraordinarily adept at playing both ends against the middle. He provides Hamas not just with a capital-in-exile but also with much of its funding. He supports other Muslim Brotherhood organizations throughout the region. Financiers of al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and other terrorist groups operate openly in Qatar. At the same time, the emir transmits Qatari perspectives—a less polite term would be Islamist propaganda—around the world through Al-Jazeera, the state-funded international television network.

But Qatar has another face. It hosts the largest American military base in the Middle East. It contributes millions of dollars to several Washington think tanks. And it lavishly subsidizes satellite campuses [in Qatar] for American universities. Among them are Georgetown, Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, Northwestern, Texas A&M, and Virginia Commonwealth.

The [satellite] campuses are located in “Education City,” where the main mosque regularly features Islamist clerics. For example: Mudassir Ahmed, who from the pulpit last year said: “Kill the infidels. . . . Count them in number and do not spare one!” Another preacher called for Allah to “render victorious our brothers the mujahedeen . . . in every place” and to “guide their shooting.”

What do the administrators of the American colleges say about this? Not a word. When it comes to Islamists, too many academics long ago gave up the struggle to see what’s in front of their noses.

For some time, opponents of U.S support for Israel have been urging the White House to end the war in Gaza, or simply calling for a ceasefire. Douglas Feith and Lewis Libby consider what such a result would actually entail:

Ending the war immediately would allow Hamas to survive and retain military and governing power. Leaving it in the area containing the Sinai-Gaza smuggling routes would ensure that Hamas can rearm. This is why Hamas leaders now plead for a ceasefire. A ceasefire will provide some relief for Gazans today, but a prolonged ceasefire will preserve Hamas’s bloody oppression of Gaza and make future wars with Israel inevitable.

For most Gazans, even when there is no hot war, Hamas’s dictatorship is a nightmarish tyranny. Hamas rule features the torture and murder of regime opponents, official corruption, extremist indoctrination of children, and misery for the population in general. Hamas diverts foreign aid and other resources from proper uses; instead of improving life for the mass of the people, it uses the funds to fight against Palestinians and Israelis.

Moreover, a Hamas-affiliated website warned Gazans last month against cooperating with Israel in securing and delivering the truckloads of aid flowing into the Strip. It promised to deal with those who do with “an iron fist.” In other words, if Hamas remains in power, it will begin torturing, imprisoning, or murdering those it deems collaborators the moment the war ends. Thereafter, Hamas will begin planning its next attack on Israel:

Hamas’s goals are to overshadow the Palestinian Authority, win control of the West Bank, and establish Hamas leadership over the Palestinian revolution. Hamas’s ultimate aim is to spark a regional war to obliterate Israel and, as Hamas leaders steadfastly maintain, fulfill a Quranic vision of killing all Jews.

Hamas planned for corpses of Palestinian babies and mothers to serve as the mainspring of its October 7 war plan. Hamas calculated it could survive a war against a superior Israeli force and energize enemies of Israel around the world. The key to both aims was arranging for grievous Palestinian civilian losses. . . . That element of Hamas’s war plan is working impressively.