Arabs Accuse Jews of Giving Away Too Much Money

An Arab website has published the news that American Jews donate far more, per capita, than non-Jews to charitable enterprises, and concludes that this is a danger, for those cunning Jews can thereby buy “influence” for the Zionist cause. More on this latest preposterous claim can be found here: “Arab paper: ‘Jews are the biggest US philanthropists. That proves how dangerous they are!,'” Elder of Ziyon, March 7, 2025:

One of the most fascinating thing about antisemites is that even when Jews and the Jewish state do things that are unequivocally good, they frame it as bad.

Arabi21.com refers to a report from Philanthropy.com where, the Arab site claims, Jews are vastly overrepresented as donors to charity in the US. Check out this headline:

A third of the largest donors in the United States are Jews… “They gain wide influence”

The Arabi21 article points out that Michael Bloomberg is by far the biggest donor, with $3.7 billion in 2024, followed by Michael Dell and his wife (#3, $1.4 billion), Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife (#5, $1.1 billion), Google founder Sergey Brin (#15, $205 million)  and Sheryl Sandberg (#23,  $125 million.)

They give the bulk of their charity to the arts, medical centers, universities and social programs. Arabi21, of course, highlights the relatively small amounts some of them gave to help Israel, noting Sandberg declared her “support for the Israeli women who were victims of sexual crimes committed by Hamas during the October 7, 2023 massacre.”

It concludes that “Many critics argue that the philanthropic influence of education and health gives them political clout and allows them to control the public narrative.”

I don’t remember any Arabic articles about how much Arab countries give to US universities, specifically to influence their curricula.

The difference is that when Arab nations donate to US entities like universities, the money is specifically aligned with their political program – influence is the the major reason for the donations. When Michael Bloomberg pays the tuition for all of for Johns Hopkins University medical students, he gains nothing politically, and Jews gain nothing politically.

Jewish philanthropy comes from individual Jews; Arab philanthropy comes mostly from governments. Jewish philanthropy is spread throughout the society: money is given to universities, hospitals, art museums, concert halls, to supply medical care for children, to pay for the college and graduate tuition of entire classes, to prepare “inner-city youth” with training that will allow them to enter the high-tech workforce, to support the Metropolitan Opera and the Kennedy Center, and much more. There is no quid pro quo being sought, no attempt to translate such philanthropy into political power, and then into support for Israel.

Arab philanthropy comes mainly from governments, and then from only a handful — Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar — who are intent mainly on furthering “understanding” for Islam at universities and among the general public, by endowing professorships in Arab, Islamic, and “Palestinian” studies. The Saudis are by far the biggest donors. A case of Saudi money being cleverly deployed is the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, part of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. and thus well-placed to influence members of the American government. There is also an Alwaleed Center at Harvard, also a source of pro-Islamic and pro-Arab propaganda, well-placed at Harvard to influence those who will become members of the American elite.

Here’s an easy way for the Arabs to remedy the situation in the U.S.: engage in massive philanthropy just the way that American Jews do, but give more. Dig into your trilllion-dollar sovereign wealth funds — an increase in philanthropic spending of tens of . billions of dollars will hardly make a dent — and spread that colossal largesse all over the Western world, but especially in the United States. Do just as those “Jewish philanthropists” you are so worried about do — give to the same universities, art museums, hospitals, concert halls, and so on, but make sure to give more than Jews do. And then you’ll see if, indeed, those sums can buy you the misunderstanding of Islam you seek, and the support for the “Cause of Palestine” that still animates you.