Latest on Israel/Palestinians and The Rest of the Middle east

A senior source told the newspaper that the Russian leader elected to punish the Iranian regime after Israel supplied him with clear-cut evidence that Tehran had given its proxy Hezbollah SA-22 surface-to-air missiles.
 
The intelligence information was corroborated by reports from Russian pilots flying their fighter jets over Lebanon and Syria.
 
The Russian air force anti-missile radars were able to detect SA-22 systems stashed in regions of Lebanon that are under the control of the Shi’ite militia.

Vladimir Putin

Official reports, both in Israel and Gaza, describe collapses caused by recent storms and heavy rains. However, among Hamas and others, there are many who believe Israel is responsible.
 
Hamas operatives have seen Israeli activities near the border fence against tunnels and fear they are connected to the tunnel collapses.

Ishmael Khaldi

Israel and the Palestinians

The European Union plans to step up its anti-Israel boycott measures andrequire farmers based beyond the Green Line to clearly label produce as coming from “the occupied territories,” Israel Hayom learned Thursday.
 
Farmers in the Jordan Valley were recently informed by two companies that export their produce to the EU that the new directive will take effect in mid April.

Mideast Matters

Around the World

• The Vassar College student government was warned by the administration that it may lose control of student funds if it adopts a BDS measure. That’s because, as Legal Insurrection‘s William Jacobson points out, “This legal concern makes sense because the New York State Human Rights Law prohibits boycotts based on national origin.”

The Board of Trustees and senior level administration of the college have publicly stated they do not approve of the BDS movement, and that they are concerned with potential legal consequences of using funds to support a boycott.

The Queen Mary University Palestine Solidarity Society had Ahmed Alfaleet appear via a video link at an event on campus in January.
 
Alfaleet, 42, served 20 years in prison for the death of the Israeli in Gaza in 1992.

Students belonging to the Oxford University Labour Club allegedly called Jewish students “Zios”, sang a song about rockets over Tel Aviv and called Auschwitz “a cash cow”, according to testimony seen by The Sunday Times.

• Over at Columbia University, more than 600 students, faculty members, and alumni signed a letter condemning a recent campus BDS petition which referred to Palestinian terror as “civil disobedience.”

The mischaracterization of suicide bombings, stabbings, and shootings as ‘civil disobedience’ is an egregious ethical breach. We proudly uphold the value of free speech, but malicious incitement and fictitious characterizations do not lie within that value and should find no welcome within our campus discourse.”