In Gaza, Hamas has been fighting groups affiliated with or inspired by Islamic State (IS); in Iraq and Syria, Iran and its proxies have fought IS. But in the Sinai, the local IS branch and its predecessors have long collaborated with Hamas, thanks to funds and materiel provided by Tehran. Arik Agassi explains:

The ongoing cooperation between Hamas and IS in the Sinai began even before Hamas took over Gaza in 2007. It started when Hamas began cultivating relations with Bedouin tribes and Palestinians living in the Sinai. At the time, [what is now the IS branch] was still known by its previous name, Ansar Bait al-Maqdis (ABAM). . . .

The jihadists rightfully saw that Egypt’s hold on the peninsula was weak. As a result, it was a place where they could operate for an extended period of time without risk of being wiped out by Egyptian security forces. Accordingly, ABAM established its headquarters in mountainous areas with no Egyptian presence and extremely difficult conditions on the ground. . . .

Hamas-ABAM cooperation expanded after Israel pulled out of the Gaza Strip, when the smuggling of people, goods, food, weapons, and fuel through tunnels under the Egyptian border into Gaza increased exponentially. . . . In recent months, and especially since November 2014, when ABAM swore allegiance to IS, Hamas has been increasing its clandestine military cooperation with the group. . . .

Through the Iran-Hamas-IS axis, the Sinai branch of what it is now viewed as the world’s most dangerous terrorist group is flush with Tehran’s money, weapons, technology, and expertise. . . . Moreover, Iran has . . . continued arms deliveries to Hamas through the Red Sea and the Sinai even though it must be aware of the fact that IS will take its cut of these shipments as payment for helping smuggle them into the Gaza Strip.

While it is commendable that administrators of several universities finally called upon police to crack down on violent and disruptive anti-Israel protests, the actions they have taken may be insufficient. At Columbia, demonstrators reestablished their encampment on the main quad after it had been cleared by the police, and the university seems reluctant to use force again. The school also decided to hold classes remotely until the end of the semester. Such moves, whatever their merits, do nothing to fix the factors that allowed campuses to become hotbeds of pro-Hamas activism in the first place. The editors of National Review examine how things go to this point:

Since the 10/7 massacre, Columbia’s Jewish students have been forced to endure routine calls for their execution. It shouldn’t have taken the slaughter, rape, and brutalization of Israeli Jews to expose chants like “Globalize the intifada” and “Death to the Zionist state” as calls for violence, but the university refused to intervene on behalf of its besieged students. When an Israeli student was beaten with a stick outside Columbia’s library, it occasioned little soul-searching from faculty. Indeed, it served only as the impetus to establish an “Anti-Semitism Task Force,” which subsequently expressed “serious concerns” about the university’s commitment to enforcing its codes of conduct against anti-Semitic violators.

But little was done. Indeed, as late as last month the school served as host to speakers who praised the 10/7 attacks and even “hijacking airplanes” as “important tactics that the Palestinian resistance have engaged in.”

The school’s lackadaisical approach created a permission structure to menace and harass Jewish students, and that’s what happened. . . . Now is the time finally to do something about this kind of harassment and associated acts of trespass and disorder. Yale did the right thing when police cleared out an encampment [on Monday]. But Columbia remains a daily reminder of what happens when freaks and haters are allowed to impose their will on campus.