On Sunday, Iran launched missiles at a U.S. consulate in northern Iraq, in what it claimed was retaliation for an Israeli strike last week on multiple sites near Damascus, which left two Iranian officers dead. With the eyes of the world focused on the war in Europe, writes Yoni Ben Menachem, the Islamic Republic has more opportunity to expand its presence throughout the region—with Russia’s support:

Although the Iranians are expressing concern about the delay of the [nuclear] deal, they are also keeping an eye on the United States, which is under tremendous pressure, and rubbing their hands in glee as Putin, their ally, makes life difficult for Biden. As the war in Ukraine continues, the Iranians have begun a series of coordinated diplomatic and military moves with the Russian regime.

On February 27, 2022, General Ali Mamlouk, the head of Syria’s National Security Bureau, visited Tehran for the first time in two years and met with President Ebrahim Raisi and Ali Shamkhani, secretary-general of Iran’s National Security Council. They discussed tightening security coordination and preparations for any possible repercussions on Syria from the war in Ukraine. . . . Alongside military activity, Iran is also deepening its economic involvement in Syria.

Iran has also intensified its arms smuggling to Syria and Lebanon, including drones, precision-guided missiles, and aerial defense systems. According to Syrian sources, Israel is worried that Russia will help the Syrian army intercept its air-force planes. Hence, it has preferred to attack Iranian targets in Syria with surface-to-surface missiles instead of airstrikes.

Russia’s ongoing military invasion of Ukraine and conquest of large swaths of territory may, in the Iranians’ assessment, force Russia to transfer some of its military forces in Syria to Ukraine. As a result, Russia’s military power in Syria could decline while Iran’s military power and influence could grow.

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.