The main item of Middle East related coverage in the UK media today is US anger with Syria following an attack by supporters of the Assad regime on the US Embassy in Damascus yesterday. In other stories, the Guardian, Daily Telegraph, Times, Independent and BBC Online note the passing of a controversial bill in the Knesset which would make support for a boycott against Israel or any group located within its territory, including the West Bank, a civil offense. The Guardian has an additional item on claims by the parents of Rachel Corrie, a pro-Palestinian activist killed in Gaza, that the IDF withheld video evidence related to her death. The paper also notes barbs between Israeli, Arab and Iranian representatives at a EU nuclear meeting. The Independent and Financial Times note remarks by US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta criticizing Iran’s backing of Shia groups in Iraq, who are targeting US troops. The Glasgow Herald reports that a number of senior Jewish academics in Scotland have resigned from the lecturers’ union UCU, because of the union’s opposition to EU guidelines on anti-Semitism. The Financial Times runs a piece on the growing role of sectarianism in Arab protest movements. Reuters reports on the re-emergence of protests in Egypt. BBC Online has additional pieces on the scheduled release of British protesters held in Ben-Gurion airport, and plans by a Palestinian brewery to expand abroad. Sky News Online is currently reporting on an attack on a gas pipeline in Sinai bringing gas to Israel and Jordan. The Independent notes that former Israeli President Moshe Katzav is now suspected of harassing a witness in the case that saw him convicted of rape. The Daily Telegraph notes that Islamist leader Sheikh Raed Salah was allowed into Britain despite a ban on his entry, because information about him was misdirected to the wrong terminal at Heathrow.

In the Israeli media, all news websites are reporting the attack on the Sinai gas pipeline this morning. All papers note the passing of the boycott bill in the Knesset yesterday. Haaretz, the Jerusalem Post and Ynetnews report on the inconclusive meeting of the Quartet in Washington yesterday. All papers also note US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s description of Syrian President Bashar Assad as ‘not indispensable.’ Maariv has an interview with former IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz, to mark the fifth anniversary of the outbreak of the Second Lebanon War.