As the world press is focused on the Japanese tsunami/radiation disaster, the new Libyan war, near civil war in Yemen, the overthrow of the Egyptian government, etc, the Israeli-Palestinian situation has just taken a turn for the worse which could possibly lead to war. This would ordinarily be a major story but it is a secondary one given what else is going on in the world. Nevertheless, the implications are very great.
The crisis was started by Hamas, which decided to launch a major mortar barrage on Israeli targets (see first link below). Hamas launched over 50 rounds at Israeli targets. Israel had previously intercepted a ship which was bound for Hamas with many tons of Iranian weaponry intended, no doubt, for use against Israel. The Israelis responded with a retaliatory attack against Hamas positions, resulting in Palestinian casualties (see second link). Then a terrorist attack occurred at a Jerusalem bus stop, killing one person and injuring about 50 more (see third link). This was the first large-scale Palestinian terror attack against the Israelis in some time, so its timing seems designed to add a provocation to the previous Hamas mortar barrage into Israel.
The fourth link reproduces a Stratfor analysis which sees Iran as an instigator of these latest Palestinian-Israeli tensions and comments on the Iranian-Saudi confrontation. The Stratfor report is consistent with the analysis presented in my March 16th blog post which discussed the Iranian-Saudi competition unfolding throughout the Mideast and North African Moslem world. With wars raging in Yemen and Libya, the future of Egypt uncertain and the Saudis marching troops into Bahrain to keep it from falling into the Iranian orbit, the tensions are very high in the Mideast right now. Iran would perhaps like to start a new Palestinian-Israeli war to make the situation even more incendiary.
Ezekiel 38-39 reveals that Iran (Persia) is one of the allies of Russia and China in the Gog-Magog alliance so I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Iran is acting out a strategy which has already been coordinated with Russia and China to weaken the West and the Sunni governments which are/were pro-western.
http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/WTARC/2011/me_hamas0312_03_21.asp
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/143084
