Who Is Behind The Hamas Escalation?

That is a question asked at Powerline--and answered:

From Hamas’s point of view, its current terror escalation from Gaza does not seem to make sense. Hamas has already created a balance of strategic deterrence with Israel by keeping Israel off balance with short range rocket attack for more than two years s without striking deeper in to Israel which it could have done long ago.

Hamas has also been saying publicly that its strategy has been to “bomb Israel into a truce.” But this week’s strategic Palestinian rocket assault on Ashkelon has all but sealed the probability of a broad Israeli ground attack and military reoccupation of at least part of the strip. Why would Hamas continue to taunt Israel into invading Gaza which would almost certainly destroy Hamas’ terror infrastructure, and uproot Hamas political control of Gaza?

Part of the answer may line in the fact that strategic interests here are not local. As in the Second Lebanon war, the road to war against Israel and the West began in Tehran, even at the immediate expense of its proxies; Hizbullah in 2006 and Hamas in 2008.

Similar to its objectives in the 2006 Second Lebanon War and its subsequent subversive behavior there via a rebuilt Hizbullah, Iran’s goal today is the continued destabilization of the region. Iran’s strategy is to exploit Gaza as an Iranian platform to attack Israel and subvert Egypt while simultaneously extending its hand in cooperation to its fellow Muslim power.

Read the whole thing.

Technorati Tag: Israel and Hamas and Gaza.