Three Grad Missiles Fired from Gaza at Southern Israel

This morning, two Grad missiles were fired from Gaza at Israel's seventh largest city, Beersheba, and a third Grad missile was fired at the Israeli city of Ofakim. Two of the Grads were intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome anti-rocket system, while the third landed in an open field. Islamic Jihad, Iran's proxy in Gaza, has denied any involvement in the missile fire.

In short, we are witnessing a return to "normalcy," i.e. several rockets and mortar shells fired every day at civilian targets in southern Israel, which go ignored by pundits such as the Maureen Dowd of The New York Times, who recently portrayed Netanyahu as "trigger-happy" (see: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/07/opinion/dowd-liz-cheney-desist.html?ref=opinion).

Iran is intent upon provoking a Israeli ground operation against Gaza, which would deflect world opinion from its ongoing efforts to acquire nuclear weapons. Thus far, however, even Islamic Jihad has avoided rocket fire on Tel Aviv, which is well within range of the Fajr missiles that have been smuggled into Gaza.

Interested in preserving its "militant" reputation vis-a-vis Fatah, Hamas has yet to rein in Islamic Jihad. The question today is whether Israel will accept a return to the preexisting status quo, i.e. daily rocket and mortar fire into southern Israel.

This is not over.

Hamas Ordered to Seek Confrontation with Israel

As noted in my prior blog entry, encouraged by the actions taken by the rebels in Libya, Syrians are now taking to the streets in Daraa, seeking an end to Assad's tyrannical regime. Yesterday, another protester was killed in Daraa by Assad's security forces.

Also, U.S. and European intervention in Libya has Tehran worried that the next time that the dissidents take to the streets demanding the ouster of Ahmadinejad, the passivity of the West in response to the slaughter of innocents is not assured.

It is no accident that Damascus and Tehran ordered Hamas to fire 50 mortar shells at civilian targets in southern Israel on Saturday in an effort to ignite a confrontation, which was intended to distract their "streets" from events in Libya. Hamas would never act on its own in this manner without instructions.

Yesterday, Hamas continued the rocket and mortar shelling of Israel and fired a Grad-type missile at the Israeli city of Ashqelon, again upon the orders of Damascus and Tehran, in order to provoke Israeli retaliation; however, Netanyahu is no fool, and the Israeli government is acting with restraint.

Quite correctly, Obama has delared that there will be no American "boots on the ground" in Libya, but has also demonstrated to Qaddafi, the monster who ordered the downing of Pan Am flight 103, that America still has teeth in the face of brutal attacks against civilians.