Coincidence? I wonder

Today's clash between Lebanese and Israeli forces has raised tensions to dangerous level. Yesterday's rocket attack on Eilat, or perhaps I should say Aqaba, killed one, injured three and raises questions about the security situation in the Sinai and the south in general.

Perhaps it is a coincidence that these two events should happen only one day apart on opposite sides of the country and then again, perhaps not.

In Lebanon, by all accounts, a senior Hezbollah figure is about o be implicated in the murder of former PriministerHariri. Hassan Nasrallah has stated that any suggestion of Hezbollah involvement would be unacceptable to the group and cause a political crisis in Lebanon. Following the historical joint visit of the Syrian and Saudi leaders to the country, seeking to avoid such a crisis, it would not be unreasonable to assume that a conflagration with Israel would be an effective way to deflect attention from the investigation and from any suggestion of involvement on the part of Hezbollah. There is nothing quite like a good old war with the Zionist entity to bring the Lebanese masses, and the wider Arab world, for that matter; together. Who cares who killed Hariri, its those pesky Jews we need to worry about.

In the south of Israel, recent rocket attacks on Ashkelon and parts of the country point to increased activity by Hamas and other groups, culminating in the murder of Jordanian taxi driver as rockets failed to hit their target in Eilat, landing in Aqaba injuring three people in addition to the one fatality. Could it be that Hamas are indeed concerned by the White House's apparent insistence on direct talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Whether they will bear fruit or not, it appears that they will indeed happen and this of course does not serve the Hamas agenda. Just when things were going so well with dead flotilla activists, world condemnation of Israel and an easing, but not too much, of the siege, those damned Americans have to push Abbas into agreeing to meet with Bibi. Bummer!

Oh well, the obvious answer is to fire a few rockets, provoke Israel into retaliation, have a few civilian casualties, but not too few and boom, we can torpedo any idea of talks.

In both Lebanon and the south of Israel the enemies of peace in the region are concerned at how events are unfolding in the region. This should make the rest of us happy as perhaps things are moving in the right direction. At the same time, we should be diligent in ensuring that their self serving spoiler tactics do no provoke an explosion of finance. The summer has been hot enough thus far. And of course, there is no such thing as coincidence, particularly in the Middle East.