The Gaza tightrope

Amid growing tensions in Gaza and the South, with Israeli leaders vowing to respond with force to the Palestinian rocket barrages this week, Israel’s options are limited. The slow and slippery escalation began – as it often does in this region – accidentally, with no desire by any of those involved to instigate a new round of hostilities. It started in on March 5, with what seemed then as a significant, yet isolated incident 1,500 kilometers away. After months of gathering intelligence and surveillance, the Israel Navy captured a merchant ship in the Red Sea carrying Syrian-made missiles, mortar shells and bullets from Iran bound for Sudan. From there, it appears, the Iranian plan was to smuggle the weaponry to the Gaza Strip. The shipment was most likely intended for Islamic Jihad, which is fully sponsored by Iran. Unlike the much larger Hamas movement, which broke off ties with Iran over Tehran’s support of President Bashar Assad in the bloody civil war in Syria, Islamic Jihad