Iran wants a Hamas-Israel war in Gaza to provide enough regional confusion to allow Syria to suppress the protests that threaten to topple the government:
So the current plan is to order its client terrorist organizations in Gaza to increase rocket attacks on Israel, in the hope that this might start a war between Hamas and Israel. Such a conflict, no matter how short it might be, would distract the Arab world from Syria, and give the Syrian and Iranian thugs an opportunity to come down real hard on the demonstrators (without attracting a lot of bad publicity).
So far, neither Hamas nor Israel is biting.
Painting a big target on Gaza isn't appealing to Hamas? And if Israel hits Gaza there won't be any cavalry riding from Syria to rescue them because the Syrians are too busy killing Syrian civilians to kill Israelis?
The Israelis, for their part, aren't falling for the ploy and are instead letting their enemy destroy itself.
