Saudi-Iranian Jostle for regional control and a nuclear arms race
Saudis (and Egyptians) surreptitiously backing or rooting for the Israelis, in hopes that the Israeli force will weaken Hamas.
Rivalry with Turkey and Egypt
EGYPT
Authoritarians and Islamists have been waging a fight for control of Egypt
Post 'Arab Spring' - Muslim Brotherhood government fell, the military leaders cracked down
hundreds of the Brotherhood’s leadership class sentenced to death
closed roughly 95 percent of the tunnels that connected Egypt to Gaza (economic devastation to Gaza's Hamas)
Egyptians (and even the Saudis) are surreptitiously backing or rooting for the Israelis, in hopes that the Israeli force will weaken Hamas.
Rivalry with Turkey and Qatar
GAZA
Brotherhood’s offshoot, Hamas, holds power
Egyptian closure of tunnels = economist estimated the economic losses at $460 million a year, nearly a fifth of the Gazan G.D.P.
Hamas needed to end that blockade, but it couldn’t strike Egypt, so it struck Israel.
Aim: public outrage to force Egypt to lift the blockade.
Hamas conflict with Israel deemed 'proxy war'
Turkey and Qatar, backing Gaza/Hamas (in regional rivalry with Egypt and Saudi Arabia)
ISRAEL vs PALESTINE
Ongoing conflict (deemed 'proxy war' - see Gaza)
Israel allegedly used for 'advantage' by those in region taking shots at one another
Israel, like the U.S., will be called upon to at least weaken some of the more radical players, like the Islamic State in Iraq (ISIS) and Syria and Hamas.
A clash within Arab civilization, over its future.
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