On Hardball today Chris had a segment on the escalating violence going on in Israel and Gaza with correspondent Richard Engel.
One line of discussion revolved around what agent was the true threat to Israel, Hamas or Iran. Engel put forth an argument that Israel's great success in reducing the rocket threat, based on its high degree of intelligence, meant that Hamas was a foe that could be handled. He stated that to demonstrate how effective Israeli intelligence was on Hamas the IDF was to the point of calling Hamas neighbors to warn them of an impending strike, meaning of course that Israel knew the neighbors phone numbers and had them ready for use. His narrative built a conclusion that the real threat to Israel was obviously not Hamas but rather Iran.
His line of reasoning extended further in that Bibi used Hamas' continued indiscriminate rocket fire into Israel as a rationale to launch a military response of his own, but the purpose of the Israeli strikes were really meant to degrade the Hamas capability to respond when Bibi decides to launch his future airstrikes against the nuclear facilities in Iran.
If what Engel and Matthews discussed is true and it is found that the Hamas attacks on Israel allowed Bibi the opportunity to achieve two potential objectives, attack Iran's nuclear facilities and thwart in advance any ability by Hamas to strike back in response, then the roles Hamas and Bibi have played in this conflict will certainly be seen in a different light.