March 22, 2012:
Despite the cease fire with Islamic terror groups in Gaza, rockets continue to be fired into southern Israel. But fewer rockets are fired so by the standards of Islamic terrorists, it's a truce. The terrorists keep firing in the hopes that an Israeli retaliation (usually smart bombs or missiles fired from aircraft) will kill women and children. This makes for great anti-Israeli propaganda, which is what all this rocket firing is about. The Arab governments and terrorists accept the fact that they cannot defeat Israel militarily, but they see more success in portraying Israel as the bad guy in Western media and eventually getting Western nations to impose sanctions on Israel or even take military action. That's a long shot but it seems more achievable than a battlefield victory.
The new Egyptian government, dominated by Moslem Brotherhood members, is more willing to allow Hamas to operate in Egypt. This is because Hamas began as a branch of the Moslem Brotherhood and the Egyptian Islamic radicals believe they can do business with Hamas (which is more radical than their Egyptian counterparts). Eventually, Egyptian Islamic Brotherhood politicians will discover that Hamas is too radical, and violent, to deal with. Moreover, Hamas is still sponsored and financed by Iran, which wants to get Egyptian support for Iran dominating Islam worldwide. That will never work because Iran is non-Arab and Shia. But for the moment, Egypt is giving Hamas more freedom of movement. For Israel this means that Hamas terrorists operate freely in the Sinai Desert, which is supposed to be kept free of Islamic terrorism by Egyptian police (per the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt).
Iran recently forgave Hamas for backing the Syrian rebels. For six months Iran pouted and withheld support (cash and weapons) from Hamas. Apparently deciding that Hamas was more important as a threat to Israel than as a shunned critic of the pro-Iranian dictatorship in Syria, Iran and Hamas have made up and Iranian cash and terrorism advisors are now being seen in Gaza once more. The reconciliation also means an end to cooperation with rival Palestinian group Fatah, which controls the West Bank. While most Palestinians would like to see Hamas and Fatah operate together, Iran is more interested in having control of an Islamic terrorist group that operates on Israel's border. Iran, and most Arab nations, consider the Palestinians losers and incapable of ruling themselves or achieving any kind of independence. No one will say that out loud but it's the attitude that governs relationships with the Palestinians.
In the north Iran has instructed its Syrian allies to turn over anti-aircraft guns and missiles to Hezbollah and train their personnel on how to use the stuff. The attitude is that if NATO did decide to come in (as they did in Libya), Syria's more advanced (than Libya's) air defense system would be destroyed in a few days anyway. Better to begin shipping this stuff to southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah would now have a chance of taking down some Israeli aircraft.
March 20, 2012: The government has warned Israeli citizens to be careful when visiting Turkey because of the increased risk of Islamic terror attacks on Israelis there.
March 14, 2012: Two more factory made rockets (longer range 122mm models) were fired at Eshkol and Ashkelon. The Iron Dome correctly predicted that the rockets would land in uninhabited areas and did not fire interceptor missiles. Three 122mm rockets were fired toward Be'er Sheva and two were intercepted by Iron Dome missiles.
March 13, 2012: Palestinian terrorist groups agreed to a cease fire with Israel. Over 250 rockets had been fired into Israel in four days. No Israelis were killed. Israeli counterattacks killed 25 Palestinian terrorists and two civilians. The UN Security Council refused to condemn the Palestinian aggression. This latest cease fire did not last long.