Nakba Violence Erupts in Middle East — Analysts: Iran, Syria Leveraging Arab Spring to Destroy Israel (VIDEO)

The Astute Blogger's been doing some heavy reporting, for example, "TRUCK JIHADIST MURDERS ONE IN TEL AVIV."

Also, at Atlas Shrugs, "ISRAEL UNDER ATTACK: SYRIAN INVASION, LEBANON AND GAZA TOO, TRUCK ATTACK IN TEL AVIV, MUSLIM VIOLENCE ERUPTS IN ISRAEL." And Ynet,"Deadly clashes on Israel's borders with Syria, Lebanon" (via Memeorandum).

Background at Time, "A Third Intifadeh? Deadly Nakba Protests Spark Fears of Israel-Lebanon Border Escalation." Also, at Christian Science Monitor, "Palestinian refugees call for third intifada during deadly clashes at Israel-Lebanon border," and "'Nakba' clashes: Iran, Syria trying to turn Arab Spring fury into attacks on Israel?":

Israeli officials have warned in recent weeks that "radical" Islamist groups and Iran are trying to leverage the unrest in the Middle East to expand their influence and pull Israel into the conflict.

Now, the unprecedented breadth of Sunday's border protests, which marked the anniversary of Israel’s independence in 1948 – known to Palestinians as the "nakba’’ or "catastrophe" – are likely to strengthen Israel’s anxiety that the so-called Arab Spring will destabilize its neighborhood. And that will make the Jewish state less likely offer concessions for peace, security and political analysts say.

"For decades, the Arab leaders used Israel as an alternative focus. In my view, this is a return to the era of trying to divert internal dissent into attacks against Israel," says Gerald Steinberg, a professor of political science at Bar Ilan University. "It is possible that if Egypt and Syria were replaced by more open, pluralist regimes, they would be more focused on dealing with the internal issues, and less capable of diverting the population to targeting Israel, but this is still a long way off.’’

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Israeli analysts speculated the incident occurred with the blessing of the Syrian government, but was actually a sign of the weakness of the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, which has maintained a quiet border for decades.

On Sunday, the chief spokesman of Israel’s military, Brig. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, argued that the border protests in Lebanon and Syria bore the "fingerprints of Iranian provocation."

Plus, at New York Times, "Israel Clashes With Protesters on Four Borders."

RELATED: At Jerusalem Post, "Abbas: Those killed in Nakba Day clashes are martyrs," and "Syria condemns Israel's 'criminal acts' against protesters."

Naturally ...