IRAN AND SYRIA have violently disordered the Middle Eastern chessboard using their Hamas and Hezbollah pawns. The anxious and, they must hope, futile scamper to reassemble the pieces must be mightily pleasing to both these scheming, nihilistic and intransigent regimes. Provoking Israel to battle served many purposes at once, both for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, of Iran, and Bashir Assad, of Syria. [more]