Summarizing Events in the Middle East

On Powerline, Minneapolis attorney Andrew Jacobson offers a concise view of what's going on in the Middle East at the moment. His summary at the end offers a brief, insightful perspective on possible motivations behind the events of the last few days:
So here is my observation/theory — Iran has orchestrated
much (if not all) of the current unrest and violence in order to:
(i) distract attention from its nuclear weapons program,
(ii) tie down Israel militarily in order to reduce the chances
that Israel could unilaterally (or in combination with the
U.S.) launch a preemptive strike on Iran's nuclear facilities,
(iii) scare the American public (and politicians) into rejecting
any unilateral military option against Iran for fear of further
inflaming the Mideast (e.g., "Geez, we've already got huge
issues in North Korea, Gaza, Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan,
we can't possibly afford any further foreign entanglements"
or "We better not do anything to Iran, we might further inflame
the Mideast, threaten our oil supply and the U.S. economy"
(Lord knows we don't want to pay $%/gallon for our SUV's)),
and (iv) create world furor against Israel (and indirectly the U.S.),
to further raise the stakes and international opposition to any
unilateral military strikes.

Meantime, the New York Times takes its usual perspective on anything Israel does to defend itself.