Israel Increasingly Isolated
by Israel appears increasingly isolated in the aftermath of the attack against its embassy in Cairo, having lost its key allies, Egypt and Turkey, in a volatile Middle East.
By M. Oudina.
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a “disaster” was averted during the violent invasion of the Israeli embassy in Egypt in Cairo on Friday night.
And Ambassador Yitzhak Levanon hurriedly returned to Israel with 80 members of the diplomatic staff and their families.
Israel has nevertheless decided to keep the number two of its embassy in Cairo “to maintain contacts with the Egyptian government,” declared to AFP a senior government official, despite the “serious violation of diplomatic norms.”
”Peace between Israel and Egypt is in the strategic interest of both countries and must be maintained despite the fury of the mob in the streets,” said the opposition leader Tzipi Livni.
Symbol of peace concluded in 1979 with the first Arab country to recognize the Jewish state, Israeli chancery in Cairo crystallizes the anger of a large part of Egyptian public opinion since the beginning of the “Arab spring”.
”There is a situation of total anarchy in Egypt. The provisional military council of Marshal Hussein Tantawi is weak, unable to initiate a dialogue with the Egyptian people,” lamented Zvi Mazel, a former Israeli ambassador to Egypt.
”The relationship between Egyptian and Israeli societies was freezing. This will move when the Palestinian problem will be solved. The relationship, however, between the intelligence services was intense”, noted this week a Western diplomatic source.
Entered a zone of turbulence in February after the fall of President Hosni Mubarak, an Israeli partner, bilateral relations have deteriorated since that five Egyptian policemen were killed Aug. 18 when Israeli forces chased the perpetrators of attacks in southern Israel, near the border with Egypt.
Disputes relate to the security situation in the Egyptian Sinai as well as on sales of Egyptian gas to the Jewish state, which were the preserve of the two sons of Hosni Mubarak, and the Ghaza Strip.
The crisis with Egypt comes as Israel is engaged in a standoff with Turkey, another former strategic ally, because of the deadly collision of Turkish ferry “Mavi Marmara”, who tried to break the blockade of Ghaza, by Israeli naval commandos in May 2010 (9 dead).
After the refusal of Netanyahu to apologize, Ankara has suspended all commercial and military ties with Israel, described as “spoiled child”. And Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, threats to send his navy with any flotilla which would travel to Ghaza.
Source of tension, the degradation of Israel’s ties with its neighbors disturbs the United States, especially as Turkey and Egypt are allies of Washington, essential in the context of geopolitics in a region in turmoil.
For now, the Israeli government tries to keep a low profile, as against Turkey than Egypt.
In fact, the worst may still be coming to Israel, faced with the application for membership of a State of Palestine to the United Nations.
The Palestinians are expected to announce in the coming days whether they present their claims to the Security Council to become a full member country of the UN, or whether they seek a vote in the General Assembly for a status of “non-member state”.
Israel is opposed to the one or the other approach but risks a diplomatic defeat, the Palestinians seemed assured of a majority in their favor in the General Assembly.
M. Oudina
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