Israel getting desperate

Israel’s most important relationship in the Middle East is with Egypt, which means it is intensely concerned about the transitional government the United States is now calling for in Cairo. Israel’s Yediot Aharonot newspaper sums up the Jewish state’s precarious position perfectly:

The only people in Egypt who are committed to peace are the people in Mubarak’s inner circle, and if the next president is not one of them, we are going to be in trouble.

Another Israeli paper, Haaretz, added this over the weekend:

The fading power of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s government leaves Israel in a state of strategic distress. Without Mubarak, Israel is left with almost no friends in the Middle East; last year, Israel saw its alliance with Turkey collapse.

Once Egypt goes radical, as we have been predicting for nearly two decades, Israel will be all alone—and desperate. Haaretz continued,

From now on, it will be hard for Israel to trust an Egyptian government torn apart by internal strife. Israel’s increasing isolation in the region, coupled with a weakening United States, will force the government to court new potential allies.

This, as we have also noted many times, will result in Israel turning to the German-led European Union for help. In fact, Israel is already pleading for Europe to intervene on behalf of Mubarak, as Haaretz reports:

Israel called on the United States and a number of European countries over the weekend to curb their criticism of President Hosni Mubarak to preserve stability in the region.Jerusalem seeks to convince its allies that it is in the West’s interest to maintain the stability of the Egyptian regime. The diplomatic measures came after statements in Western capitals implying that the United States and European Union supported Mubarak’s ouster.