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Arab Spring Increases Uncertainty for Israel
(Wall Street Journal) Joshua Mitnick - Israeli leaders are struggling to navigate a Middle East in which its strategic pillar of the last few decades - a three-way axis with U.S.-allied Muslim powers - has crumbled, a day after rescuing its embassy staff from a mob in Cairo. The regional crisis reignited a debate in Israel over whether a peace push with the Palestinians would ease Israel's problems. But the prevailing opinion in the U.S. government seems to view Israel as more vulnerable and unable to influence the region. "The main effect of what used to be called the Arab Spring is to introduce a much higher degree of uncertainty in how Israel looks at the region,'' said Dore Gold, a former ambassador to the UN under Netanyahu. "Can anyone guarantee to Israel that most of the regimes surrounding it will be there in five years time?''