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U.S. Trying to Balance Israel's Needs in the Face of Egyptian Reform

(New York Times) Helene Cooper and Mark Landler - The crisis in Egypt raises many questions about how the U.S. will navigate its relationship with Israel - in particular the balance between encouraging the development of a democratic government in Egypt and the desire in Washington not to risk a new government's abandoning Mubarak's benign posture toward Israel. The unsettled outlook in Egypt has also scrambled American calculations about nurturing peace talks back to life between Israel and the Palestinians. And it has left both American and Israeli diplomats wondering about a broader regional realignment in which Israel would be left feeling more isolated and its enemies, including Iran and Syria, emboldened. "The situation tends to highlight Israel's strategic value to the United States as a stable and unequivocal ally in a very unstable region," said Michael B. Oren, Israel's ambassador to Washington. He added: "The situation does reinforce the need for security guarantees, regarding a future Palestinian state, because we see how the current situation in the Middle East can change very rapidly."
2011-02-07 09:16:18
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