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Everyone Loves Israel - Until They Don't

(Mosaic) Robert Satloff - In "Everybody Loves Israel," the Hudson Institute's Arthur Herman celebrates Israel's stunning global popularity. Yet, given the speed of seismic strategic shifts in the Middle East, it is foolhardy for any government - especially Israel's - to bank on the idea that "the way things are" are the way things are going to be. In Israel's immediate neighborhood, its good fortune rests on a strengthened partnership with an increasingly authoritarian Egypt; a convergence of interests with the Sunni states of the Gulf; and an energy-based condominium with Turkey. The long-term stability of any of these three realities is not a foregone conclusion. Egypt's volcanic domestic change has probably not seen its last tremor; the Gulf's under-the-table romance with Israel will last only so long as Gulf leaders see it as a useful component of regional competition with revolutionary Iran; and no one can seriously bank on any strategic continuity with a megalomaniacal leader like Turkey's Erdogan at the helm. An important component of Israel's current global success is the fact that countries around the world seem to have lost interest in the Palestinian issue. In the current moment, calm reigns between Israel and Ramallah and Gaza. However, when change comes in a post-Mahmoud Abbas environment, few would wager that calm will reign forever. The writer is executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
2016-11-15 00:00:00
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