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Sheera Frenkel | McClatchy Newspapers
last updated: September 11, 2011 07:50:58 PM
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/09/10/123733/israel-facing-diplomatic-tsunami.html#ixzz1Xhn9uV7T
JERUSALEM — The attack on the Israeli embassy in Cairo has brought into sharp relief Israel's increasing isolation in a still region grappling with the changes of the Arab Spring.
Israel was forced to evacuate its ambassador and most of its diplomatic staff from Cairo this weekend after hundreds of Egyptian protesters tore down a security wall protecting the Nile-side embassy, ransacked its files and burned an Israeli flag. It came less than a week after Turkey, Israel's other major ally in the Muslim world, announced it was expelling the Israeli ambassador and downgrading its relationship to the lowest possible level after a deadly skirmish involving a Turkish aid vessel that was attempting to deliver supplies in defiance of Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip.
With another potential predicament brewing later this month when the Palestinians are expected to request membership and statehood at the United Nations, Israeli-Arab relations appear to be plunging to their lowest point in years.
"Within a week Israel has found itself two friends down and about to face a so-called diplomatic tsunami with the Palestinians," said one European envoy in Jerusalem, who spoke on condition of anonymity under diplomatic protocol.
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