A More Isolated Israel

Historically a bedrock of U.S. foreign policy, Israel is losing support from outside and inside the U.S. because of its recent aggressiveness, says Jonathan Freedland for The Guardian. “Israel is surrounded by evidence that it is, in the words of one Ha’aretz columnist, “hurtling down the slippery slope of pariahdom”. The Gaza flotilla episode exposed that fact most starkly, as Israel found itself isolated diplomatically, chastised by those it normally relies on as friends. First among those has always been the US. Israel has long been able to depend on rock-solid support from a Washington that saw merit in a loyal, semi-dependent state in a region that was unreliable at best and hostile at worst. But now that calculus has been shaken.”