Already embroiled in a fierce diplomatic row with former friend and ally Turkey, Israel found itself in fresh crisis on Saturday with southern neighbor Egypt after crowds trashed its Cairo embassy.
Israel has few friends in the Muslim world, and the chill on two fronts further deepens its isolation ahead of Palestinian plans to seek full membership in the UN.
The overnight attack on the mission, in which crowds smashed through an outside security wall, tossed embassy papers from balconies and tore down the Israeli flag, was the worst since Israel set up its mission in Egypt, the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with the Jewish state, in 1979.
Along with Jordan, it is still one of only two Arab states to host an Israeli ambassador.
Since former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak’s ouster in February after a popular revolt, activists have called for a revision of the peace treaty with Israel.
“The mob attack on the Israeli embassy is a serious incident,” Israeli news Web site Ynet on Saturday quoted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as saying.
However, hours later, he reiterated Israel’s commitment to peace with Egypt.
“We are committed to preserving peace with Egypt, which is in the interest of Egypt and Israel,” Netanyahu said in a radio address.
“It was a painful blow to the peace between us and a grave violation of diplomatic norms,” an Israeli official said on condition of anonymity, but added that a senior diplomat stayed behind after Israeli ambassador to Egypt Yitzhak Levanon and his staff were evacuated, to maintain delicate ties with Egypt.
“We left the deputy ambassador to keep up contact with the Egyptian government,” the official said.
Israeli army radio said the remaining diplomat was “in a safe place.”
In Jerusalem, Israeli government spokesman Ron Sofer later on Saturday told army radio that Levanon would take up his post again “as soon as the security of the embassy is provided by Egypt.”
“Peace between Israel and Egypt is a strategic interest of both countries and must be maintained despite the angry mob on the streets,” Israeli opposition leader Tzipi Livni told Ynet.
Egypt declared a state of alert after police clashed with protesters who raided the building housing Israel’s embassy.
It was the latest episode in worsening relations between Egypt and Israel since the killing of five Egyptian policemen last month on their common border as Israel hunted militants after a deadly attack.
Zvi Mazel, a former Israeli ambassador to Egypt, said that military ruler and current de facto Egyptian head of state Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi was out of touch with grassroots secular demonstrators.
“It’s a situation of total anarchy where there is nobody on the military committee, General Tantawi or his friends, who can go to the Egyptian people and say: ‘Enough, finish, we have a problem. We have to revive the economy, move forward,’” Mazel told public radio.
“The Egyptian interim military government is weak, unable to have a dialogue with the Egyptian people,” he said.
Israel’s latest Egyptian woes came hard on the heels of its worst exchange yet with Turkey, after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday threatened to send warships to -escort any Turkish vessels trying to breach Israel’s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip.
On Friday, Netanyahu’s office said that the Cabinet had considered various responses to a further worsening of already stormy relations with Turkey, but had not taken action.
“Israel acts and will act responsibly and hopes that Turkey will also act in the same way,” it said in a statement.
Israel and Turkey have been locked in a bitter dispute since May last year, when Israeli naval commandos stormed a convoy of six ships trying to reach Gaza in defiance of the blockade, killing nine Turks.
The crisis deepened over the past week, with Turkey expelling the Israeli ambassador and axing military ties and defense trade.
The US on Friday sought to calm the situation between two of its allies.
“We’re urging both sides to refrain from provocative action,” US Department of State spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.
The worst may be yet to come for Israel on the diplomatic front, as the Palestinians plan to make their bid for membership of a Palestinian state in the UN later this month.
They are to announce soon if they will apply to the UN Security Council to become a full member or seek recognition by the UN General Assembly as a non-member state.
Israel opposes both options, but acknowledges that the Palestinians are likely to win majority support in the UN General Assembly.
It can perhaps take some solace from an unlikely source, a tweet from Bahraini Foreign Minister Sheikh Khaled bin Ahmad al-Khalifa, who took Egypt to task for failing to prevent the embassy storming.
“Not protecting the Israeli embassy in Cairo is a clear violation of the Vienna Convention of 1961 on diplomatic relations,” he said.
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