The Three Ways Israel Faces Isolation -- Yet Succeeds In Making Friends and Influencing People

I'm unmoved by the hand-wringing over Israel's "isolation." When I came to the country 30 years ago, Israel had no relations with the USSR (and Eastern Europe), China, and India. There was no foreign investment and a UN General Assembly resolution still stood, condemning Zionism as racism. It will take more than a Cairo mob, a truculent Turk, and another UN resolution to make me feel "isolated."
Middle East expert Martin Kramer, quoted by Todd Warnick in The "Isolation" Canard

For decades, claims are periodically trotted out that Israel -- by virtue of its actions -- is being faced with the threat of being isolated.

In describing Jerusalem's Decreasing Isolation, Efraim Inbar delineates 3 ways to measure a county's isolation:

Israel Is Not As Isolated As Critics Say -- So Why Do They Say It?

The following by Efraim Inbar is reposted here with permission of Middle East Forum:

Jerusalem's Decreasing Isolation
Israel in the World

by Efraim Inbar
Middle East Quarterly
Spring 2013, pp. 27-38 (view PDF)

http://www.meforum.org/3483/israel-isolation

The bad news is clear. Israel's right to exist is questioned by many, and its ancient and present capital, Jerusalem, is unrecognized by all but a few states. Israeli leaders are sometimes compared to leaders of Nazi Germany, and Israeli actions against the Palestinians are described as Nazi-like policies. Moreover, the Israelis are accused of engaging in South African apartheid policies toward the Palestinians and the country's Arab minority. Opponents and critics portray the Jewish state as the world's worst violator of human rights, United Nations resolutions, and international law.[1]

While European guilt over its colonialist past facilitates the acceptance of the Palestinian-as-victim narrative and while the latent, traditional anti-Semitism that culminated in the Holocaust has never been eliminated, Israel is still not quite the pariah of Europe as some think. In May 2010, Prime Minister Netanyahu (third from left) joined hands in Paris with leaders (left to right) Andrus Ansip, Estonia; Felipe Larrain, Chile; Silvio Berlusconi, Italy; Borut Pahor, Slovenia, and Angel Gurría, secretary general of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, when Israel was formally admitted into the exclusive organization.

As a result of these global attitudes, many Israelis feel their country to be once more alone and increasingly isolated in the international community.

Barry Rubin: Who’s Really Isolated? He Who Misunderstands Middle East Realities

Who’s Really Isolated? He Who Misunderstands Middle East Realities

by Barry Rubin

One of the mantras from Israel’s supposed foreign well-wishers is that the country is now “isolated.” You can tell the hostile ones because they quickly add that this alleged isolation is Israel’s own fault.
Sure, on the surface the first proposition makes sense. Israel has lost its two main regional friends—Turkey and Egypt—which are now hostile. The United States under its current government—but doesn’t President Barack Obama love Israel?—is no longer reliable. Isn't rather notable that despite these two countries turning totally against Israel this has had zero effect on the Obama Administration's totally positive policy toward both, a list to which could be added the Hizballah regime in Lebanon mentioned above. Perhaps the U.S. election in November will change this situation but there's nothing Israel can do about that.

Yet none of this is in fact Israel’s fault.

Israel Isolated? Israel Has Friends--And Turkey Is Being Left Out In The Cold

Omri Ceren writes that Israel-Cyprus Military Exercises Show Turkey is Increasingly Isolated, based on an article that those exercises themselves may be a not so subtle message to Turkey, which has tried to impose itself into the deep-sea drilling in the Mediterranean:

The exercises are particularly noteworthy in light of a rumored incident over Cypriot airspace, where Israeli and Turkish planes may or may not have almost had an “aerial encounter.” If there are to be incidents in the area as American influence precipitously declines, the signal is presumably being sent–Cyprus and Israel will be on one side and Turkey will be on the other. Israel and Cyprus’s newly forged ties are in line with recent moves made by Athens and Sofia to solidify their mutual defense interests with Israel.

More to the point, it's beginning to seem as if Turkey just can't get along with anybody these days:

Israel Is Not Nearly As Isolated As Some Like To Claim

I'm unmoved by the hand-wringing over Israel's "isolation." When I came to the country 30 years ago, Israel had no relations with the USSR (and Eastern Europe), China, and India. There was no foreign investment and a UN General Assembly resolution still stood, condemning Zionism as racism. It will take more than a Cairo mob, a truculent Turk, and another UN resolution to make me feel "isolated."
Middle East expert Martin Kramer, quoted by Todd Warnick

It's always popular to claim that Israel is isolated:

We all know the "big lie" technique: you say something enough times and everyone begins to believe it, whether anything close to approximating the truth or not.

Nowhere is that perhaps more successful these days than in Palestinian politics: "Gaza is the most densely populated place on earth"; "there are 4 (5? 6?) million Palestinian refugees"; "the number of Palestinians between the Mediterranean and the Jordan is equal to the number of Jews", and so forth and so on. Palestinians and the Arab countries make statements and an ignorant - or hostile world - accepts them at face value.

The latest canard Israel is now facing - internally and externally - is the country's supposed "diplomatic isolation." AP writes: "Israel isolated ahead of UN vote"; "Israel's alliances looking frayed," says the LA Times; "Israel isolated," says this Russia Today TV report; and of course, Israel's internal media headlines, whether television or many of its newspapers, constantly scream out as to Israel's "isolation" on the world stage.