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Is Israel isolating itself?

Israel is too focused on promoting its struggle against the Arab world to formulate a foreign policy toward peace and regional integration.
Israel's Ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer (2nd R) attends a forum with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (not pictured) hosted by the Center for American Progress in Washington November 10, 2015. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu assured U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday that he remained committed to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as they sought to mend ties strained by acrimony over Middle East diplomacy and Iran. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst - RTS6DLP

Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s famous aphorism that “Israel has no foreign policy, only domestic policy” is even truer today than in 1975 during his Middle East shuttle diplomacy. Traditionally, Israeli foreign policy, with the exception of its relationship with the United States, focuses on convincing the world of its righteousness in its struggle against the Arab world. Most often, it is composed of public diplomacy campaigns rather than being defined by common interests shared with other states, even hostile ones.

While this has been the case for many years, these tendencies were often and currently are exacerbated by two fundamental factors. The first is the fragile nature of most Israeli coalition governments. This fragility makes the leading party dependent on small splinter parties, mostly the religious ones, thus not allowing the prime ministers much room to maneuver on foreign policy.

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