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Analysis: Israel struggling to win friends, influence people

27 November 2013 20:16 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Criticized for settling occupied land and stung by its failure to shape the new world power deal with Iran, Israel must rethink its strategy if it wants to avoid severe diplomatic setbacks in the coming months, APA reports quoting Reuters.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's fury about the Iranian nuclear accord has exposed Israel's limited reach on the international stage and has coincided with growing frustration abroad over its flailing peace talks with the Palestinians.

Traditionally the closest of friends, Israel and the United States now stare at each other with barely concealed mistrust.

Some of Netanyahu's allies suggest it is time for Israel to build up relations in other regions, such as Asia, to make sure that all its diplomatic eggs are not in one, American, basket.

That might prove a valid long-term plan, but it will not help Israel win its short-term goal of getting Western partners to wring many more concessions from Iran in the next, decisive round of negotiations over Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

And it will not help Israel dodge blame, if, as expected peace talks with the Palestinians collapse in early 2014.

As an initial step to improve the mood music, megaphone diplomacy and public sniping at U.S. President Barak Obama's administration needs to stop, some Israeli analysts argue.

"If we do not change the tone of our discourse, build up the scope of our activities and confine discussion to behind closed doors, then I hate to say it, but we will become diplomatic pariahs," said Uzi Rabi, head of the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Tel Aviv University.

And while Netanyahu might lecture the U.N. General Assembly last month that Iran's new, moderate-sounding president was a "wolf in sheep's clothing", Israelis could learn something, Rabi said, from how Tehran used diplomatic tact to its benefit.