Anxiety and alarm seem to define reactions in Jerusalem as Israel momentarily found itself abruptly without an ambassador stationed in the capital of any of its three regional allies: Jordan, Egypt and Turkey, the latter of which expelled the ambassador following Israel’s refusal to apologize for the flotilla raid in which Turkish citizens lost their lives.
Some observers view this moment as a Rubicon from which Israel will not be able to turn back.
“In a way, the big revolution is Al Jazeera,” Rubinstein said. “For years Arab media presents horror stories about repression, humiliation and the expulsion of the Palestinians. Every day, without exaggeration. But Al Jazeera has brought this to the awareness of tens of millions. All they know about Israel is this type of news — checkpoints, dead kids, bombings, blood, pillaging, desecration of mosques and sacred places — and literally every day they see Israeli soldiers standing in front of children and women.
“So the only real question is why this didn’t happen earlier.”
