Israelis Prove Conventional Wisdom (and Obama) Wrong

Paul over at Powerline overlays an analysis of reality onto the template that is conventional wisdom and finds...wait for it...the CW to be almost perfectly wrong.  The CW, as frequently expressed by guess who, maintained  that if Israel didn't abandon its putative hard line on the Palestinian issue it would be increasingly isolated diplomatically.  Turns out that while Israel pounds Hamas into dust, it has an abundance of diplomatic - sotto voce to be sure - support, and unlikely support to boot.

But I would argue that the new alignment cuts in the opposite direction. It shows how marginal the Palestinian question is to Middle East power politics, and thus militates against Israel taking the risks (which, after the latest rocket attacks, are even more manifest) associated with ceding territory to Palestinians.

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But this was not the case. As noted, Egypt, the Saudis, and even the PA refused to side or even sympathize with Hamas. If anything, they were with Israel, objectively speaking.

The Israelis, it would seem, are thinking outside of the box in how to win friends and influence people.