"With Egypt,Tunisia, Bahrain, Jordan & Morocco ... Israel is 'confused'!"

The old certainties of the Middle East have been upended, and Israel finds many of its most reliable partners buffeted or blown away by popular agitation from below. Egypt was long one of Israel’s most important allies, and ties were quietly close to Tunisia. With demonstrations for change also in Jordan, Bahrain and Morocco, Israel finds itself floundering. “Many of our assumptions are broken,” said Mark Heller, an analyst with the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv. “We are groping here, but with the limited tools we have to understand these phenomena, it is not very promising.”

Israelis worry that Arab democracy movements will ultimately be dominated by extremists,(or nationalists)... They worry about the chaotic transition between revolt and democratic stability, .......  they fear that Israel’s regional partners in checking Iran are under threat or falling........ “The widespread indignity felt by Egyptians who see themselves as the jailers of Gaza on behalf of Israel and Washington will give way ....

But Israelis are anxious, especially about Jordan, where the king appears shaky, and about both the Muslim Brotherhood and left-wing secular voices in Egypt. The Israeli ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, praised Egyptian democracy in an Op-Ed piece in The New York Times, but noted with concern that “the reformist leader Ayman Nour declared that ‘the era of Camp David is over.’ ” Israelis have also noted the emergence in Tahrir Square last week of Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a leading Egyptian Islamic theologian who had been exiled by Mr. Mubarak, and the willingness of the Egyptian Army to let some Iranian warships through the Suez Canal. ....... "