A weeklong battle between Israel and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip has turned the political kaleidoscope, shaking up and repositioning diplomatic forces tackling the Middle East's myriad conflicts.
The broad alliance contending with the civil war in Syria has divided over who's to blame for the latest Israeli-Palestinian clash. Egypt, no longer moving in lockstep with Washington after last year's ouster of President Hosni Mubarak, is walking a fine line between defense of fellow Islamists in Hamas and commitment to the Arab-Israeli peace treaty. Tensions in Egypt's Sinai have ratcheted up with an influx of Palestinians fleeing the airstrikes on Gaza. And what was seen for months as a grave threat for the region -- Israel's vow to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities -- has faded from the headlines but not the horizon.
The barrage of Hamas rockets and Israeli airstrikes has most notably diverted world powers' attention from the rebellion against Syrian President Bashar Assad that has reached a bloody stalemate after 20 months and left thousands dead. The U.N. Security Council called an emergency session in New York for Wednesday. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has rushed to the region to counsel the Gaza combatants, as has U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and concerned diplomats from the European Union and Arab League.
TIMELINE: Israel-Gaza conflict
Even if the Gaza conflict is quickly tamped down by a cease-fire, it has undermined the recent consensus among Western powers to unite rebel groups fighting for Assad's ouster and strengthen their hand with diplomatic recognition, aid and potentially arms. Turkey, a NATO military partner and staunch U.S. ally in the Syria peace efforts, has accused leaders of the Jewish state of "waging terrorism" against Palestinians in Hamas-ruled Gaza.
Egypt's new Islamist leadership has also come to the defense of Hamas, an offspring of the Muslim Brotherhood that helped bring President Mohamed Morsi to power this year and transform Cairo's political outlook after three decades of Mubarak toeing the U.S. line.
Morsi has so far shown balance and statesmanship in helping to broker a cease-fire, analysts say, but the shifts in popular sentiment brought about by the
The broad alliance contending with the civil war in Syria has divided over who's to blame for the latest Israeli-Palestinian clash. Egypt, no longer moving in lockstep with Washington after last year's ouster of President Hosni Mubarak, is walking a fine line between defense of fellow Islamists in Hamas and commitment to the Arab-Israeli peace treaty. Tensions in Egypt's Sinai have ratcheted up with an influx of Palestinians fleeing the airstrikes on Gaza. And what was seen for months as a grave threat for the region -- Israel's vow to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities -- has faded from the headlines but not the horizon.
The barrage of Hamas rockets and Israeli airstrikes has most notably diverted world powers' attention from the rebellion against Syrian President Bashar Assad that has reached a bloody stalemate after 20 months and left thousands dead. The U.N. Security Council called an emergency session in New York for Wednesday. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has rushed to the region to counsel the Gaza combatants, as has U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and concerned diplomats from the European Union and Arab League.
TIMELINE: Israel-Gaza conflict
Even if the Gaza conflict is quickly tamped down by a cease-fire, it has undermined the recent consensus among Western powers to unite rebel groups fighting for Assad's ouster and strengthen their hand with diplomatic recognition, aid and potentially arms. Turkey, a NATO military partner and staunch U.S. ally in the Syria peace efforts, has accused leaders of the Jewish state of "waging terrorism" against Palestinians in Hamas-ruled Gaza.
Egypt's new Islamist leadership has also come to the defense of Hamas, an offspring of the Muslim Brotherhood that helped bring President Mohamed Morsi to power this year and transform Cairo's political outlook after three decades of Mubarak toeing the U.S. line.
Morsi has so far shown balance and statesmanship in helping to broker a cease-fire, analysts say, but the shifts in popular sentiment brought about by the