Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Recep Erdogan's visit to Cairo Monday to boost ties with the post-Mubarak regime adds to Israel's multiplying woes as two of its one-time strategic allies get together to deepen its international isolation.

This cemented a harsh and dangerous new reality for the Jewish state as it braced for yet another crisis over the Palestinians' determination to declare statehood in a changing Arab world later this month.

On Sept. 3, Erdogan's Islamist-led government expelled Israel's ambassador and suspended military cooperation with the Jewish state.

That was retaliation for Israel's refusal to issue an official apology for killing nine Turks when its navy intercepted a flotilla of ships carrying humanitarian aid to the blockaded Gaza Strip in international waters in the eastern Mediterranean May 31, 2010.

That clash climaxed several years of deteriorating relations between Erdogan's Islamist government and Israel over its occupation of Palestinian land, the economic blockade of Gaza and the invasion of that turbulent territory in December 2008.

On Sept. 9, a large mob of Egyptians, incensed by Israel's killing of five police officers in the Sinai Peninsula during a raid by militants near the resort city of Eilat in August, stormed the Israeli Embassy in Cairo and attacked it with sledgehammers in a 13-hour rampage.

The ambassador and his staff were evacuated in an Israeli military transport after U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta intervened with the military council that has governed Egypt since President Hosni Mubarak was driven from office Feb. 11.

Mubarak had been a staunch supporter of Egypt's 1979 peace treaty with Israel but the vast majority of Egypt's 82 million people oppose it, claiming it infringes on Egypt's sovereignty.

Their demands it be scrapped, or at least amended, have grown more voluble in recent weeks amid a swelling dissatisfaction at the slow pace of democratic reforms promised by the caretaker military government.

The military council has pledged it will adhere to all Egypt's international obligations but this is beginning to sound rather hollow as a new wave of protests gathers momentum.

That brings into question whether the transitional government will be able to maintain order as anti-Israeli sentiment grows.

If Cairo seeks to rewrite the 1979 pact, the first treaty between Israel and an Arab state, Israel's entire strategic policy will collapse. It's already starting to crack as the Arab world stumbles into a new era with the prospect of new regimes likely to be hostile to Israel.

After the Cairo embassy incident, the Israelis heightened security at their embassy in Amman, underlining Israeli fears the Hashemite throne in Jordan could be the next victim of the Arab Spring.

Israel signed a peace treaty with Jordan, where more than half the population is Palestinian, in 1994.

That treaty too was never popular with the masses and if it also collapses Israel will return to the days of being encircled by hostile states and the peace process, what's left of it, will finally collapse -- and all hope of ever stabilizing the Middle East.

Erdogan's arrival in Cairo for a two-day visit to boost ties, including defense, with the post-Mubarak regime emphasized Israel's growing international isolation and Turkey's aggressive new drive to become the region's paramount power.

This has forced Israel to grapple with some hard truths.

"Our new diplomacy, which puts Israeli honor very high on our priority list, does not believe that it can maintain friendly relations with Muslim countries in the long run," warned Alon Liel, a former director general of the Foreign Ministry and now a lecturer at Tel Aviv University.

"The reason is very simple: This Israeli government has no concrete plans to settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and consequently the Arab-Israel conflict.

"This is the sad truth behind the working assumption that real friendships with the Muslim world are practically impossible. This is the undeclared policy that has led to the latest rift in the Turkish-Israeli bilateral link."

One of the most likely consequences is an intensification of Turkish opposition to Israel's plans to join with the Greek sector of divided Cyprus to export vast natural gas fields under the Mediterranean to Europe, bypassing the Turkish-controlled northern part of the island.

A dispute with Lebanon over ownership of Israel's large offshore gas fields has led to mutual threats of military action.

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