ISRAEL'S prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, says he is working with the Egyptian government to get Israel's embassy in Cairo up and running again "speedily" after the embassy offices, located in a high-rise building in the suburb of Giza, were sacked by protesters on Friday night.

All Israeli diplomats bar one, together with their families, fled the country before dawn, escorted to the airport by Egyptian security forces to an Israeli air force jet sent to evacuate them. Six security guards trapped in the beleaguered embassy building were at last rescued by Egyptian commandos who used live ammunition to scatter the protesters. The guards, too, were flown out before dawn.

For Israel, it was a second major setback within days, following a marked deterioration earlier last week in relations with Israel's other former regional ally, Turkey. The Turkish government expelled the Israeli ambassador and other senior diplomats from Ankara, reducing the level of relations to lowly second secretaries and suspending all military links between the two countries.

Israeli observers see a connection between the two episodes. They believe the anti-Israel protesters in Cairo were encouraged by the televised scenes of Israeli diplomats hastily leaving Turkey.

Israel's relations with Turkey have worsened steadily over the past three years, ever since Israel's "Operation Cast Lead", an air and ground assault on the Gaza Strip which was aimed at Palestinian militants but also killed and wounded hundreds of civilians. Turkey demands an apology and compensation from Israel for the deaths of eight Turkish activists and one Turkish-American aboard the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara in December 2010.

Relations with Egypt have also been rocky in recent months, despite repeated assurances by the interim government in Cairo that it will stand by the 30-year peace treaty between the two countries. The embassy was attacked by protesters over the past fortnight in the wake of an incident along the Israel-Sinai border in which up to five Egyptian soldiers were killed, apparently by Israeli troops engaged in a gun battle with Palestinian terrorists.

The fact that the Cairo drama ended relatively well—no Israeli diplomat or guard was hurt—was due in large measure to American intervention at the highest level. Israeli efforts to set up direct communication with General Muhammad Hussein Tantawi, the Egyptian defense minister and chairman of the interim governing council, were unsuccessful until Mr Netanyahu appealed to Barack Obama and the American leader threw his personal weight into the fray. From that moment, according to Israeli reports, Mr Netanyahu and his defense minister, Ehud Barak, were able to talk directly to their Egyptian counterparts and impress upon them the parlous condition of the six security guards, cowering behind a steel door on the 18th floor of the building as the protesters battered their way up with sledge-hammers.

In the dangerously fraying relationship with Turkey, too, the evolution of a worst-case scenario has been avoided, for the moment at any rate, by vigorous American intervention. In a swirl of angry statements that accompanied the eviction of the ambassador, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan seemed to suggest at the end of last week that he would send Turkish warships to escort Turkish civilian vessels seeking to bring humanitarian aid to the Palestinians of Gaza.

Over the weekend, reportedly after some stiff diplomatic exchanges with Washington, Turkish spokesmen issued statements clarifying that Mr Erdogan was not suggesting a new flotilla with armed Turkish escort and fears that he was seeking a confrontation with the Israeli navy in the eastern Mediterranean receded.

American diplomatic intervention, similarly, will bolster Israel in the weeks ahead at the United Nations, where the Palestinian Authority plans to submit a formal application for the recognition of the State of Palestine. The Obama administration has assured Congress that it intends to veto the Palestinian move at the Security Council, thus ensuring that the new state, even if endorsed by a large majority of the General Assembly, will not be admitted as a member of the United Nations.

There are fears that the UN drama will be accompanied by violent disturbances in the Palestinian territories, and these fears are inevitably heightened now because of the events in Cairo. Even if these fears prove groundless—the Palestinian Authority leadership assures Israel and the world that they will—Israeli policymakers find themselves staring uncomfortably at a worsening strategic situation and relying on the support of an American administration which does not hide its own deep differences with Mr Netanyahu over his policy towards the peace process with the Palestinians.

Mr Netanyahu, speaking on Saturday September 10th, said the regional upheavals underscore Israel's need to address its security in any future accord with the Palestinians. But he has also said that the Arab spring—Israeli commentators are now calling it an "Arab autumn" or even an "Arab winter"—means Israel must be cautious about resuming the long-stalled peace negotiations. The Palestinians, the Israeli opposition and many in Washington believe his cautious talk of security concerns covers an abiding reluctance to negotiate the territorial concessions that a peace deal would require.

On the more immediate problem of re-establishing normal diplomatic ties between Egypt and Israel there is a sense of urgency abroad that this be done quickly, for fear of irreversible erosion of the peace treaty. Britain, France and other states are pressing the Egyptian government in this regard.

The Israelis are likely to send back their diplomats without their families, at least at first. But they will want a new and better-protected embassy building—a ground-level compound rather than three floors in a high-rise. That makes sense from the security perspective. But a walled-off chancery remote from the bustle of Cairo life would only accentuate Israel's growing isolation, in Egypt and in the wider region.