WARSAW -- Listen carefully these days to Israelis and South Koreans. What they are hinting at is no less than a tectonic shift in the international system: the shift from a unipolar to a multipolar world.
Israelis are rediscovering Europe. They intuitively sense that they can no longer rely only on the absolute security guarantee represented by the United States' combination of active and passive support. The war in Lebanon, so frustrating for Israel, accelerated that subtle change. Now Europe and its various contingents are playing a leading role in picking up the pieces there.
America, of course, remains Israel's life insurance policy, but enlargement and diversification of diplomatic alliances is starting to be seen as crucial by Israeli diplomats, if not by Israeli society. The Quartet, whose members include the U.S., Russia, the European Union, and the United Nations, used to be regarded as "One plus Three," but that is no longer the case. Europe and Russia no longer see themselves as secondary players, because the U.S., not to mention Israel, needs them.