This is not the old joke about the elephant and the Jewish question. But the defeat of the elephant by the donkey last week does have consequences for Israel. Much as the congressional Democrats won't much put themselves out for Darfur, they won't much put themselves out for Israel either. But nobody in America has ever really put themselves out for anybody in Africa. (We've thought of ourselves at TNR and Nicholas Kristof at The New York Times as the exceptional lonely voices on Darfur.) That's not the case with Israel, which, ever since its founding, has had--with the exceptions of the Eisenhower, Carter, and first Bush administration--more or less continuous diplomatic and military support. The second Bush administration is now under enormous stress about its entire Middle Eastern policy. James Baker's resurrection--which means the triumph of cynicism over the president's maybe simply conceived idealism--as the new foreign affairs czar cannot but put the fear, not of God, but of him into the Jewish state. Of course, this turn might not have occurred had Israel not fought a war that its public supported but its government bungled. And bungled disastrously. Right now, as it also happens, the government in Jerusalem is a jumble of scandal, opportunism, and downright intellectual muddle. It hasn't the support of the people, and it hasn't the support of itself. A confident Israel might even be able to face down Washington--as it did during the Bush-Baker years. For now, we are looking down a very rocky road. This whole matter is treated fairly and wisely in a story by Steven Erlanger in today's New York Times. Also in the savvy DEBKAfile.