From the Liveblog of
Monday, August 10, 2015
Foreign Ministry being ‘annihilated,’ charges diplomat
A Foreign Ministry representative tells the Knesset Monday that the ministry is being “annihilated” by the current government.
In a tense, sometimes loud meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Foreign Ministry representative Amir Elon, deputy director for human resources, says, “Someone decided to annihilate us. Iran has 67 more embassies around the world than us. This is a ridiculous situation.”
The ministry has protested for months the de facto removal of many of its responsibilities to other ministries. Interior Minister Silvan Shalom is in charge of the peace talks with the Palestinians in the new government, Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan of battling boycotts of Israel, Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz of the cabinet’s Iran policymaking, and more.
The ministry does not now have its own minister, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu kept the post for himself on a part-time basis and appointed his confidant Dore Gold as its new director general.
Former foreign minister Avigdor Liberman, a political competitor to Netanyahu, calls these developments dangerous.
“If we fail at this, it’s a blow to national security,” he says in an interview with Army Radio Monday. “If the Foreign Ministry [must] tell key people [abroad] that they’re not part of a policy, why do we need the Foreign Ministry? Netanyahu has done everything to undermine the ministry.”
The Times of Israel Community.