Foreign Ministry welcomes report charging it’s vastly underfunded

The Foreign Ministry welcomes the State Comptroller’s report saying that it is underfunded, describing the findings as a vindication of its complaints going back years about low wages and shrinking responsibilities as successive governments have given key aspects of foreign policy making — including the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Iranian nuclear threat or the boycott movement — to other ministries.

“The report clearly indicates that the most professional body, with the broadest view of foreign policy, is the Foreign Ministry,” it says in a statement. Many other countries in the world place diplomacy firmly in the hand of their foreign ministries, which usually has “unique capabilities” and knowledge to lead its international relations, the statement goes on.

“I urge the Finance Ministry to study every word and every page of this report, which unequivocally presents the damage done to Foreign Ministry over the years,” says Yuval Rotem, the ministry’s director general. “The State of Israel needs a strong Foreign Ministry and the way to achieve this is through proper budgeting that allows for appropriate activity to address the significant political challenges we face.”

— Raphael Ahren