Every language has idioms like “look before you leap.” This advice is true for everyone, especially for diplomats whose very profession is synonymous with tact and conciliation in stressful situations. Israel’s top diplomat is Foreign Minister Israel Katz.
It is no secret that there is increasing tension between Israel and countries around the world, and this is not the place to discuss who started the strained relations or who is right. When one country is dissatisfied with another, there are various diplomatic ways to express its displeasure. These will hopefully garner a headline, which is a legitimate way of doing public business.
A step that can be taken in extreme situations is severing relations. A third country may then represent the interests of one country in another. When the Soviet Union cut ties with Israel following the 1967 Six Day War, Holland represented us in Moscow. After relations began to thaw, for some time Israeli representatives operated under the auspices of the Dutch Embassy.
It is possible to lower the level of relations. Kurt Waldheim, a former UN secretary-general, was elected president of Austria despite revelations that he had served in the Wehrmacht. When the ambassador to Vienna completed his term, Israel decided that no Israeli would present credentials to that president, and the ambassador was replaced by a chargé d’affaires – a senior diplomat who lived in the ambassador’s residence and was driven in the ambassador’s car. The visible protest was maintained until Waldheim was replaced; the chargé was then officially promoted to ambassador and full relations were restored.
The ambassador of the offending country can be summoned for a reprimand; its severity is determined by the person issuing it. A division director? Not the end of the world. Deputy director-general? Problematic. Reprimand by the director-general? That is major.
THE INJURED party may call its own ambassador home for consultations. This is a serious form of protest that by definition is temporary but the time period is not defined in advance and is often met by a similar counter-measure.
The Palestinian state
In May, Ireland, Norway, and Spain recognized an independent Palestinian state. On Katz’s instructions, our ambassadors to Dublin, Oslo, and Madrid were immediately called home for consultations, and have remained here since. Their counterparts from those countries continue to work in Israel, generating an imbalance in the intensity of relations and undermining mutuality, an important element in diplomatic relations.
I don’t know much about those three European embassies, but I was ambassador to South Africa. It has the largest economy in the continent and its overall influence extends beyond it. Parliament sits in Cape Town, a two-hour flight from the seat of government in Pretoria, and the embassy is accredited to several other countries in the region. This all is a huge challenge to an ambassador and a deputy, usually a junior diplomat.
Last November, when South Africa made very strong statements against Israel and began legal proceedings against us in The Hague, our ambassador was recalled for consultations. Imagine the burden that now falls on the deputy, in a country that has close ties with Iran and Hamas, a challenging press, a significant Muslim community, and an important Jewish community, and recently held dramatic elections. Since Foreign Minister Katz received his headline, a major diplomatic arena is severely understaffed.
Can a relatively inexperienced Number Two, regardless of how capable, handle everything adequately, implying that it is not essential to have an ambassador in South Africa? If so, it would be legitimate to lower the level of relations, especially as a chargé d’affaires has more access than a deputy ambassador. It would also be fair to decide that there is no need for diplomatic ties at all.
However, nine months have passed and the ongoing situation begs for some clarification. Is there an ambassador, or is there not? What was Israel’s objective in recalling him for consultations? Is it served? And, did anyone look before they leaped?
The writer, a former ambassador to South Africa, was Israel’s first ambassador to the Baltic states after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, as well as a congressional liaison officer at the embassy in Washington. She is a graduate of Israel’s National Defense College.