The glaring gap between Israel’s diplomats and the politicians they represent

A photo of the Eiffel Tower, ablaze in blue and white lights, popped up on my computer screen. It headed a call to apply for the prestigious cadet course of Israel’s Foreign Ministry. Each year, a demanding process selects 1-2% of some 2,000 applicants who wish represent the country abroad. If only similar demands were made of Israel’s government and of its ministers …

First on the list is fluency in spoken and written English. Indeed, without it, it is impossible to operate in the international arena. Just as well that Israel’s Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich (whose job requires interaction with the world’s money people and who, after an embarrassing speech to Israel Bonds in English two years ago, admitted that he does not speak it) does not apply. This is also true of Israel Katz, two-time Foreign Minister. Mind you, in his current capacity as Defense Minister, he should also be able to communicate directly with colleagues, especially in America.

Among some dozen requirements of aspiring diplomats is “high level inter-inter-cultural communication”. Most Israeli diplomats serve in countries with Christian majorities. In the last three months of 2024, 31 incidents which targeted Christian institutions and personnel were reported, most of them in Jerusalem. Channel 13 recently carried a report of mass spitting during the monthly encirclement of the Old City, and showed a soldier in uniform spitting on a clergyman. It is clear how Israeli diplomats abroad would react to graffiti on synagogues or to spitting on rabbis, while recalling that outgoing Minister of Internal Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, stated that not every emission of saliva is grounds for arrest.

Requirements of potential diplomats include the ability to function under pressure. Would the Prime Minister qualify? His many years in office have consistently shown us that the person behind the deep voice and the theatrical gestures submits to the most recent pressure, to the loudest threats. He regularly avoids situations which may put him under pressure, like interviews with media which does not fawn over him but asks real questions and demands real answers. Or visits to the kibbutzim of the Gaza Envelope

Candidates to join the diplomatic corps are required to display “in-depth analysis, with priority to political analysis”. If this is expected of a junior diplomat, how much more so of an entire government. Here are examples of topics which require in-depth political analysis. Our government’s lengthy refusal to discuss the day after, as though Hamas will disappear spontaneously, or the consequences of Israel’s moves toward annexation, which will create a bi-national reality between the River and the Sea, with all that implies.

But rather than such troubling topics, let me return to something lighter – the exciting photo in the ad. Paris, the most visited city in the world, lit its most famous site in our colors! If you join the Foreign Ministry (applications close today), you can become part of the love towards Israel! What a thrill! What an honor!

Alas, no. the photo was taken immediately after the October 7^th massacre, when many around the world displayed similar gestures of sympathy towards Israel. The gap between what the photo represents and the impression which it attempts to make reflects the gap between Israel’s difficult international situation and the quality of our leadership, and the self-perception of our less than adequate leaders, who ignore reality (after all, it sometimes communicates in English), deluding themselves that reality will adjust itself to us.