Last update - 00:00 13/08/2007
Special Winograd report slams Foreign Ministry's lack of policy
By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent
A special report submitted to the Winograd Committee recommends that the Foreign Ministry should be reorganized to allow it to have more of an impact on the decision-making processes involved in forging Israel's foreign policy.
The report was compiled by the Reut Institute, a nonpartisan research organization, after a series of interviews with past and present Foreign Ministry and defense officials.
The report concluded, "The Foreign Ministry does not have the skill, authority or minimum requirements to deal with matters of national security."
Distributed also to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Defense Minister Ehud Olmert, Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik and Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chair Tzachi Hanegbi, the Reut document adds that "Israel has no foreign policy," and thus "there is no one to lead it." The report notes that many bodies in Israel deal with foreign policy, and says other ministries do not see that the Foreign Ministry is in charge in this realm.
The report recommends that the Knesset increase its oversight of the Foreign Ministry, and that the prime minister formulate a list of core issues of foreign policy that will be examined and updated annually. It also recommends that the ministry create a multi-year work plan and a training course for diplomats in national security, and suggests that senior ministerial appointments be approved by the cabinet.