One month on, how is Avigdor Lieberman faring as foreign minister?

From his first day in post, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman declared that his policies would be drastically different to those of predecessor Tzipi Livni. Now, a month later and on the eve of his first official visit abroad, we take a look at his pledges and performance so far.

On the job

Lieberman's schedule has become one of the Foreign Ministry's best-kept secrets. Aside from Sigalit Levi, his personal secretary, chief of staff Sharon Shalom and a select few, no one - including very senior officials in his ministry - is privy to what Lieberman does with his time.

This secrecy has led to several embarrassing faux pas, such as when a meeting with a foreign counterpart had to be rescheduled and none of the participants were notified.

Lieberman has also implemented some obvious changes in the way his ministry functions. He put Levi in charge of drawing up his daily schedule, casting aside Nitza Pines, who has worked with the last 15 foreign ministers.

The foreign minister vowed before taking the job that he would hold staff meetings at 7:30 every morning and the last ministry discussions of the day at 10 P.M. So far, Lieberman has kept his word. Another main feature of his regime has been to stay involved in all operations within the ministry.

Public relations

Levi was responsible for Lieberman's interview with the Austrian daily Kleiner Zeitoung last month, in which he declared his opposition to negotiations with Syria.

Foreign Ministry officials heard of the interview only when it was leaked to Israeli media. Only after an in-depth investigation did it become clear that this unknown newspaper was actually a local tabloid.

According to ministry sources, the interviewer - who does not reside in Israel - contacted Levi and requested an interview. She obliged without even consulting professionals on the matter, said the sources.

Meanwhile, more requests for interviews kept filtering through by journalists from other media such as The Financial Times, Le Figaro, and TIME magazine.

Lieberman has made other contentious procedural changes within the realm of his public relations. Although the ministry has an entire publicity department comprising some 20 expert diplomats, Lieberman made the unprecedented decision to appoint newcomer Sivan Raviv - who has no prior experience - as his spokesman.

New faces

Lieberman has made several interesting appointments to his team of policy advisers.

He has named Bedouin diplomat Ishmael Khaldi as his ministerial adviser on the Arab world. The appointment was leaked to the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth under the headline "Lieberman's Arab advisor", hinting that it was an attempt to gloss over Lieberman's alleged racism.

Since then it has emerged that Khaldi has next to no Foreign Ministry experience in dealing with the Middle East, having never served as a representative in an Arab state or in a relevant branch.

Associates of Lieberman have stressed that despite Khaldi's lack experience in the region, the motive behind his appointment was "promotion of minorities in the Foreign Ministry."

Lieberman has also nominated veteran diplomat Yossi Gal as director-general of the ministry. At least five deputy directors-general who spoke with Haaretz were optimistic over Lieberman's changes, and many ministry employees seem pleased at the appointment of Gal.

Foreign credentials

Sources present at Lieberman's meetings with foreign officials have testified that his level of English is "good" and that he "succeeds in getting across his message."

But, the same sources acknowledge, a lack of defined policy has led to some embarrassing incidents. They cite the time Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek asked Lieberman for his opinion on the Palestinian issue.

Topolanek told Lieberman that Israel has three options: "Transfer, which is unethical and impractical; a binational state, which you do not want; and two state for two peoples, which in my opinion is the only solution that will bring stability." Lieberman replied by saying that "we need to find a pragmatic solution," but refused to elaborate beyond his vague remark.

In a conversation with senior Foreign Ministry officials, Lieberman announced that "the Oslo process failed and we need to set up investigations in order to discover the reasons and Israel's diplomatic mistakes." But when Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos brought up the topic of establishing a Palestinian state, Lieberman reportedly didn't dismiss the idea out of hand.

Moratinos asked Lieberman at the end of the meeting if he could tell the media that he had not denounced the principle of two states for two peoples. Lieberman was shocked, and asked Moratinos to keep it a private matter between the two of them.

To top it all off are Lieberman's remarks at the official swearing-in ceremony for ministers at the beginning of April, in which he said Israel was not bound by commitments it made at the U.S.-sponsored Annapolis conference and attacked previous Israeli governments for making concessions.

It appears Lieberman's main concern is that he maintain his "hawkish" image. A prime example is the response of Lieberman's office to a rather odd report in the Arabic-language newspaper al-Hayat, in which an Egyptian source was quoted as describing Lieberman as "pragmatic" and as somebody who does not reject "two states for two peoples."

Lieberman's office rejected the report, and emphasized that "the Foreign Minister expresses all his positions in public."

Lieberman's first visit to Europe as foreign minister includes meetings with foreign ministers in Rome, Prague, Paris and Berlin.

If he is found to be "pragmatic" and "diplomatic" in Europe, he will be invited again and considered a true partner. If not, he will quickly discover that if he is lucky, he might get an invite from the Belorussians.

The Foreign Minister's bureau was sent 12 questions touching on issues raised in this article. None of the questions were answered, although the following response was received:

"The questions sent to us by Haaretz deal with rumors, gossip and slander that have no connection to reality and are not deserving of a response. This is an added part of the campaign run by Haaretz against the foreign minister that does not accord with the principles of the newspaper, which insists it stands with the interests of the State of Israel."

	Avigdor Lieberman
	Photo by: (Daniel Bar-On / JINI)