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Israeli PM Defends Foreign Ministry Personnel Shake-up
Israeli Prime Minister and Acting Foreign Minister Ehud Barak Tuesday rejected accusations that his move to reshuffle the foreign ministry was intended to settle accounts with former Foreign Minister David Levy.
Levy resigned last week in protest against Barak's handling with the peace talks with the Palestinians and a coalition crisis.
Barak, who formally assumed the foreign ministry portfolio on Sunday, announced on Monday foreign ministry Director General Eytan
Bentsur will be replaced by veteran Alon Liel, 51.
Barak also recalled three ambassadors considered close to Levy, including Eliahu Ben-Elissar, ambassador to France, and Uri Oren, ambassador to South Africa.
The announcement of Bentsur's departure, which surprised the ministry, reportedly came just hours after Barak met with the top staff and was interpreted as Barak's way of doing away with a Levy appointment.
The Foreign Ministry spokesman, however, said that Bentsur had indicated upon Levy's resignation that he was interested in leaving the post and taking up an ambassadorial position in Western Europe.
Bentsur is a career diplomat and became director-general when Levy took over the ministry under former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in 1996.
In justification of the personnel changes, Barak said on Tuesday it is perfectly natural for the director-general to change when a new foreign minister steps in.
As for the recalling of the ambassadors, Barak said most of them were aware of that for quite some time, adding he did not understand what all the fuss was about.
On the diplomatic front, Barak said he met Minister of Regional Cooperation Shimon Peres before and after the latter held talks with Palestinian official Abu Ala on ways to break the current impasse in the Israeli-Palestinian talks after the Camp David summit.
The prime minister said dialogues are being held with the Palestinians on a number of tracks and Peres is conducting one of them.
In the wake of Barak's moves to shake up the government, Knesset(Parliament) Member from the opposition Likud faction Uzi ndau, also chairman of the Comptroller Committee, is to convene the committee for an urgent session next week to discuss what he called the "purging" of political offices.
The legislator claimed Barak is trying to link the government establishment to the next election.
The Movement for Quality Government, a non-governmental organization, has petitioned to the High Court to block the
replacement of Bentsur as foreign ministry director general,saying Bentsur is a professional appointment, not a political one.
In response, Bentsur said he will stay in the post for the moment. Liel, who was supposed to take over Bentsur's position, is expected to appear on Wednesday before the Civil Service Commission's panel of appointment to await the panel's endorsement.
On Sunday, Barak named four cabinet ministers from One Israel to
be temporarily in charge of portfolios vacated in the wave of coalition partners.
Barak's government has been reduced to a shaky minority one with
40 seats in the 120-member Knesset, and 12 ministers who are barely
enough to sustain the government's daily functioning.
The prime minister, who suffered a severe political blow prior to the Knesset's three-month summer recess by being defeated in the vote of an early-election motion by the opposition, embarked on the tasks of reshuffling the government and pushing ahead the peace talks with the Palestinians with an aim to clinching a peace deal to fulfil his election promise.
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