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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Israel
Index
The cabinet, and particularly the inner cabinet, consisting of
the prime minister, minister of foreign affairs, minister of
defense, and other selected ministers, are responsible for
formulating Israel's major foreign policy decisions. Within the
inner cabinet, the prime minister customarily plays the major role
in foreign policy decision making, with policies implemented by the
minister of foreign affairs. Other officials at the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs include, in order of their rank, the director
general, assistant directors general, legal and political advisers,
heads of departments, and heads of missions or ambassadors. While
the director general may initiate and decide an issue, commit the
ministry by making public statements, and respond directly to
queries from ambassadors, assistant directors general supervise the
implementation of policy. Legal and political advisers have
consultative, not operational, roles. Heads of departments serve as
aides to assistant directors general, administer the ministry's
departments, and maintain routine contact with envoys. The
influence of ambassadors depends on their status within the
diplomatic service and the importance to the ministry's policy
makers of the nation to which they are accredited.
In the Knesset, the Foreign Affairs and Security Committee,
with twenty-six members, although prestigious, is not as
independent as the foreign affairs committees of the United States
Congress. Its role, according to Samuel Sager, an Israeli Knesset
official, is not to initiate new policies, but to "legitimize
Government policy choices on controversial issues." Members of the
committee frequently complain that they do not receive detailed
information during briefings by government officials; government
spokesmen reply that committee members tend to leak briefing
reports to the media.
Israeli foreign policy is chiefly influenced by Israel's
strategic situation, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the rejection
of Israel by most of the Arab states. The goals of Israeli policy
are therefore to overcome diplomatic isolation and to achieve
recognition and friendly relations with as many nations as
possible, both in the Middle East and beyond. Like many other
states, throughout its history Israel has simultaneously practiced
open and secret diplomacy to further its main national goals. For
example, it has engaged in military procurement, the export of arms
and military assistance, intelligence cooperation with its allies,
commercial trade, the importation of strategic raw materials, and
prisoner-of-war exchanges and other arrangements for hostage
releases. It has also sought to foster increased Jewish immigration
to Israel and to protect vulnerable Jewish communities in the
Diaspora.
Data as of December 1988
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