Working Around The Lump

A clandestine meeting between top Israeli and Turkish officials highlights a major obstacle in Israel’s foreign policy — namely, the irrelevance of Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.

Following reported pressure from U.S. President Barack Obama, Israeli Industry, Trade, and Labor Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer (a top adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu) met Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in Switzerland yesterday.

Netanyahu did not inform Lieberman of the secret rendezvous, with the foreign minister only hearing about the meeting once the press seized on the event as a potential breakthrough in relations. Lieberman, feeling slighted, released a damning statement of Netanyahu, a particularly notable move because Netanyahu only solidified his bid for the leadership role after obtaining support from Lieberman’s party Yisrael Beitenu. In the statement, Leiberman’s office said:

“The foreign minister takes a very serious view of the fact that this occurred without informing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs… This is an insult to the norms of accepted behavior and a heavy blow to the confidence between the foreign minister and the prime minister.”

The meeting, coupled with Leiberman’s ignorance of it, reveals several interesting facets of the current dynamics of the Israeli government.

For example, regardless of Lieberman’s role, he is rather irrelevant in dictating foreign policy. He was unaware of a high-level diplomatic meeting that involves two tense relationships with key allies. Netanyahu deliberately chose to work around Lieberman, effectively excluding him from foreign policy.

Lieberman and officials under his oversight have made several foreign policy blunders in recent months, including a top Foreign Ministry official’s refusal to shake the hand of his Turkish counterpart. That incident immediately turned a pro-Israel footnote of history into an anti-Israel media storm.

In joining the coalition, Lieberman insisted on obtaining a key advisory role in the government. Even though he was granted the Foreign Ministry, Lieberman clearly lacks actual policy-making clout. Moreover, his prospects of swaying Israeli policy is diminished even further because he is embroiled in a corruption probe that could cost him his position.

Further, the fact that Lieberman learned of the clandestine meeting only after the media began reporting the incident highlights the fact that Lieberman lacks allies in the government. No one in the Prime Minister’s Office leaked Lieberman the information, leaving the foreign minister on the outskirts of the inner circle.

Lieberman’s only relevance remains his ability to maintain the Likud-led coalition and the fact that Yisrael Beitenu could gain additional seats in future elections. However, that political power has thus far not swayed Netanyahu to consider, or even consult, with his foreign minister.

Netanyahu has clearly decided that he, and to a certain extent Defense Minister Ehud Barak, will orchestrate foreign policy, circumventing what they likely view as an impediment and a liability to diplomatic progress. As Israel has lost several foreign policy battles lately — including international impressions of the recent Gaza-bound flotilla — perhaps a new foreign minister that wouldn’t harm Israel’s foreign policy could help turn the tide.