Top Israeli diplomat scolds ambassadors

Sun, 03 Jan 2010

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman chastised the regime's foreign envoys for their tendency to appease their host states.

"I have seen that some ambassadors identify themselves with the other side to such an extent that they are all the time trying to justify and explain [the position of the other side]," Lieberman said at a conference last week with Israeli ambassadors.

In his 20-minute address, Lieberman spoke before the shocked audience, who had gathered at the Foreign Ministry, without giving them any opportunity to ask questions or comment. He then left abruptly.

A senior source at the ministry said some of the ambassadors had expressed frustration with Lieberman in private earlier this week and vowed to confront him and "tell him precisely what they think."

Envoys also complained that they were confused because of the conflicting messages they had received from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lieberman.

At the opening of the conference, Lieberman called the Palestinian Authority "a bunch of terrorists," claiming that there was no chance of reaching peace with the Palestinians in the next two decades.

The following day, however, Netanyahu delivered a different message, saying that conditions for resuming talks with the Palestinians were positive.

Netanyahu also talked of the need to establish a "demilitarized" Palestinian state alongside "a Jewish Israel."

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=115253§ionid=351020202.