6 months after Shalev returns from UN, cabinet selects envoy to London as her successor; PM: Prosor's appointment now is "very important."
By HERB KEINONRon Prosor 311(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
More than six months after Gavriella Shalev returned from the UN, the cabinet on Sunday finally named Ron Prosor as the country’s permanent envoy to the UN.Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu praised Prosor, currently serving as ambassador to the UK, telling Sunday’s cabinet meeting that he was an excellent envoy in London, and that his appointment at this time at the UN was “very important.”RELATED:Foreign Ministry gives UN post to Ron ProsorLong-running PM-FM feud on UN post set to end next weekNo successor for Prosor in London has yet been named.Prosor’s appointment comes at a time of increasing isolation for Israel, and amid concern that the UN might unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state in September.The announcement comes three weeks after the Prime Minister’s Office leaked that Prosor would indeed get the UN post, and that he would be replaced in London by National Security Council head Uzi Arad.This announcement set off a political struggle between Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, with Lieberman saying that the Prosor appointment was his idea, but that Arad would not be going to England.Arad then announced that he was resigning, to return to academia.A farewell ceremony for Arad was held in the Prime Minister’s Office on Sunday. He is, however, expected to remain nominally in his post until he can hand over the position in an orderly fashion to his successor.Maj.-Gen (res.) Yaakov Amidror, a former head of the IDF’s research and assessment division, and Maj.-Gen. (res.) Amos Gilad, head of the Defense Ministry’s diplomaticsecurity bureau, remain the two main contenders for the job, but it is not clear when an announcement will be made.The Prime Minister’s Office confirmed that in addition to naming a new head of the National Security Council, Netanyahu will also appoint a new foreign policy adviser – a position that Arad also filled. The Prime Minister’s Office approached Brig.-Gen. (res.) Michael Herzog for the position, but he is reportedly not inclined to accept it.Regardless of who becomes the foreign policy adviser, Ron Dermer, Netanyahu’s senior adviser, is expected to continue in his role as the primary interface inside the Prime Minister’s Office with Washington.Prosor, a former Foreign Ministry director-general, will replace Meron Reuben, who has temporarily filled in at the UN since August. Prosor has also served as the ministry’s spokesmen, as well as in senior capacities in the embassies in the US and Germany.The cabinet also approved the appointments of Alon Ushpiz to New Delhi; Dan Ashbel to Helsinki and as nonresident ambassador to Estonia; Ilan Mor to Budapest; Chaim Shacham as consul-general to Miami; and Dan Shaham as ambassador-atlarge to a number of countries in southern Africa.Shaham will replace Ilan Baruch, who sent a letter last week to his Foreign Ministry colleagues saying he was taking early retirement because he could no longer represent the policies of this government.Senior officials in Lieberman’s bureau, however, said Baruch had put himself up as a candidate for the empty ambassadorial post in Cairo a year ago, and when he did not get that job, started the process of early retirement some six months ago.
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