The long drawn mediation efforts carried out since the last labor dispute in June have gone precisely nowhere.
By MICHELLE MAZELForeign Minister Avigdor Liberman (L) and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu (R),(photo credit: REUTERS)
Israeli diplomats have gone on strike. Again.The long drawn mediation efforts carried out since the last labor dispute in June have gone precisely nowhere. A spokesman for the Finance Ministry, quoted Monday in the country’s largest daily, Yediot Aharonot, sorrowfully comments that it is unfortunate that the Foreign Service Workers Association has chosen to conduct its campaign at the expense of the country’s citizens and is making cynical use of their distress. Shameful indeed. Doctors may go on strike, and do; the largest hospital in Jerusalem went on strike for many days; time and time again strikes have closed down the country’s airports or grounded airlines. But diplomats? Perish the thought.Don’t they know that it is their duty to remain at their posts, help Israeli citizens in trouble abroad, provide consular services, organize visits of foreign dignitaries in Israel and last but not least, do their best to explain Israel to the world at large? One is reminded of a beautiful old Yiddish story about the thrifty peasant who taught his horse not to eat. It worked beautifully until the stupid animal died.So what if the ministry’s budget has been pared to a bone, not deliberately of course, just by not adjusting it to the rising cost of living? What if diplomats abroad can no longer make ends meet, to the extent that there are no candidates for a number of posts, and that embassies are woefully under-staffed? What if bright young people having successfully taken the grueling cadet course and eagerly looking forward to serving their country suddenly decide not to go on, because they have nothing to look forward to but long years of salaries so low that some of them get a supplementary income from the government? What if the wives – or spouses – of our diplomats have to give up their own careers – therefore forfeiting any hope of income and ultimately retirement benefits? But that is not all. What if the monies doled for public diplomacy and hasbara are laughably inadequate? Yes, what if Israeli diplomats are sick at heart because they are being denied the means to fight the rising tide of demonization of Israel, the blurring of the Israeli narrative? Doesn’t anyone care? Does anyone spare a thought for the gallant men and women of the diplomatic service who are out there on the frontlines, targeted by terrorists who sometime find their mark? For the families and the children, trying to adjust to an impossible reality? Just a few days ago we saw an angry mob trying to storm our embassy in Amman; not so long ago it was our embassy in Cairo. Have all forgotten about our embassy in Argentina?Isn’t it time the government did something about the issue? That negotiations start in earnest to find an honorable issue to a conflict which is of national importance?Michelle Mazel, former president of the association of Israel diplomatic wives.
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