the whole reason that the israeli image is so bad, is due to the foreign ministry being second fiddle to the concerns of the lead pack, wherever that 'lead pack' sits it isnt in the foreign ministry in each successive Israeli Knesset. I dont want to sound like an undergrad International Relations student, but we know live in an interdependent age and we need good external relationships to cope.

That was an excellent and empassioned letter, written with clarity, direction and purpose.

With a well stocked and resourced Foreign ministry, she wont need to speak English. Foreign dignitaries will know Hebrew.

"For 58 years the foreign ministry has served as a sort of golden cage for prime ministers to lock up confirmed rivals and incompetents who possessed political power. Unfortunately, prime ministers who sought to neutralize political opponents found in the foreign ministry an ideal combination of prestige and irrelevance. Real foreign policy was made and conducted from the prime minister’s office and the ministry of defense. This power structure was established at the time of Ben-Gurion and it has not changed sense. If anything, in recent years the foreign ministry has been weakened even further. " Your basic idea doesn’t hold and contradicts common sense. You don’t give any evidence to your claims. Looks like you are some kind of interested person. Interested in what? G-d knows, but for sure you shoot lots of unsupported claims. What is your claim here? You say “prime ministers who sought to neutralize political opponents found in the foreign ministry an ideal combination of prestige and irrelevance” You never provide a reference or even example, why you think so. Was Abba Eban irrelevant? Was Shimon Peres irrelevant? Why? What is your evidence that Israel’s foreign policy is conducted by ministry of defense? Total nonsense. Yitzhak Mordehai and Moshe Arens conducted foreign policy instead of David Levi? Absurd.

This is why she does not teach English in High School.

Please 'splain to me how a foreigh ministry can be relevant when the Foreign Minister is an inordinately proud member of a party that eschews and proclaims any a void of ideology or political position ((although we ALL know that that is just BS rhetoric for the un-showered electorate with IQ's below the temperature in the room they are sitting in. On a hot day))?? Can a For/Min clearly explain a national position that only 25% of the voters supported with their votes? Can that same person outline a clear plan for national survival and gain support from other countries when the ONLY proactive plan appears to be rout and retreat, and that ruling party seems to be working to achieve an image closer to that of the Cossacks at Kishinev than competent administrators of the Jewish State? In On the Waterfront, Brando's character plaintively wails, "I coulda been a contender!". Israel's Foregin Ministry is a punchdrunk canvasback who has not been a "contender" for some time, and does not appear to be repairing that poor image.

Hear, hear !! It's about time a woman took charge so that statesmanship and not politicking will guide this vessel on a straight course.

When your native language is not spoken widely outside your country, your representative needs to speak a language that *is* widely used. That means English. Ron's example of Abba Eban is telling, given Eban's command of multiple languages.

Isn't your openly patronizing letter a humiliation to Tzipi Livni? She's no rookie but an experienced Knesseth Member and the Foreign Minister of this country now. Do you really think she does not have enough advisors to help her in her choices? I'm not Kadima's supporter at all, but until now Tzipi Livni hasn't given me and many others a single reason for disappointment. Let's wait and see how she copes with her tasks. She's a big girl.

women on high public position is the symptom of a rotten society