Freelancing Foreign Ministers

Just as we were leaving Israel last week, Avigdor Lieberman, the Foreign Minister, announced on television that two Iranian warships would be passing through the Suez Canal. Yet another pronouncement about all those countries that hate Israel and wish her ill. Ok, Iran does hate Israel. According to Ahmadinejad, Iran’s President, Israel should be wiped off the face of history.

But, what was Lieberman’s purpose in calling yet another press conference? To scare the heck out of Israelis, sure. To urge the Egyptians to bar passage or to exert some other form of diplomatic pressure, obviously not. Lieberman’s word does not count for much in Arab capitals. Beyond the populist cry against Israel’s enemies, Lieberman’s purpose was domestic politics. He wants to show that he and his party, Israel Beitenu (Israel Our Home), are the real strong voices against these terrible provocations by Iran, to prepare himself for another run at the Prime Minister’s office at the next election.

Who is Lieberman speaking for? The Foreign Minister of a country is her external spokesman. The government itself, in the person of the Prime Minister, should be supporting the Foreign Minister’s pronouncements. In the week since Lieberman’s press conference, Benjamin Netanyahu has kept a discreet silence.

So, an urgent question. Is Lieberman freelancing or speaking for the Israeli government? The danger if he is freelancing and has not cleared them with the Prime Minister or the Defense Minister is that his remarks become policy de facto. They are looked upon by the world as representing the position of the government.

From his previous ill-considered and undiplomatic pronouncements and from his open disagreements with Prime Minister Netanyahu over key appointments (e.g., UN Ambassador), it’s clear that Lieberman is not thinking about the Israeli government and policy coordination among ministries when he pops off.

The implications can be grave. Can the Iranians treat his remarks as a provocation and use it to trigger a military attack? No one has much confidence that the current Iranian government has patience or sophistication. In fact, the Iranians capitalized on Lieberman’s press conference to assert that yes, they were sending ships to Syria through Suez and the Israelis could lump it. In Europe, Latin America and around the world, Lieberman earned another own goal for Israel in terms of public relations.

Can Israel afford to continue to leave its foreign policy and its image abroad in the hands of an unsophisticated populist like Lieberman? Netanyahu needs the Israeli Beitenu votes in the Knesset, but at what cost to the country as a whole?

One last contrast with other countries. This last week, Hilary Clinton was acting the ascerbic school marm with Arab governments over their repression of protest rallies. While this did not make many friends in the region, it did have the clear and overt support of President Obama, showing that although US foreign policy is nowhere nearly as coordinated as they would like to believe, at least the Secretary of State acts in concert with her boss, and not as a somewhat out of control freelancer.