Israel's Foreign Ministry workers association announced a general strike on Sunday as part of an ongoing labour dispute with the Israeli government, cutting off all consular services and regular diplomatic and public diplomacy work around the world. In this exclusive, personal, article, Consul General DJ Schneeweiss explains why.

DJ Schneeweiss, Special to The CJN

Israel’s foreign service is in crisis.

Over a period of many years, our government has been engaged in a mostly unwitting hollowing out of one of the country’s greatest resources – its ability to act on the international stage. As a result, and in an effort to staunch wounds that many of us fear may prove fatal to Israel’s international standing and freedom of action, Israel’s Foreign Ministry workers association initiated a strike on Sunday across our entire network of embassies and consulates, as well as at ministry headquarters in Jerusalem.

Here in Toronto, our consulate doors are shut. We have postponed or cancelled a series of events and initiatives with local partner organizations, as well as various public speeches and appearances and all our communications output. Our consular services were also suspended, except for life-threatening situations or burials in Israel.

While the soft arts of networking, persuasion and letters have often taken a back seat in the Israeli imagination to the very genuine military heroics that have safeguarded our country, a full telling of our history would include countless examples of tenacious and deft diplomacy, advocacy and international alliance-building, without which Israel would not be the success story that it is today.

Through the decades, the unsung heroes of Israel’s diplomatic corps have secured agreements, scuppered hostile initiatives, created diplomatic and economic opportunities, and built partnerships and alliances, each of which has made a concrete contribution to our country’s standing and its ability to realize fundamental national interests on the international stage.

Indeed, the international support and understanding Israel enjoys today is in no small part the product of our diplomats’ unwavering efforts in the public arena and in the corridors of power to present and advance Israel’s case, to build empathy and familiarity with our circumstances and forge a crucial appreciation of the shared interests and common values that bind us to the international community and bind that community to us.

In Israel today, there are public voices questioning whether we even need a foreign ministry, yet Israel continues to face immense diplomatic challenges from Iran to the Palestinian issue, terror and more. Even in friendly environments such as Canada, but far more dangerously in Europe and elsewhere, we face an organized assault on Israel’s legitimacy designed to turn influential publics into adversaries and enemies. We also face stiff competition for investment and trade opportunities, even as our economic well-being is ever-more irreversibly tied to the global economy.

Meeting all these challenges requires diplomatic deployment of the highest calibre. And this is what Israel’s foreign service provides, day in day out. 

To underscore the point, try to imagine what Israel’s international standing, security and economy would look like today were it not for the work of our diplomats over the last 15 years in handling the international and public diplomacy surrounding the Camp David peace talks of 2000, the so-called second intifadah, the disengagement process, the second Lebanon War, operations Cast Lead and Pillar of Cloud, the Gilad Schalit saga, the Mavi Marmara incident, the Brand Israel campaign, the accession of Israel to the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) and to CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research), the renewal of Israel’s membership in the European Union’s multibillion-dollar research and development framework, the P5+1 process vis-à-vis the Iranian nuclear program, countless governmental trade delegations from across the world, the international designation of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, the international isolation of Hamas, the Palestinians’ 2011 unilateral declaration of independence attempt at the United Nations, the parrying of hostile cases at the International Court of Justice, the constant nurturing and updating of our partnership with the Jewish communities of the world, the outreach to new partners in Asia, Central Asia and Africa, and more.

Of course, there is no doubt that many of Israel’s international achievements are not the Foreign Ministry’s alone. National leaders, other ministries and agencies and local partners, often from amongst our Jewish brethren, all make their contributions. But it is no less true that none of these achievements (and so many more) could ever have been secured without the global and local leadership, access, influence and impact that only a dedicated and skilled professional foreign service can provide.

In short, the world would be a far less benign and indeed more dangerous place for Israel than any of us would like if it were not for the efforts of our diplomatic service.

Yet, this is exactly the kind of world that is potentially staring us in the face.

For over a decade now, the salaries of Israel’s diplomats serving abroad have not been updated, even just to keep pace with increases in the cost of living. As a result, many diplomats find themselves unable to make ends meet (literally, unable to cover fundamental monthly outlays) and are forced to avoid certain postings or abandon the foreign service altogether in order to survive financially. The Foreign Ministry thus often finds itself unable to fill key middle-ranking positions. The spouses of Israel’s diplomats more often than not have to sacrifice their careers as a result of foreign postings, often leaving these families with only one steady income and one pension – a further driver of financial difficulty and mid-career resignations. And then there are all the intangible costs and sacrifices of foreign service – the heightened security risks, the constant dislocation of children, the distance from family and friends, the very real loneliness, not to mention the professional frustrations of never having the budgets or resources to meet the demands and potential of our work (many of our embassies have smaller staffs today than they did a generation ago, despite the explosion in the pace and breadth of our international engagement).

The net effect of these conditions is that Israel’s foreign service today is disillusioned, frustrated, bitter and disoriented. We all continue to do our best to fight the good fight, but deep down, there is a real malaise, only made worse by insensitive and hurtful public charges from parts of the government impugning our motives or blithely – and dangerously –presuming that Israel’s diplomats play no role in our country’s security and well-being.

But that’s the half-full side of the equation, the one in which there still are capable, dedicated and experienced diplomats willing to go to bat anew for the country every day.

The real fear, if the current crisis is not resolved and work conditions restored to a fair and reasonable level, is that Israel’s diplomatic corps will, in a very few short years, become a mere shell, void of talented or capable people, who – quite reasonably – will seek to fulfil their desire to serve through other avenues. While it will no doubt continue to exist in name and form, the substance of our foreign service, its ability to stymie and pre-empt negative international developments and its ability to identify and realize the potential of positive ones, will continue to erode, leaving a rump that might be able to go through the motions but won’t be able to deliver the results the country needs.

Can Israel survive this? Of course. And it will. But whether over time it will continue to thrive as we want and need it to is another matter entirely.

The equation is simple: if Israel’s diplomats can’t make ends meet, then Israel won’t be able to make its international ends meet.

The decision to suspend regular consulate services and efforts to protect and advance Israel’s interests here in Canada and around the world was not one we took lightly, and we regret any inconvenience or disappointment that we may be causing. But it is our belief that the fate of Israel’s foreign service – and, by extension, the fate of Israel’s crucial ability to effectively have an impact on the world around us in the years to come – hangs today in the balance.

That’s why we’re using every tool at our disposal to save it. 

DJ Schneeweiss is the consul general of Israel to Toronto and Western Canada.