(Communicated by the Deputy Foreign Minister’s Bureau)
Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon spoke at the Heads of Missions Conference, which opened yesterday (Dec. 27) at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem. He told the assembled ambassadors that the Foreign Ministry is at the forefront of Israel’s struggle in the international diplomatic arena, and that the diplomats are the Ministry’s soldiers in that struggle.
Deputy FM Ayalon referred to the problem of the automatic majority enjoyed by the Arabs in UN fora and said, “The fact that Israel has a built-in inferiority and the Arabs have a quantitative advantage makes the battle more difficult.”
Ayalon added that it is important for Israel to be a part of international organizations and, accordingly, joining the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is a major goal. “Israel’s cooption in the OECD will have a long-term impact in the economic-diplomatic area. We must also work to get Israel into a regional group of the UN’s WEOG (Western European and Others Group),” the deputy foreign minister said.