Foreign Ministry Director-General Aaron Abramovich has surprised observers by resigning from his post. The move eliminates assumptions that he would be a top advisor to Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni if she succeeds in taking over as prime minister by forming a new government coalition.

Abramovich will remain in his post until elections on until a government is formed. One of his chief tasks during Livni's term as Foreign Minister was to help deal with the so-called convergence plan by outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, which calls for the mass expulsion of tens of thousands of Jewish residents in Judea and Samaria.