Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman made use of the Christian holiday season to round up Israel's ambassadors worldwide for a get-together in Jerusalem at week's end. He used the opportunity to get tough with the ambassadors and to tell them that Israel's diplomatic front suffers from a deep flaw, in that it fails to maintain Israel's dignity.
"I have seen some ambassadors whose identification with the place that they serve in is so great that they are always trying to justify and explain the other side,” Lieberman told the diplomats. “This is a mistaken approach. There must not be an approach of fawning and self-deprecation.”
"Concepts like national dignity have value in the Middle East,” Lieberman told the diplomats. “One needn't be provocative and hotheaded... We will not be looking for reasons for confrontations and friction but we will not offer the other cheek. For everything there will be a reaction. This is the policy I want from ambassadors. The era of sycophancy is over. We must maintain good relations and respect the host country but we will not stand for insults and curses.”
In July, Lieberman berated Israel's consul in Boston, Massachusetts, Nadav Tamir, after Tamir circulated a letter that harshly criticized his own government for saying “no” to the United States. The letter, titled “Sad Thoughts on Israel-U.S. Relations,” accused Israel's leaders of reducing American support for Israel and harming the American Jewish community.