Employees of the Foreign Ministry are upset over the prime minister's decision to appoint MK Zeev Elkin as Deputy Foreign Minister.
Some of the civil servants spoke anonymously with reporters and said that Elkin could not properly represent Israel in meetings with foreign diplomats.
Since the post of foreign minister is currently being held for Avigdor Lieberman by Binyamin Netanyahu, Elkin will be the de facto foreign minister.
A source close to Elkin rejected the criticism and noted that many employees of the Foreign Ministry, both in Israel and abroad, espouse radical leftist views. "There is no need to get worked up over the criticism," the source said. "Those employees would do better to understand that there is a new government in Jerusalem."
Arutz Sheva has reported in the past about radical leftists Foreign Ministry employees who work against the duly appointed minister's policies because of their political views. Officials in Israeli embassies in Europe, for instance, have been known to present leftist views to local diplomats, in contradiction to official Israeli policy.
The Samaria (Shomron) Regional Authority has even established its own quasi-"foreign ministry," which circumvents the official one. The Authority carries out its own independent contacts with foreign diplomats, and brings some of them to Samaria for tours.