Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger once described Israeli foreign policy as the direct extrapolation of Israeli domestic policies. This description has never been as accurate as it is these days. No definition of diplomacy could even propose that Israel today has either a foreign policy or a foreign ministry to speak of. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has turned both policy and ministry into instruments of public relations at the service of a right-wing ideology. The traditional roles of the ministry, namely building bridges of common interests with the international community or engaging in a viable Middle East peace process, have evaporated with Israel's most right-wing government. This is clearly evident with the nominations Netanyahu has made in the foreign policy field.

He did not appoint a foreign minister, even though he could have appointed a relatively pragmatic Likud minister such as Gilad Erdan or Tzachi Hanegbi. Instead, he appointed Tzipi Hotovely as deputy foreign minister; Netanyahu named himself foreign minister. The new deputy foreign minister is, by proud self-admission, in favor of the annexation of great parts of the West Bank. On her first day on the job, she announced to the entire Foreign Ministry staff that Israel has the right to all the land of Israel "from the [Mediterranean] Sea to the [Jordan] River."

The prime minister replaced the director general of the ministry, professional diplomat Nissim Ben Shitrit, with Netanyahu crony and former diplomatic adviser Dore Gold, who has for many years been "his master's voice." Possibly the most significant element in filling foreign affairs positions was not appointing a new Israeli ambassador to Washington. The ambassador, Ron Dermer, is considered by the Barack Obama administration to be an ally of the Republicans in Congress; he is said to have orchestrated, together with House Speaker John Boehner, the invitation for Netanyahu to speak out against Obama's Iran policies before the two Houses of Congress on March 3. The prime minister did not heed the advice of many of his Jewish friends in the United States to replace Dermer with a more acceptable candidate. The foreign affairs troika — Hotovely, Gold and Dermer — will have as their main task explaining what the government's most important policy regarding the Palestinian issue will be: the expansion of settlements and settlement construction.

A senior diplomat in the Foreign Ministry, who spoke to Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, said that there was an unprecedented demoralization of the department: "We feel that the Foreign Service has not only become an orphan in this government, but that it is now void of content and clout on key issues, even though the ministry could have obtained important assets for Israel." He described how the prime minister's office monopolizes the Israel-US relationship and ties with Washington, which includes not only the White House but all wings of the State Department, Congress, the connection with US public opinion and even the all-important Jewish community and lobby. In addition, economic relations with the European Union — Israel's main trading partner — are severely damaged by the settlement policy of the government. Recent messages from the new deputy foreign minister to European ambassadors in Israel only worsened the situation.