For more than a year, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs waited for the return of Avigdor Liberman. Both sides — the minister who suspended himself after being pressed with criminal charges and the ministry run by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and later by Deputy Foreign Minister Zeev Elkin during Liberman’s absence — exemplified great patience.
Both sides suffered quite a bit during that period. Liberman fought tooth and nail for his political life, consoling himself with the prestigious position of chairman of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. He missed the powerful position that he had managed to use as a leverage, profoundly and significantly changing his image throughout diplomatic parlors across the globe. On the other hand, the Foreign Ministry was losing its relevance. Through salami slicing, many of its purviews and functions were stripped away. Netanyahu was not really interested in what was going on there, and Elkin — who had taken office only 10 months earlier — was unable to preserve the little that was left, demonstrating poor performance.
