The Netanyahu government decided in 2016 to change the custom of setting the government budget every year and inaugurated a two-year budget. The prime minister referenced Bahrain as the only place in the world that has such a procedure. In his view this was enough to avoid an exhausting negotiation with his coalition partners over the next budget, and opposition attempts to use the budget in order to pressure weak links in the coalition to object to the government. Economists warn of the difficulty of planning two years in advance because of rapid changes that require immediate responses. In fact, it was the High Court that saved us (Israel) again, and caused the cancellation of the two-year system for now. But in the meantime it is still in place until the end of this year. We learned of one of the bitter fruits of the two-year budget a few days ago when it turned out that the Foreign Ministry spent its entire budget for 2018 and 2019 in the first year, and doesn’t have a penny left for this year. 

Diplomats complain that essential activities of the ministry have been frozen, including (too modest) aid for developing nations, rescue missions abroad and Independence Day events where each ambassador invites dignitaries of the nation where he serves and presents Israel’s accomplishments, as other nations do on their national holiday. But these aren’t the only activities that have been frozen. The ministry has many initiatives, such as exporting Israeli culture and bringing journalists and important guests to Israel, and now this has all been frozen. 

It is hard to believe that this news worries Benjamin Netanyahu. Serving as both prime minister and foreign minister for the past four years, he has coolly transferred several clearly diplomatic activities from the Foreign Ministry to other ministries as part of the political payments he has paid to form the coalition, believing, it seems, that this is a practically useless ministry, and that it is best for it to focus on VIP visits and other technical arrangements. 

As reflected in his conduct, Netanyahu sees himself as an airborne Foreign Ministry. Only last week, on Jan. 20, he renewed diplomatic relations with Chad, and who knows, perhaps we will soon see a Chadian Embassy in West Jerusalem. He has forged relations with authoritarian regimes, formed dubious pacts with the president of the Philippines, the president of Brazil, the president of Hungary and the president of Poland. He serves as a model for emulation for US President Donald Trump, and until recently he has enjoyed an open door with the president of Russia. His visit to Oman in October 2018 and his meeting there with Sultan Qaboos proved that he is making wholly successful efforts to fix the great damage his policies have done since he was first elected, when he ended the multilateral talks with countries in the region, cut off relations with Arab countries where such official visits were de rigueur and closed mutual missions that operated openly until then. Given this situation, he would prefer that diplomats and administrators at the Foreign Ministry just clock in at the office every morning and chat at the water cooler with their colleagues. He is doing the real work.