Israeli ambassador to Washington resigns

Sallai Meridor, the Israeli ambassador to Washington, is resigning, the Israeli Embassy has confirmed.

“Israel’s Ambassador to the United States, Sallai Meridor, this week informed Prime Minister Olmert, Foreign Minister Livni and Prime Minister Designate Netanyahu of his intention to end his term of service as Ambassador and to return to Israel in the near future,” the embassy said in a statement. “Meridor informed each of the above mentioned Israeli leaders of his intentions during the course of personal meetings which he had with them on Monday, before he joined the US Secretary of State on her visit to Israel.”

“The bigger story of Sallai resigning may portend that he wants to get out of the ship before the hurricane hits,” said one Washington Middle East policy analyst informed of the news. “I think that these are two governments on a collision course.”

“You have an American administration which for the first time in eight years wants to accelerate the peace process, while in Israel you have a new administration that wants to turn it around,” he added. “That’s a sure-fire formula for collision.”

Israeli daily Ha’aretz reported Thursday that Israeli prime minister designate Benjamin Netanyahu asked Meridor to leave the room during a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.S. Middle East peace envoy George Mitchell.

Meridor had already offered his resignation in advance of that meeting, a Washington source said. He suggested it was normal for the ambassador appointed by the outgoing Israeli prime minister to offer his resignation when a new prime minister comes in.

Some analysts in Israel and Washington also thought Meridor might have wanted to resign in advance of the possibility that Netanyahu could offer the foreign minister job to Avigdor Lieberman, the leader of the right-wing Yisrael Beitenu Party.

The embassy statement said Meridor hoped his replacement would be appointed as soon as possible, and that he would continue to serve in his position until his replacement arrived. Meridor has served as Israel’s ambassador to Washington since 2006.

The deputy chief of mission, Jeremy Issacharoff, is also scheduled to leave this summer, The Cable was told.

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