Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak has appointed some of his close allies to diplomatic posts, made vacant in the blitz that followed the resignation of foreign minister David Levy, his office said Wednesday.
Zvi Stauber, a foreign policy adviser to Barak, will replace Dror Zeigerman as ambassador to Britain, it said.
Alon Pinkas, who worked as an adviser to Barak while he was in opposition but more recently worked under Levy, will take over the post of consul general in New York from Shmuel Sisso.
Among other appointments, former parliament speaker Shevah Weiss, a survivor of the Nazi death camps who also chairs the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, has been named ambassador to his native Poland.
The former Labor deputy Emanuel Zissman has also been named ambassador to his native country, in his case Bulgaria.
Finally, Eytan Bentzur, a career diplomat who lost his job as director-general at the foreign ministry earlier this week, has been named ambassador to Paris where he will replace Eliyahu Ben-Elissar, also a Levy ally.
Bentzur had been named to the ministry post in 1996 by Levy, who was then foreign minister in the right-wing government of Benjamin Netanyahu.
Levy quit last week to protest the concessions Barak offered the Palestinians at the failed Camp David peace summit last month in the United States.
The departure of Bentzur and several ambassadors, considered close to Levy, had triggered accusations by the right-wing opposition Likud party that Barak was acting like a banana republic dictator.
Barak denied Tuesday that he was "settling scores" with Levy by the diplomatic shake-up, telling Israeli radio: "It is natural when a minister is replaced that senior civil servants are also replaced."
Barak, who has taken over the foreign affairs portfolio, has also removed the ambassadors to Switzerland, Yitzhak Meir, and South Africa, Uri Owen - OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (AFP)
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