Ambassadors from Israel seem to come from the XL size only.
The previous ambassador, Ehud Gol, was indeed a larger-than-life ambassador. With his very direct statements and his entire character, this former spokesman of the Foreign Ministry from so many crisis days in the past, became a notable, and a colourful addition to the foreign diplomatic community in Malta.
The present ambassador, Gideon Meir, today ends his term in Malta.
He gives this paper an interview in today’s issue in which he speaks of his term of office here in Malta.
It is a good thing he does so for otherwise he risked ending his term here under the shadow of the accusations levelled at him by Minister Austin Gatt in the infamous Public Accounts Committee meeting when his name was bandied to and fro as part of the ongoing debate whether there was any corruption involved in the BWSC contract. Dr Gatt, as readers will remember, chose to speak instead of the Bateman attempt to get the contract and he spoke of Dr Meir as insisting on the Bateman’s good offer, of Ehud Olmert’s call to Prime Minister Gonzi and of threats uttered by a director on the Bateman board who also sits on one important Israeli bank.
In the interview in today’s edition, Dr Meir replies, as diplomatically as he can, to these allegations, admitting he did his ambassador’s duty to push forward his country’s business interests, but denying he exerted untoward pressure or uttered any threats.
On a wider level, he goes on to say that this local controversy has in no way inflicted any damage on the good relations between Malta and Israel. On the contrary, he gives us the good news that the visit by Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi to Israel is going on as planned and he also adds that in all probability the double tax agreement (which was also mentioned at PAC as being threatened if Malta did not give the contract to Bateman) will be signed during this visit; or in the near future, given it is at a very advanced stage.
Although Dr Meir states that Malta is still not completely balanced in its stance on the international stage, it is evident to all that the overall positioning of Malta now is far better than the unilateral pro-Palestinian stance which was common until a few years ago, under both governments.
Dr Meir also points out at the improved tourist links between Malta and Israel and the increased number of Israeli tourists coming to Malta. Much more can still be done and it is a pity that the national airline has still not opened a scheduled flight linking Tel Aviv to Malta. Malta is still relatively unknown in Israel, as Israeli tourists themselves say.
Likewise on the business side, there is already much that has been done but much more still remains to be done. There are commercial links between companies in Malta and ones in Israel. Undoubtedly, Bateman’s technology is far in advance of the heavy fuel oil-based technology to be used by BWSC. But there is far more where it would be instructive for Maltese companies to tap into the far advanced technological advances being made in Israel through their heavy investment in R&D. On this matter, too, Malta may profitably learn how to support and push forward its own miniscule R&D programme.
As Dr Meir explains in the interview, Malta will now have its own ambassador – ie. one it does not share, as in Dr Meir’s case, with other countries, in this case Italy. The new ambassador, Dr David Oren, who is still to present his credentials, will be focusing solely on Malta and Malta-Israeli relations. He will be here for a longer period than Dr Meir, with a busy schedule as could ever be. This is the surest sign that relations between the two countries – two democracies in a sea dominated by dictatorships of one or the other sort – can only grow.