ISRAEL WANTS TO BUILD ON PAST SUCCESSES AT 63RD

C O N F I D E N T I A L TEL AVIV 001810 SIPDIS DEPT FOR IO/UNP (SUN),P (REINEMEYER),NEA/RA (ARVIS, LANGEVIN) NSC FOR MCDONALD E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/15/2018 TAGS: PREL UNGA OTRA OVIP KSEP UN IS SUBJECT: ISRAEL WANTS TO BUILD ON PAST SUCCESSES AT 63RD UNGA REF: A. STATE 55178 ¶B. STATE 072078 Classified By: Classified by Political Counselor Marc Sievers for reaso n 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: PolOff met with Rony Adam, Director of the Department for UN Political Affairs at the MFA to discuss both UN voting practices (ref A) and Israeli participation at UNGA (ref B) on July 23, with a follow-up on August 5. Adam said that plans for UNGA are still tentative, but PM Olmert will likely address the plenary. It is also possible that President Peres may go to New York during the first week. During UNGA, Israel plans focus on promoting their successful agricultural technology resolution from last year, rather than launch any new initiatives. END SUMMARY. ¶2. (SBU) On August 14, PolCouns was told by MFA officials that Prime Minister Olmert plans on addressing the UNGA plenary instead of Foreign Minister Livni. President Peres is considering attending sometime during the first week to attend the high-level meeting on the implementation of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) on September 22, although this is increasingly unlikely. With the attendance of Olmert, FM Livni is unlikely to go to UNGA, which also comes shortly after the mid-September Kadima Party primaries, in which Livni is a candidate. ¶3. (C) On voting practices, PolOff noted that Israel had the highest voting coincidence with the U.S., and there were only two "important votes" in which Israel did not support the U.S. position. Israel was absent for both votes. Regarding the first, the budget resolution, Adam explained that Israel was on the budget committee, a position it had worked hard to get as part of its efforts to be a more "normal" UN member state. Therefore, it felt it could not vote against the budget. Adam said the GOI understood why the United States was against the resolution and did not want to cast a vote against the U.S. either, so it decided to be absent for the vote. On the second important vote, the Myanmar resolution, Adam said he did not know why Israel was absent for that vote but promised to look into it. ¶4. (C) According to Adam, Israel's strategy during UNGA is to solidify its gains from the 62nd UNGA rather than launch any new initiatives. This includes promoting last year's successful Agricultural Technology resolution, the first Israeli-sponsored resolution. Israel may announce some projects to help implement the resolution, and it is considering hosting an event on agricultural technology. Some countries had suggested making the initiative an annual resolution, but Adam said Israel is content to just promote the current resolution. ¶5. (C) Israel is also evaluating its efforts to discourage the numerous anti-Israel resolutions in the General Assembly. The GOI hopes to see fewer resolutions, and an omnibus resolution on UNRWA as was the practice prior to 1995, and it is pleased that the UN Secretary General has publicly stated that many of these resolutions do not benefit the Palestinian people. However, Adam noted, their small UN Mission spends a great deal of effort fighting these resolutions with little effect. Recently, the focus has been changing from being a single-issue country to engaging the UN at all levels, but it will be up to the new UN team to decide the how to engage. NOTE: Israel's UN Ambassador, the Deputy Director General for International Organizations (A/S equivalent) and the Director for UN Political Affairs are all changing before UNGA begins. END NOTE. ********************************************* ******************** Visit Embassy Tel Aviv's Classified Website: http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/telaviv You can also access this site through the State Department's Classified SIPRNET website. ********************************************* ******************** MORENO