This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 TEL AVIV 001864 
 
SIPDIS 
 
NSC FOR ABRAMS AND LOGERFO 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/10/2016 
TAGS: PREL PGOV PINR IS KPAL GOI INTERNAL
SUBJECT: CONVERGENCE COHORT: INFLUENTIAL ADVISERS ON 
OLMERT'S TEAM 
 
Classified By: Deputy Chief of Mission Gene A. Cretz.  Reason 1.4 (B/D) 
 
 
 ¶1. (C)  Summary:  In a bid to make his office more 
"presidential," Prime Minister Olmert has decided to name Dr. 
Yoram Turbowicz as his chief of staff, a new position that 
will reportedly make the Office of the Prime Minister (PMO) 
more effective in terms of policy coordination.  The incoming 
chairman of the National Security Council (NSC), Ilan 
Mizrahi, will now be co-located in the PMO and will report to 
the Prime Minister through Chief of Staff Turbowicz (septel). 
 Olmert's Alternate Prime Minister, Foreign Minister Tzipi 
Livni, has also appointed a new director-general, Aharon 
Abromowitz, who is reportedly an influential member of the 
convergence policy planning team.  End Summary. 
 
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MFA 
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¶2.  (C) Olmert's Alternate Prime Minister and Foreign 
Minister, Tzipi Livni, has energized her ministry with new 
operating procedures (e.g., more foreign policy brainstorming 
sessions with MFA experts) and less interference with 
diplomatic assignments (in the ministry and abroad).  She 
intends to remain influential on national security 
priorities, including convergence policy, and has appointed a 
new director-general she trusts from her tenure as minister 
of justice.  Her personal advisor, Dita Kohl, described Livni 
as "professional rather than political," a real contrast from 
her predecessor, Silvan Shalom.  Livni has also reportedly 
tapped Elon Joanes, a former journalist with human rights 
experience who is currently completing an advanced degree at 
Princeton, as her chief of staff.  He will have particular 
responsibility for "political work" and her schedule.  MFA 
contacts indicate that the current, career chief of staff, 
Jacob Dayan, will remain on her team as well. 
 
¶3.  (C) Career MFA contacts report that Livni "loves 
lawyers," and Aharon Abramowitz will add to her experience 
his own as an architect of PM Sharon's 2004 Disengagement 
Plan who helped elaborate compensation packages for Gaza 
settlers.  Abramowitz, as well as Deputy Attorney General 
Shavit Matias, are regarded by MFA contacts as lawyers whose 
institutional expertise will be tapped by Olmert's national 
security team to handle the "internal" issues associated with 
implementing convergence policy in the new government. 
Israeli journalist Aluf Benn told poloff that Abramowitz is 
close to the PM's Special Adviser, Dov Weissglas.  Econoff 
contacts report that Livni trusts him as he was the force who 
explained settlement and housing policy when she became 
minister of justice.  He is a seasoned technocrat who seeks 
consensus in decision-making and has been responsive to the 
USG on a number of far flung issues (settlements, IPR, 
financial laws). 
 
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PMO 
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¶3. (SBU) New Advisors in the Office of the Prime Minister 
(PMO) include the following: 
 
-- Chief of Staff Yoram Turbowicz, 48, has worked in the 
private sector, including at the Israeli Discount Bank from 
1998-2001, and received his J.D. from Harvard Law School; he 
specialized in commercial law, antitrust law, securities, 
criminal law and arbitration.  In government, he served in 
several senior executive positions such as the Israeli trade 
regulations commissioner and legal adviser of the Ministry of 
Industry and Trade (where Olmert served as minister).  He is 
a former lecturer at Tel Aviv University and the 
Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, and was once a 
candidate for attorney general.  Turbowicz played the lead 
role in negotiating the Olmert government guidelines and the 
coalition agreements with Labor and other parties in the 
government. 
 
-- Director General Ra'anan Dinur is a close associate of 
Olmert and political ally from Olmert's time in the mayor's 
office.  Dinur also served as director-general of the 
Ministry of Industry and Trade.  Dinur will manage and 
supervise all of the activities of the government office in 
the economic, social and civil fields, including the economic 
branch of the National Security Council.  His predecessor's 
special tasks included (and will likely continue) 
coordination of the economic aspects of the Disengagement 
Plan. 
 
-- Deputy Chief of Staff Oved Yehezkel will coordinate the 
work of other advisors in the Office of the Prime Minister. 
He has been the go-to man for coalition political discussions 
in the period following the formation of the government on 
May 4.  Oved, an attorney, served as a counselor to Olmert 
during his tenure as mayor of Jerusalem during the 1990's. 
 
-- Head of Bureau and Olmert's "eternal bureau chief" Shula 
Zaken, 49, -- is an office manager who has worked with Olmert 
since 1977 when she served as his secretary at the launch of 
the Ehud Olmert and Co. law firm.  Olmert associates note 
that Shula made the transition from secretary to personal 
aide and advisor to Olmert during his years as mayor of 
Jerusalem.  When Olmert was accused of using Likud Party 
money to fund the transatlantic travel of his wife and 
daughter in 1988, he told investigators that his assistant, 
Ms. Zaken, was responsible for the technical details of 
paying for trips, but they have remained loyal partners.  Her 
acquaintances told the Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot that 
"Olmert comes first with her and if he were to go and become 
a street cleaner, Shula would follow him." 
 
¶4.  (C) Several of former PM Sharon's key aides will remain 
in their current positions, including:  Cabinet Secretary, 
Yisrael Maimon, who has served in this position since 2003; 
Special Adviser Dov Weissglas (who reportedly declined an 
offer to be National Security Advisor); Foreign Policy 
Adviser Shalom Tourgeman; and General Military Secretary Gadi 
Shamni, who joined the PMO in 2005.  MFA contacts report that 
Shamni remains very influential within the PMO.  Shamni 
graduated from the U.S. Army's Special Warfare Qualification 
Course in Fort Bragg, NC, and the Army War College in 
Carlisle Barracks, PA.  DAO reports that as a result of an 
injury sustained in battle, Shamni speaks quietly and in a 
very low voice.  There are no indications thus far that the 
current roles played by Weissglas and Tourgeman on 
Israeli-Palestinian affairs will change appreciably under the 
leadership of PM Olmert. 
 
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