VZCZCXYZ0003
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHTV #1521/01 1911150
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 101150Z JUL 09
FM AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2548
INFO RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 1527

UNCLAS TEL AVIV 001521 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
PARIS FOR USOECD, STATE FOR EEB/EPPD AND NEA/IPA/KFRELICH 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON IS
SUBJECT: ISRAEL CONFIDENT OF 2010 OECD ACCESSION BUT TAKING 
NO CHANCES 
 
¶1. (SBU) In separate meetings with Foreign Affairs, Finance 
and Environment officials, GOI interlocutors expressed 
confidence that Israel is well on track for accession to the 
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) 
by April 2010.  MFA Deputy Director General for Economic 
Affairs Irit Ben Abba told EconCouns on July 2 that she was 
very pleased by the Israeli delegation's meetings on the 
margins of the OECD Ministerial.  While the GOI remains 
concerned that political 'like-mindedness' criteria could be 
raised in Council discussion of Israel's accession, Ben Abba 
said her government has exercised due diligence, particularly 
with Norway, to ensure that any questions OECD member states 
might have about such issues are answered. 
 
¶2. (SBU) Ben Abba noted Israel's progress on meeting OECD 
environmental policy requirements, progress that was 
confirmed in a July 7 meeting with Ministry of Environment 
Director General Yossi Inbar.  Inbar said that Israel's 
obligations with respect to OECD policy instruments had 
advanced rapidly.  Israel was now signatory to the Basel 
Convention on Solid Waste, had passed OECD-compliant Clean 
Air legislation, and had received a good report from the 
Chemicals Committee.  He said the Ministry hopes to have the 
full compliance timetable completed by end-July.  Inbar said 
his greatest challenge was getting the resources needed to 
meet all of the environmental obligations Israel has taken on 
under the accession process.  He said staffing was his 
biggest constraint; GOI employment rules required competitive 
tendering for every position, even for technical specialties 
for which Israel might have only a handful of qualified 
individuals.  Inbar said the OECD accession process had given 
the Ministry greater leverage in the battle for financial 
resources, but pointed to proliferation of unfunded mandates 
(he cited the Clean Air bill) as an ongoing problem.  Despite 
these problems, Inbar said environmental issues would not bar 
Israel from OECD accession by April 2010. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Irit Ben Abba agreed that the environmental 'acquis' 
were no longer a significant impediment to Israel's OECD 
accession, but worried that the Education, Labor and Social 
Affairs (ELSA) committee might give Israel low marks for its 
handling of persistent unemployment among minority groups. 
She pointed to high unemployment rates among Arab-Israeli 
women and ultra-orthodox Jewish men as a serious problem that 
had not responded to any of the policy remedies tried thus 
far by the GOI.  Finance Ministry Senior Deputy DG Oded Bruk 
agreed that culturally based structural unemployment was a 
significant issue for Israel, adding that Social Affairs 
Minister Herzog and Labor Minister Ben Eliezer would be 
meeting with OECD officials in October for an in-depth 
discussion of labor and social affairs policies, including 
the unemployment issue.  Neither Bruk nor Ben Abba thought 
minority unemployment would be an obstacle to Israel's OECD 
accession, but both said they felt the GOI needed to show 
that it was dealing with the problem and that ELSA's best 
practices discussions on minority unemployment were aiding 
GOI efforts. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Econcouns forewarned both Ben Abba and Bruk that the 
U.S. would be raising intellectual property protection, 
discriminatory taxation of imported alcoholic spirits, and 
incoherence of Israel's food/pharmaceutical import safety 
regime in the Trade Committee's review of Israel's accession. 
Both agreed that it would be appropriate and helpful to have 
the Trade Committee encourage reform in all three areas and 
noted that the EU would probably support the U.S. in this 
effort. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Bruk and Ben Abba said they were pleased Israel had 
joined the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention in March.  Ben Abba 
said Israel was now fully engaged in phase II of the 
anti-bribery acquis process, which she characterized as "very 
intrusive."  However, citing a recent poll showing that more 
than 60 percent of Israelis perceived corruption as a serious 
issue, she said there is strong political support for moving 
forward rapidly on phase II implementation.  Finally, Ben 
Abba confirmed that Israel would be ready to sign the 
Privileges and Immunities agreement by the end of this year 
and is working on staffing an OECD mission to operate out of 
Israeli Embassy facilities in Paris. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Comment: Israel has clearly made substantial 
progress in addressing the requirements of the OECD 
instruments and related agreements, though there is still a 
lot of work to be done between now and April 2010.  MFA has 
devoted significant attention to Norway and other countries 
that might raise political concerns with Israel's OECD 
accession, and seems to have gotten assurances from the 
Norwegians that they would not block consensus. 
 
 
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CUNNINGHAM