A few hours after Foreign Ministry Director General Dr. Dore Gold announced on Thursday that he would be leaving his post, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu named veteran diplomat Yuval Rotem as the ministry's acting director general. Rotem has worked for the Foreign Ministry for 30 years, most recently as head of the ministry's public diplomacy campaign. Rotem has also served as Israeli ambassador to Australia, consul general in Los Angeles, and chief of staff to the foreign minister. In response to Gold's resignation, Netanyahu released a statement thanking Gold for his great contribution to strengthening Israel's diplomatic relations in the world, including in Africa and the Middle East. Gold "has worked with me for 25 years, and I'm sure that he will accept any mission, at any time he is asked to," the prime minister said. Gold tendered his resignation in a written statement in which he said he was leaving the post, which he has held since June 2015, for personal reasons. "I thank the prime minister for his faith in me, and I will continue to make myself available to him for any task he assigns me in the future," he wrote. "The post of director general of the Foreign Ministry was a personal and professional high point of my years of public service. I am thankful to the professional, devoted staff of the Foreign Ministry, with whom we led Israel's diplomatic battles. In my time as director general, we had the privilege of seeing foreign relations flourish under the leadership of the prime minister. I feel proud for having been a part of that." On Thursday evening, Gold denied reports that he had resigned because of poor relations with Netanyahu. In a second message he put out on Thursday, Gold wrote: "The reasons for my decision to resign are strictly personal. I'm proud of my work under the prime minister in opening new horizons for Israel in the Sunni [Muslim] world, and most recently in Africa. I fully identify with the prime minister's diplomatic strategy, and I operated accordingly. As the prime minister wrote, I hope to help from outside in any way he decides."
