The offices of Israel’s economic attaches in New York and Los Angeles will be closed. The New York office will reopen at a reduced size and it will no longer be considered an economic umbrella office, in charge of the activities of all the other economic attaches in the US.
The New York office will almost certainly operate out of the general consulate in New York, according to senior Israeli economic officials in the US.
According to these sources, the changes will take effect soon, possibly as early as the winter of ’98, but no later than summer ’98.
According to e sources, there are doubts concerning the expediency of maintaining an economic office in Los Angeles, despite the fact that the sources called the current economic attache in LA "extremely talented". They explained that a large portion of the economic activity in the Los Angeles area focuses on movie production and real estate, sectors which are not currently high national priority for Israel.
The sources noted that the proposed plan for the operation of the economic offices in the US includes the employment of local workers, which costs significantly less than maintaining Israeli delegates in those positions.
As part of the measures, Israel’s economic attache in Chicago returned to Israel on August 1, and the office is managed by a local woman. The general Houston consulate will soon open an economic office managed by someone from the area.
In response, David Rubin, Israel’s economic attache in New York and in charge of all the commercial offices, stated, "I have heard nothing so far from either the Ministry of Finance or the Ministry of Industry and Trade, and, at this stage, there is no change in the status of the New York office. We are still central. There are many proposals, and no one knows yet which one will be accepted."