[Israel]: Message for Australia

[Zak]

State of Israel
Security Classification: Encrypted​

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Recipient: Kevin Rudd, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Commonwealth of Australia

The State of Israel and the Commonwealth of Australia have shared a long friendship which has resulted in many meetings between our two countries in recent months and years. We're committed to maintaining our relationship with the Commonwealth of Australia and our Ministry of Foreign Affairs is committed to maintaining an Israeli presence in Australia which has raised the potential opening of consulates in Melbourne and Sydney which house around ninty-percent of Jews living in Australia. We're also keen to further our military ties and are keen to appoint a military attaché to our embassy in Canberra.

I look forward to hearing your response.

Best Regards,
Tzipi Hotovely
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs
State of Israel

Owen

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[Owen]

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MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS​

SECURITY CLASSIFICATION: PROTECTED (Encrypted)​

26 November 1999​

Dear Ms. Hotovely, Of course this has my utmost blessing, the two Consulate-Generals and the military attache. Obviously, there is no allocated property for you to establish these Consulates so I would advise having a browse of real estate agencies in Australia. I will take this up with the Foreign Investment Review Board, as technically it would be considered an investment by a foreign government, which has a $0 threshold for any property or investment. However I do not expect there to be any issues, so please browse for properties of your liking then let the Treasurer, Wayne Swan, know where and how much and he will put in an application to the FIRB. Yours sincerely, Kevin Rudd.

Parliament House, CANBERRA, ACT 2600 Telephone: (02) 6277 7700​

Protective Marking:	Business Impact Level:	Compromise of Information Confidentiality:	Required to be Encrypted:
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OFFICIAL	Low Business Impact	No or insignificant damage. This is the majority of routine information.
OFFICIAL: Sensitive	Low to Medium Business Impact	Limited damage to an individual, organisation or government generally if compromised.
PROTECTED	High Business Impact	Damage to the national interest, organisations or individuals.
SECRET	Extreme Business Impact	Serious damage to the national interest, organisations or individuals.
TOP SECRET	Catastrophic Business Impact	Exceptionally grave damage to the national interest, organisations or individuals.

Zak