in 1998, gendelman joined the israeli ministry of foreign affairs as an analyst on palestinian affairs at the ministry's center for political analysis, which is the foreign ministry's political intelligence bureau. in 2001 he joined the diplomatic training program at the ministry and graduated as a political officer with the rank of second secretary. later that year he was appointed as the first ever foreign ministry spokesman to the arab media, a role he fulfilled during the peak of the second intifada.