| Submit your comments on this article | ||
| Israel-Palestine-Jordan | ||
| Secret Israel-Turkey talks backfire on Netanyahu | ||
| 2010-07-02 | ||
| US attempts to broker a détente between Israel and Turkey misfired after secret talks between the two states yielded little but a new domestic crisis for Benjamin Netanyahu. Far from the diplomatic triumph he had hoped for, the Israeli prime minister found himself the target of a withering tirade from Avigdor Lieberman, the Israeli foreign minister and coalition partner, who had been excluded from the negotiations.
At the heart of the row was a well meaning but arguably injudicious effort, initiated by President Barack Obama, to end Israel's estrangement from its erstwhile Turkish ally caused by the naval raid a month ago on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, resulting in the deaths of nine activists, eight of them Turkish. At Mr Obama's behest, secret talks took place in Brussels on Wednesday. While the Turks sent their foreign minister, Israel decided to pass over the hawkish Mr Lieberman in favour of Benjamin Ben Eliezer, the left-wing trade minister who has long advocated closer ties with Turkey. But Mr Lieberman was incensed when he learned of the meeting from the television news and he released a statement saying that his exclusion has caused "serious harm" to his relationship with the prime minister. Making matters worse, Mr Lieberman was then told during an interview on Israel Radio that he was the only senior cabinet minister not to know of the talks, prompting more indignation. Mr Netanyahu's office said the foreign minister had not been informed of the talks due to a "technical" oversight.
Netanyahus spokesman Nir Hefetz told Lieberman in a previously scheduled meeting on Thursday that leaving him out of the loop had been a simple mistake and not a deliberate attempt to keep him in the dark. But Lieberman did not accept the explanation, and sources close to him vowed revenge. "Relations between Netanyahu and Lieberman have been harmed irrevocably," a source close to Lieberman said. "The scope of Liebermans humiliation will be commensurate with the size of his revenge, even if it is not immediate, obvious or direct. Lieberman does not easily forgive, and his revenge will be cold and calculated, not impulsive." Sources close to Lieberman said he had realized that whoever pressured Netanyahu hardest and last tended to convince him, and that from now on, he intended to be the one applying that final, persuasive pressure. Israel Beiteinu will remain in the coalition, but Liebermans associates said it would no longer serve Netanyahu blindly. "There are no thoughts about resigning, because we dont want to give that joy to anyone," Lieberman told Israel Radio. "It is a matter of what political culture we want to have in Israel, do we have good governance, and whether basic loyalty is respected. We must clarify all of this to the fullest, because it cannot go on this way." | ||
| Posted by:lotp |
| #1 Sounds like the kind of stupid miscalculation Obama would do. Bibi must be taking lessons. |
| Posted by: Glelet Borgia9196 2010-07-02 14:39 |