THE TELEGRAPH: 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.
Striking a blow at the fragile unity of Mr Netanyahu's unwieldy government, Mr Lieberman refused to answer repeated telephone calls from the prime minister yesterday and instead took to the airwaves to vent his fury.
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. >>> Adrian Blomfield in Jerusalem | Thursday, June 01, 2010
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