Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met with Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Friday, after Netanyahu failed to tell Lieberman about an effort to repair relations with Turkey.
"A decision like this must be made logically, in cooperation with all of the professional elements," Lieberman told Netanyahu. The foreign minister reportedly also said that it would damage Israel's international standing to apologize to Turkey or to pay those who were injured on the
Mavi Marmara.
RELATED:FM to take "calculated" revenge on PMFM: Government service is no rose gardenReport: Israel to apologizeNetanyahu and Lieberman reportedly said that the incident was a mistake, and that they would work in cooperation from now on.
Lieberman only learned about a meeting in Brussels between Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu from Channel 2 news on Wednesday night. Netanyahu tried to reach Lieberman following the report, but the foreign minister has refused to take his calls.
Netanyahu’s 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.
Sources close to the foreign minister vowed revenge saying that Lieberman 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 Lieberman’s associates
said it would no longer serve Netanyahu blindly.
“There are no thoughts about resigning, because we don’t 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.”