Labor heads blast Lieberman's criticism of Turkish mediation

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's verbal assault on Turkey on Sunday nearly caused a coalition crisis, forcing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to take quick action to soothe Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer's ruffled feathers.

Ben-Eliezer, a senior Labor Party minister, has been pushing to allow Ankara to resume mediating Israeli-Syrian talks. But Lieberman, who heads Yisrael Beiteinu, vowed at a meeting with foreign ambassadors on Sunday that Turkey would do no such thing as long as he remained foreign minister.

Then, adding insult to injury, he attacked both Ben-Eliezer and Labor Party chairman and Defense Minister Ehud Barak directly. "There are marginal members of this government who propose and hint that there is a place for Turkish mediation," Lieberman said. "I recommend that they deal with their own ministries' affairs and not spread delusions or scatter comments that have no connection to reality."

Sunday night, after learning of Lieberman's statements, Netanyahu swiftly phoned Ben-Eliezer to tell him he did not agree with what had been said and to ask Ben-Eliezer not to respond. "You're coming with me to Egypt [instead of Lieberman], and that's what's important," Netanyahu said.

The two are due to meet today in Cairo with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Ben-Eliezer did refrain from responding, but many of his party colleagues were less restrained. At a meeting of Labor's Knesset faction yesterday, speakers attacked Lieberman, and the MKs voted unanimously that Lieberman's statements "harm Israel."

Welfare Minister Isaac Herzog demanded that Barak meet with Netanyahu to ascertain whether Lieberman was expressing the government's position.

"After the wonderful work that Fuad [Ben-Eliezer] did in Turkey, and with Barak due to visit Ankara, Lieberman's words are simply beside the point," Herzog said.

Minority Affairs Minister Avishay Braverman, while agreeing that the comments did "great damage to Israel," advised his colleagues to "forget Lieberman."

But MK Daniel Ben Simon was unwilling to take this advice. "This man is pure damage," he said."

Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai reported that Israel's ambassador to Turkey, Gabby Levy, had told him he objected to Lieberman's statements. Nevertheless, Vilnai recommended dropping the issue.