Middle East Inside Line: Israel-Palestine Moves in Cairo, Netanyahu-Lieberman Feud, No Smoking Pipes for Gaza Women

UPDATE 1025 GMT: More on the item below on conflict between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman...

Lieberman held a press conference this morning, offering far-from-enthusiastic support for the coalition Government: "It can not be that we were the first [to sign the coalition agreement but we're the last when it comes to the budget. We weren't humiliated, and we aren't the kind of people who let others humiliate us - we won't give this joy to anyone. We do not intend to leave. This coalition can last until 2010 [Editor: 2010?!] in its current framework, and we will do everything possible to make it happen," Lieberman said.

Israel-Palestine Analysis: What is the Obama Administration Seeking?
Middle East Inside Line: Lieberman-Netanyahu Tension, Syria’s “Greatest Hope”, Restrictions on Gaza, & Much More

Cairo's Israel-Palestine Mediation: On Sunday, both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas held separate meetings with Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo. Netanyahu, expected to ask Egypt's help in moving Palestinians to direct talks, said, "President Mubarak represents the aspiration to expand the circle of peace, stability and security to all the region's peoples. I view him as a central partner in achieving these important goals."

After talks with US special envoy George Mitchell, Mohammed Dahlan, the head of the Fatah Party's public relations, said Israel has not accepted the PA's demands on security and border issues so there is no reason for direct talks to resume. Abbas had said he would resume direct peace talks if Israel accepted its 1967 frontier as a baseline for the borders of a Palestinian state and agreed to the deployment of an international force.

After the Netanyahu-Mubarak meeting, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said more work needs to be done to bridge the gap between Israel and the Palestinians before they can move to direct peace talks.

More Netanyahu-Lieberman Tension: The latest incident stoking tensions between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, is Lieberman's appointment --- without Netanyahu's consent --- of a relatively little-known diplomat, Meiron Reuven, as Israel’s Acting Ambassador to the United Nations.

This is not the only troublesome issue, however. Last week, the  Constitution, Law and Justice Committee of the Knesset approved the draft on conversion reform, a bill giving Israel's chief rabbinate the legal power to decide whether any conversion outside Israel is legitimate. Under current practice, Israel recognizes only conversions performed by Orthodox rabbis inside Israel, but people converted by non-Orthodox rabbis outside the country are automatically eligible for Israeli citizenship.

On Sunday, Netanyahu said he opposes the conversion bill, proposed by Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu Party, because it is "tearing apart the Jewish people". He added that his Likud Party would block the proposed legislation from a vote in the Knesset.

In contrast, Interior Minister Eli Yishai (Shas) said that the absence of a conversion law would pose "an enormous spiritual danger to the Jewish people".

Lieberman's "Serious Partner" Advertisement: Following European Union High Representative Catherine Ashton's statement on the need to open all border crossings around the Gaza Strip, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said the new Israeli policy of increasing the amount of goods that can enter the Gaza Strip "is not enough" and that his government "is looking for serious partners" to improve the economic situation in the coastal territory.

He added that Israel is working on a plan to build a power station, desalination plants, and infrastructure for water purification in the Gaza Strip. Doing so, Lieberman put the ball in the court of Hamas, implying that the political leadership of Gaza is the real barrier to Israeli  help with the economy.

Cairo's Anger at Lieberman: The Israeli Foreign Minister,however, has ruffled feathers in Egypt. Last week Lieberman called on Israel to disconnect gradually from the Gaza Strip, shutting down all border crossings with the Strip and allowing movement in and out through the sea and the Rafah crossing on the Egyptian border.

Senior Egyptian officials told Haaretz that Cairo adamantly opposed the move. "We won't allow the responsibility for Gaza to be dumped on us," one official said. "You don't work like that and we are wondering about the timing of Lieberman's statement just before Netanyahu's meeting with President Mubarak."

No Smoking Pipes for Women in Gaza: On Sunday, Hamas said it had banned women from smoking water pipes in public.

Interior ministry spokesman Ihab al-Ghussein told AFP:

The police have decided to ban women from smoking water pipes in open, public places because it is against our customs, traditions and social norms.

Middle East Inside Line: Lieberman-Netanyahu Tension, Syria's "Greatest Hope", Restrictions on Gaza, & Much More

Lieberman-Netanyahu Tension Rises Again: Another problem between Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has broken out. Lieberman has appointed Meiron Reuven, a relatively little-known diplomat, as Israel's Acting Ambassador to the United Nations without Netanyahu's consent.

Sources close to Netanyahu said deterioration has been perceptible for weeks and the Prime Minister intends to ask Lieberman to explain his actions.

Syria Criticised but Aligned with Turkey: On Friday, Human Rights Watch said that Syria's President Bashar Assad failed to bring reforms on behalf of democracy following the Damascus Spring, a short period during which Assad allowed political groups to have small gatherings when he came to power in 2000.

Gaza Latest: European Union Calls on Israel to Open Border Crossings
Israel: Government Budget Cuts Defense and Welfare

Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said:

Whether President Assad wanted to be a reformer but was hampered by an entrenched old guard or has been just another Arab ruler unwilling to listen to criticism, the outcome for Syria's people is the same: no freedom, no rights.

A day later, Assad told Turkish journalists that Ankara is most qualified to serve as mediator between Israel and Syria. Assad that Israel's raid on the Turkish-funded Freedom Flotilla was a “terrorist act” and called Turkey "Syria's greatest hope":

The position of mediator in the indirect talks belongs to Turkey. We are completely confident in Ankara’s ability to successfully carry out this duty.

Restrictions on Movement in Gaza: Following President  Obama's praise of Israel for easing restrictions on goods coming in and going out of Gaza, Israel's judiciary has rejected the application of lawyer Fatma Sharif to leave Gaza to undertake a masters programme on human rights at Birzeit University in the West Bank.

Justices Miriam Naor, Hanan Melce,r and Isaac Amit declared:

We are not convinced that under the present political and security situation, the personal circumstances [of the petitioner] justify intervention in the decision of the respondent [the Defense Minister].

More Flotillas and Land Convoys on the Way?: According to Israel's Channel 2, the organiser of the Flotilla Freedom, IHH, announced on Saturday that the group will not only continue efforts to bring supplies to Gaza but "land convoys will head for Gaza" as well.

Turkish Hackers on Mission: Haaretz reports that an Israeli blogger, Erez Wolf, has discovered from a Turkish online forum that tens of thousands of e-mail addresses, passwords, and personal details of Israeli web surfers are in the hands of Turkish hackers.

Israel: Government Budget Cuts Defense and Welfare

On Friday, the Israeli Government approved a new two-year budget. However, cuts both in defense and welfare brought criticisms from parts of the coalition. Following the NIS 2.7 billion (about $700 million) reduction in the defense budget, ministers from Israel Beiteinu stormed out of the meeting and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, the leader of the party, threatened to vote No in the Knesset. Minister of Welfare Isaac Herzog (Labor) also left the meeting before voting.

Speaking to Israel Radio, Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch (Israel Beiteinu) said:

Gaza Latest: European Union Calls on Israel to Open Border Crossings

If the government doesn't fund the office, Israeli society will be harmed. There is a need to strengthen the police and the prison service. The ministry can't be run [without additional funding.]

Israel Beiteinu is the senior partner [in the coalition], but we're treated otherwise. I say to the government and to the prime minister: we'll meet in the Knesset. We're voting against the budget - it will not pass!

Shas's leader, Interior Minister Eli Yisha,i announced that he will fight in the Knesset for the increase in welfare funds.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak (Labor) did not target the government but underlined the "challenges faced" by the Israel Defense Forces:

We made a difficult decision, taking into consideration the economic and social situation in Israel. There are consequences to this decision, and I showed them to the cabinet.

Barak added that he hopes the IDF can "stand before the challenges in the resources budgeted to us. The balance between the security budget and the other budgets can bring us to deal correctly with the security and social challenges in Israel."

The IDF released a statement, thanking both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz (both from Likud).

Following the voting, Steinitz said:

The government approved a proffesional budget, which balances the different needs of the market. After years in which the security budget recieved significant additions, which strengthened the military, the government has chosen to give these additions to the education budget, health and welfare.

My mission is that the coming years will bring a shrinking of social gaps by strengthening the weaker sectors. The 2011-2012 budget will allow the government to plan for the long term and will strengthen the stability and security in the market.

And Prime Minister Netanyahu said:

The budget we compiled today is a responsible and balanced budget, that grants stability to the Israeli economy for the next two years.

The public in every country pays for going over the budget and unchecked spending. It may not be clear when a government goes over the budget, but we see what happened in some European countries. We can't let such irresponsibility happen in Israel.

Israel Snap Analysis: Defense Minister Barak's Win-Win Strategy?

On Sunday, Isrraeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer had heated argument  during a Labor Party meeting.

Barak's associates  said he had opposed the secret meeting between Ben-Eliezer and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in Zurich and told Prime Minister Netanyahu as much, though he ultimately decided not to veto the mission. Ben-Eliezer was angry with Barak cause he is accusing Barak of leaking information of the meeting with Turks. He allegedly told Barak's media spokesman, Barak Seri, "I'll skewer you. I am Iraqi. You don't know who are dealing with."

If it is true that it was the Defense Minsitry leaking the meeting to media --- and not the Foreign Minsitry of Avigdor Lieberman, as was initally reported --- then what is on Barak's mind? Is this a win-win strategy: if Netanyahu is not capable of dealing with Lieberman, then Barak takes over while if the Prime Minister succeeds, Barak grabs a portion as Lieberman leaves the coalition?