WHEN ISRAEL’S maverick, far-right foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman 10 days ago leaked a new Gaza initiative it was not clear how serious the proposals were, or how official. Mr Lieberman suggested it was just a foreign ministry draft yet to be been approved by the cabinet, although apparently seen by prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu. A case of hoisting a flag up the pole to see who will salute.
The fractious Mr Lieberman is also fighting with Mr Netanyahu on other fronts. He has complained that his Yisrael Beiteinu party’s 15 Knesset votes are being taken for granted with his ministers receiving far less funding for favoured projects than other coalition partners. And the government is deeply divided over a conversion Bill backed by Mr Lieberman which would give wide authority over conversions to the ultra-orthodox Chief Rabbinate, potentially denying many foreign-born citizens, not least from the US, the right to marry or be buried in Israel according to Jewish rites. A new compromise will now defer the bill for six months.
Mr Netanyahu insists he has no intention of parting company with Yisrael Beiteinu, and Mr Lieberman appears determined to stay in government at least until next year. But the prime minister, preoccupied with getting reluctant Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, back to the table, is also most unlikely to embrace any more closely the semi-detached diplomacy of his foreign minister, already out of the loop in the main peace process strand.
In essence Mr Lieberman proposed Israel disengage from troublesome Gaza, sealing it off from Israel and creating an independent entity under Hamas control propped up economically by the European Union. It would also be asked to secure the border with Israel and inspect ships bound for Gaza for arms, as long as the force was “serious and able to deal with Hamas threats”, a caveat that would be virtually impossible to meet to a standard acceptable to Israel. The idea of an EU peace force in the context of a broader overall settlement is, however, one that merits serious consideration.
The plan is opposed by Palestinians who see it as as an attempt to divide Gaza from the West Bank and undermine prospects for any progress towards a two-state solution. In recent days Mr Abbas has come under renewed pressure from world leaders to return to talks without preconditions on Israeli settlements He is still refusing, but when he does, it will certainly be with Mr Netanyahu, not his foreign minister.