Turkey's apology demand is "chutzpah": Israeli FM

Israel's ultranationalist foreign minister on Sunday dismissed as "chutzpah" a Turkish offer to restore ties if Israel apologizes for a deadly raid on a Gaza-bound ship; meanwhile, he rejected any peace deal with Palestinians next year as impossible.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quickly disavowed the remarks, which included a panning of U.S.-mediated peace efforts with the Palestinians, saying Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman was speaking only for himself.

"I think the matter of an apology borders on chutzpah or beyond," Lieberman told Israeli diplomats in a speech attended by international media. "The ones who have to apologize are the government of Turkey for supporting terror," he said. "There will be no apology" from Israel.


Lieberman was responding to a Turkish demand, reiterated by Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Saturday, that Israel apologise and offer compensation for its marines' killing of nine Turks in clashes aboard the Mavi Marmara aid ship in May.

The incident, following months of Turkish censure of Israeli policies toward the Palestinians, ruptured ties between the Jewish state and its once-stalwart Muslim ally and NATO power.

Envoys of the two countries held rapprochement talks in Geneva this month. Israeli officials say they broached a deal that would entail them expressing "regret" for the ship violence and paying damages to those bereaved or hurt, in return for a Turkish commitment to indemnify navy personnel against lawsuits.

A formal Israeli apology would only serve to fuel such legal actions, Lieberman's deputy, Danny Ayalon, has said.

Lieberman and Ayalon hail from an ultranationalist party that is the often fractious junior coalition partner to Netanyahu's right-wing Likud.

Political sources say Netanyahu sometimes excludes Lieberman from more sensitive policymaking and sent one of his confidants to team up with the Israeli diplomat handling the Geneva talks.

Peace with Palestinians

Meanwhile, Lieberman said that Israel should not sign a peace deal with the Western-backed Palestinian government because it is illegitimate.

"It is forbidden for us to reach a comprehensive deal today with the Palestinians. To put it clearly, you have to understand that their government is not legitimate," he told a meeting in Jerusalem of Israeli ambassadors.

Lieberman pointed to the fact that the government of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas had lost control of the Gaza Strip to rival Hamas and postponed elections after its term had expired.

"It is a government that has postponed elections three times, that lost elections, that does not hold elections, does not plan to hold elections and there are no guarantees that next time they do hold elections, that Hamas won't win again," Lieberman said.

He also said the Palestinians would reject any deal from Israel, no matter how generous, and that there were unbridgeable gaps on Israeli security issues.

"Even if we offer the Palestinians Tel Aviv and go back to the 1947 borders, they would find reasons not to sign a peace deal with us," he said.

Even if we offer the Palestinians Tel Aviv and go back to the 1947 borders, they would find reasons not to sign a peace deal with us

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu