PM may have hidden Egyptian proposal from cabinet

Reports of friction within Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet over the weekend emerge, as an unnamed Israeli official tells Haaretz that the prime minister tried to hide the 11-point Egyptian ceasefire proposal, only to be confronted by an angry Avigdor Liberman, Israel’s foreign minister, who pulled out his own copy of the proposal.

Netanyahu reluctantly acknowledged and presented the proposal to the cabinet, telling them that he did not intend to accept it because it failed to address his security demands, the source says, adding that the cabinet did not vote officially but agreed that the proposal was not sufficient.

However, the report puts a spotlight on Netanyahu’s relationship with the cabinet following complaints by unnamed ministers last week that they found out about the extension of the Gaza truce by five days through the media only after it had gone into effect and been violated by terrorist groups in Gaza.

A source close to Liberman confirms that version of events and scoffs at Netanyahu’s attempts to keep him in the dark, saying “the foreign minister has good enough sources to know what’s going on; he doesn’t need the prime minister to update him.”