According to The Times of Israel, leaked news of the meeting received tremendous blowback in Tripoli and Prime Minister Hamid Dheibah went ballistic. Dheibah reportedly rejected outright the prospect of normalizing relations with Israel. He went on to “affirm [Libya’s] rejection of any form of normalization and declared, ‘Long live Libya, long live Palestine, and long live the Palestinian cause in all our hearts…’”AdvertisementHe also condemned foreign minister Najla Magoush, whom he said had “acted independently,” and vowed to get to the bottom of what had happened. Prime Minister Netanyahu also reportedly had prior knowledge of the meeting. Taking that into consideration, this public outburst following the news leak seems to be a matter of keeping a lid on popular unrest in Libya, which has long been hostile to Israel and supportive of the Palestinians.
