Middle East Inside Line: Turkey-Hamas-Israel, Netanyahu Denies "Map", No Russia Missiles to Iran?

Turkey, Hamas, and Israel: Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, having gone to Damascus for discussions with Syrian President Bashar Assad and Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, also reportedly met Hamas political bureau chief Khaled Meshaal on Monday. They spoke about the future of the reconciliation talks between Fatah and Hamas and the continuation of efforts to lift the siege on Gaza.

Meanwhile, Israel took a  positive step towards Ankara. "In light of the calm in Turkey and the absence of large-scale anti-Israeli demonstrations," Israel's Counter Terrorism Bureau lifted a severe warning to Israelis to avoid travel to Turkey.

Middle East Inside Line: Syria-Turkey-Lebanon Condemn Israel, Netanyahu Map “Gap”, Israel’s Iron Dome System

However, this is not the end of the story. The Israeli Foreign Ministry requested assurances from Turkey that three ships belonging to the Turkish organisation IHH, backer of May's Freedom Flotilla will not be used for another attempt to run the blockade on Gaza. The Turkish daily Hurriyet reported that in past cases, Israel has required assurances only from the organizers rather than the Government.

Israel Denies Map for Talks with Palestine: The Prime Minister's Office stated on Tuesday that Benjamin Netanyahu had not presented a map of a possible border agreement and land swaps in recent discussions over Palestine, as alleged by the London-based Al-Sharq al-Awsat.

Russia Not Selling S-300s to Iran?: According to Interfax, Russian military official Alexander Fomin on Tuesday, without referring to the S-300 by name, but pledged Moscow would desist from supplying “large missile systems” to Iran in accordance with the sanctions backed by Russia at the United Nations.

Israel welcomed Moscow's statement.

Israel's "Close" Relations with Greece: Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou is coming to Israel on Wednesday. This will be the first visit to Israel by a Greek prime minister since Konstantinos Mitsotakis came in 1992.

Ahead of the visit, The Jerusalem Post reports:

People in government said there was no doubt that the recent tension with Turkey has led to a warming of the relationship between Israel and some of Turkey’s historic rivals, such as Greece, Cyprus and Bulgaria. The Cypriot and Bulgarian foreign ministers paid visits to Israel earlier this year.

According to one diplomatic official, the Greeks – looking at the Israeli-Turkish, andTurkish-US tensions – are realizing that strategic alliances in the region are changing, and that this might be a good time to get closer to Israel as a way of warming ties with Washington.

When Israel had a close strategic alliance with Turkey, the official said, Athens gave up any thought of forging such an alliance with Israel.

But now the situation with Ankara has changed, and Athens is seeing more opportunities with Israel.

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.