MK Uri Orbach
MK Uri OrbachFlash 90

Minister of Pensioner Affairs MK Uri Orbach (Bayit Yehudi) responded to MK Yitzhak Cohen's (Shas) attacks on his party earlier Tuesday, saying "a party with a criminal at its head will will not preach ethics to us."

In an interview with Arutz Sheva Orbach struck back at Cohen, who earlier in the day warned that Bayit Yehudi are bringing "disaster" on the country with their nationalism.

Cohen accused them and the religious-Zionist movement in general of raising Yigal Amir, who murdered then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995 after the Oslo Accords.

In response, Orbach claimed that Shas is joining the extreme Left in trying to connect religious Zionism with Yigal Amir, further stating that Cohen was a graduate of religious-Zionism before "deteriorating into Shas-ness." Yigal Amir learned in a partially-hareidi yeshiva, he added, "So maybe he was actually a Shas-nik."

Cohen "needs to drink a glass of water and calm down," Orbach said. He added that Shas is "in the opposition firing in all directions and repeating what they hear in the Left."

Aside from the "disaster" he claimed nationalism will bring, Cohen further called Bayit Yehudi "reform," referring to the Reform movement that denies the divine nature of the Torah, saying that Bayit Yehudi listen to their rabbis only when it's convenient to them.

Orbach hit back, saying that Shas is headed by MK Aryeh Deri, someone who "transgressed the Torah prohibitions against bribery," and adding "they won't preach ethics to us."

Orbach similarly criticized attacks on Bayit Yehudi last Wednesday, only in that case the attacks came from MK Amram Mitzna (HaTnua) who made veiled statements connecting the party's opposition to terrorist releases with the "incitement" that led to Rabin's murder.