Minister for Senior Citizens Uri Orbach (Jewish Home/Bayit Yehudi) hit back on Saturday night at those who were blaming his party for the failure of peace talks with the Palestinian Authority.
In a statement, Orbach said that the left would be better off to place the blame where it belongs, and that is on the Arabs.
"In the coming weeks, as the lack of progress in the negotiations will continue, there will be further attempts to blame the right and the Jewish Home party for the failure or for any delay,” he wrote.
“This week it happened with the tenders that never happened, and it always happens when Israeli indulgence shatters on the rocks of Palestinian intransigence. For the politicians and journalists from the left (it’s hard to tell them apart) it is more convenient to blame the settlers than blame the Arabs. They do not want to bring peace, they want to win the internal debate within Israel,” added Orbach.
Though he did not mention him by name, Orbach was probably referring to comments made by Science and Technology Minister Yaakov Peri (Yesh Atid), who launched a scathing attack on the Jewish Home party during an event on Saturday.
Peri had said that irreconcilable political differences mean that one of the two parties will eventually have to leave the coalition.
He singled out Housing Minister Uri Ariel for special criticism, accusing him of "sabotaging" talks with the PA, as well as relations with the U.S., through his announcement of 20,000 building tenders for Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria last week.
Peri claimed that as a result of Jewish Home's actions, "The negotiations with the Palestinians will fail, and the crisis with the Americans will deepen, and this could certainly deteriorate into a third intifada."