Yisrael Beytenu chairperson Avigdor Liberman's imminent entry to the coalition government has been evoking numerous responses in Israel, but the Palestinian Authority (PA) also saw fit to comment on the developments Thursday morning.
Liberman is apparently to be given his request of taking over the post of Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon (Likud), a portfolio that would give him great control over the goings-on in Judea and Samaria.
"Liberman's joining the government is a renewed emphasis on the lack of a true peace partner in Israel, and on the correctness of the Palestinian approach to internationalize the Palestinian issue," read a statement from the PA's foreign ministry published by Channel 2.
The talk of the lack of peace partner is ironic, given that the PA torpedoed the last peace talks in April 2014 by signing a unity deal with Hamas, after repeatedly refusing to recognize Israel's existence as the Jewish state.
"This decision is (Prime Minister Binyamin) Netanayhu's response to the French efforts to revive the peace process between the sides," the statement added in reference to the new French initiative to press peace talks.
That initiative is based on the 2002 Saudi initiative, by which Israel would make massive concessions in return for paper agreements from its Arab neighbors not to attack - Israel has flatly rejected the French push.
According to the PA, Yisrael Beytenu's entry "sends a strong message to the world that Israel prefers radicalism, and commemorates occupation and settlements over peace."
Liberman is known for his "radical right-wing opinions towards the Palestinians," according to the PA, which claimed that Netanyahu has always preferred to advance "radicalism" in his government.
"These developments in the government are not a surprise to those who followed the daily activities, and after the breaches by the radicals of Netanyahu's government against the Palestinian nation, which exposes the racist, radical and violent policy of Netanyahu's government from its very first day," wrote the PA.
Liberman, who lives in Nokdim in Judea's Gush Etzion region, listed the implementation of the death penalty for terrorist murderers as one of his conditions to join the government.
Israel has a death penalty on the lawbooks but has only used it once in 1962 against Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann. Yisrael Beytenu proposed a bill to apply the law to terrorist murderers last July, but only members of Liberman's party supported it and it was consequentially defeated.
Despite the PA's accusations of "extremism," Liberman has been called out for not taking any right-wing actions in his previous positions of power, and of promoting a leftist agenda seen in his election campaign calling to give up the "triangle" region in the north where over 300,000 Arab citizens of Israel live as part of creating a Palestinian state.