Herzog and Yechimovich (R), in better times
Herzog and Yechimovich (R), in better timesYonatan Sindel/Flash90

MK Shelly Yechimovich (Zionist Union) sharply criticized Opposition leader and her party's chairman Yitzhak Herzog yet again Friday, this time calling his remarks "unfortunate expressions which cross a red line, and strengthens rhetoric against us." 

Yechimovich remains livid over remarks wherein Herzog stated that people believe the Zionist Union panders more to Arab interests than to the average Israeli. 

"The words that he said cannot be overlooked as part of normal political turmoil, and they have to be addressed," Yechimovich said Friday. "What does the Right throw at us like a curse? That we love Arabs? We can only scorn this 'curse' and refuse to strengthen this racism." 

Yechimovich also lambasted Herzog for his response to the backlash which followed. 

"Presenting the idea of 'loving Arabs' as the opposite of Zionism is using the rhetoric of the Right against us," she fumed, adding that the idea that "fighting for equality and against racism" is exactly what Zionism is, in her view. 

"We have no interest to please [the Right - ed.] and certainly not to prove that we are not lovers of Arabs," she wrote. "We are loving people, who believe in equal rights irrespective of race and religion and gender, who strive for peace, protecting Israel from external enemies, and fighting evil ways and their destructive processes."