Minister of Regional Cooperation Esawi Frej (Meretz) responded to the criticism by opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu of the government's decision to grant the Palestinian Authority a loan in the amount of 500 million shekels.
"In his speech from the gallery for the isolated, opposition leader Netanyahu forgot to mention that he himself offered the Palestinians a loan of 800 million shekels that they were the ones to rejected, 300 million shekels more than the current loan," said Frej.
He also mocked the Likud chairman, who returned from a two-week vacation in Hawaii, saying, "Could it be that long and expensive vacations in times of crisis damage one’s memory?"
This past Thursday, Netanyahu attacked Prime Minister Naftali Bennett for his decision to loan a large sum of money to the Palestinian Authority.
"Bennett transferred half a billion shekels to Abu Mazen. You give Palestinians free gifts and bring them back to the global agenda, while we bypassed the Palestinians and brought four historic peace agreements with Arab states, without giving them any gifts. This is not a government of healing - this is a government of weakness, a government of failures. And all of it while being embraced by the media," he said.
The chairman of the opposition added, "Do you remember the days in our government when every newscast would open with the headline 'failure' about minor things? But when it comes to your huge failure, the media fails to do its job and is silent. The media serves the government and the government serves the media."