Defense ministry boycotts a Knesset meeting :

‏The Defense Ministry boycotted a Knesset meeting Sunday to protest a slur by MK Moti Yogev (Bayit Yehudi), who charged the ministry was so useless it might as well be working on behalf of the Palestinian Authority in Area C of the West Bank. ‏The boycott came amid heightened tensions between the Defense Ministry and right-wing politicians. ‏Yogev, who chairs the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee’s subcommittee on Judea and Samaria, habitually goes after Defense Ministry and IDF representatives. ‏This includes representatives from the Civil Administration and the office of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories. ‏Last week, Yogev charged that “COGAT is doing nothing” when it comes to land issues with Palestinians in Area C of the West Bank. ‏It might as well be called the office “of the Coordinator of Palestinian Activities in the Territories,” Yogev said. ‏Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman said in response, “It’s unacceptable for uniformed officers to become the object of [verbal] attacks and incitement, especially by a Knesset member who chairs a respected committee.” ‏It’s one thing to verbally assault politicians, Liberman said, but its quite another to go after IDF representatives who because of their jobs are not free to respond. ‏Yogev in turn charged that Liberman and his office had showed “contempt” for the Knesset and the politicians in the room by failing to show up for a meeting on environmental issues in Judea and Samaria. ‏“No one is immune from substantive criticism,” he said.