The Times of Israel reports: A senior minister from the ruling Likud party charged on Tuesday that an upcoming, highly anticipated speech by US Secretary of State John Kerry on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was “pathetic” and set to ensure that any chances for peace would be driven further way.

In a scathingly worded statement sent to the press, Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan lambasted Kerry’s planned address on Wednesday, saying it was “pathetic to present a formula to end the conflict at the last moment, when during [his] whole term, [he] couldn’t budge a thing (except for a Hamas-supporting conference in Paris),” a reference to the upcoming peace summit in the French capital on January 15, which Israel has refused to attend, arguing that only bilateral negotiations will lead to a peace accord.