Minister Daniel Hershkowitz published a message on his Facebook page on Monday evening, in which he spoke about his decision to withdraw from the elections for the Bayit Hayehudi (Jewish Home) and join forces with MK Zevulun Orlev.

"I'm very sorry for the libelous post by Naftali Bennett in which he argued that we proposed to cancel the primaries and offered him a 'deal' to be a Minister and President of a university,” said Hershkowitz.

"Tonight, on my way to the press conference, Bennett’s people called and asked us to postpone the start of the event so they can look into integrating Bennett under the joint leadership,” added Hershkowitz. “Then he himself called me. We invited him to the press conference. We agreed that in any case we will meet afterwards, but an hour later he changed his mind.”