The Likud party issued a statement Monday evening, in which it said Opposition Leader Yitzhak Herzog "has a special chutzpah (nerve) to demand the dismissal of the prime minister from the post of minister of communications." Herzog has threatened to petition the Supreme Court to remove Binyamin Netanyahu from the ministry over alleged ties with the Yisrael Hayom free-of-charge daily which has the largest circulation in the country.
The statement cites what it called ties between Herzog's staff and Yedioth Ahronoth, fellow Labor Member of Knesset Eitan Cabel's attempts to close Yisrael Hayom to get more sympathetic coverage from Yedioth, and Zionist Union co-chair Tzipi Livni's ties with Yedioth, also related to anti-Yisrael Hayom legislation. It also cites the foreign-financed efforts of the V15 organization which tried to defeat Netanyahu in the 2015 elections.