Bennett and Netanyahu
Bennett and NetanyahuYonatan Sindel/Flash 90

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Tuesday tried to organize a one-on-one meeting with Yamina chairman MK Naftali Bennett in an attempt to calm the tension between the two parties, Channel 13 News reported.

However, the meeting was canceled at the last minute after Bennett announced he would not be attending.

Sources in Yamina said that Bennett had accepted the Prime Minister's invitation but hours before the meeting a "particularly ugly" statement attacking Yamina was put out by the Likud, and so Bennett informed the Prime Minister that there was no point in holding the meeting.

In recent days there have been heated exchanges between members of the Likud and Yamina following Netanyahu's decision to hand to the Shas party chairmanship over the committee for appointing rabbinical judges (dayanim).

Yamina MK Bezalel Smotrich deplored the decision during a Knesset discussion on Tuesday and leveled a direct attack at the Prime Minister, saying, "Netanyahu is so contemptuous of the worldview and religious Zionism."

"The Prime Minister says that religious Zionism is important to him. What did he do to its representatives in his party?", Smotrich berated. "Netanyahu held religious Zionism - its path, including its rabbis, its people, and its teachings in contempt.”

MK Ayelet Shaked addressed Minister Tzipi Hotovely from the plenum and told her, "You're deceiving religious Zionism. You told the public, 'Don't worry, I'll take care of religious Zionism.' How do you give the committee for appointing dayanim to the haredim? It's a disgrace."