Likud: 'This marks the end of the Bennett era'

Likud party sources have expressed sharp criticism of the way in which Yamina head Naftali Bennett has handled his party's coalition negotiations.

"If Bennett had been offered the Health Ministry, he would have said that this was the dream government of the right wing," the sources said. "Because he wasn't offered the Health portfolio, he decided to drag Yamina into the opposition. In fact, even before making the decision not the join the government, he refrained from recommending Netanyahu to the President to form a government - against the wishes of his voters."

The sources pointed out that, "During the first round of elections, Bennett didn't pass the electoral threshold [as the leader of the New Right party, which failed to garner the necessary 3.25% of the popular vote to enter the Knesset], thus wasting many right-wing votes. In the third round of elections - simply because of his desire for ministerial positions - he is again wasting right-wing votes, taking his party's six seats into the opposition in order to sit with Lapid and Liberman instead of joining a government that is leading a historic process to apply sovereignty [over Judea, Samaria, and the Jordan Valley]. This marks the end of the Bennett era."