Sources in the Likud responded to Yamina's news conference tonight in which party leaders claimed Netanyahu had caved in to outside pressure and attacked Defense Minister Naftali Bennett.
They said "Bennett was willing to go to the opposition simply because he did not get the health ministry portfolio. He knows this is true, so he's trying to cover for himself. Bennett is the one who abandoned the right-wing bloc, he's the one who approached Gantz in efforts to join a minority government and refused to recommend Prime Minister Netanyahu [to form the government] contrary to his party's commitment to voters."
"While Prime Minister Netanyahu is applying Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, as stated in the coalition agreement, Bennett will be sitting in the opposition with Lapid, Liberman and [Joint Arab List MK] Heba Yazbek."
"The Bennett era is over," they added.
Earlier on, Bennett claimed that "Netanyahu erased the words Judea and Samaria from the basic principles of the incoming government, eradicated the application of sovereignty, eliminated the overhaul of the Workers' Union and the power brokers, and destroyed reforms to the judicial system."
"The Palestinian Authority and the Europeans have been threatening him in recent days, but above all Gantz and Ashkenazi have threatened him. Netanyahu surrendered."
The Yamina chairman also denied reports that negotiations with the Likud had been revived this evening.