As if Israelis haven’t waited long enough for the 35th government, the swearing-in of the Netanyahu-Gantz government has been postponed from Thursday night until Sunday due to political drama in the Likud surrounding ministerial positions.

Coalition negotiations were supposedly finalized on Thursday night and despite last-minute negotiations between Yamina leader Naftali Bennett and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Yamina is joining the opposition after the prime minister failed to grant the party senior ministerial positions.

However, one Yamina leader, outgoing Education Minister, Rabbi Rafi Peretz, the head of Bayit Yehudi, is leaving Yamina and joining the Netanyahu-Gantz government, dismantling the partnership of Bayit Yehudi with Bennett and Ayelet Shaked of the New Right and Bezalel Smotrich of the National Union.

Peretz is being appointed the Minister for Jerusalem Affairs and National Projects.

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Bennett, who will be sitting in the opposition for the first time since he entered politics in 2013 fiercely attacked Netanyahu in a Facebook post on Thursday morning, accusing the prime minister of communicating with Yamina only through video messages and tweets.

“The prime minister chose to rid himself of Yamina, which served as his national backbone and chose the opposite – the easier way – a way that is not right-wing,” Bennett wrote. “A way without sovereignty, without governance, without national steadfastness.”

Bennett also accused Netanyahu of “releasing terrorists, enabling the judicial overreach of the Supreme Court, voting for the Gush Katif expulsion four times, giving over Chevron to Arafat, appointing Ehud Barak as defense minister and Tzipi Livni as justice minister – and he’s doing the same thing this time” – referring to the left-leaning views of some Blue and White members.

In return, the Likud slammed Bennett, saying: “If Benett had received the health ministry he would say it was a right-wing government but because he didn’t, he dragged Yamina into the opposition.”

“In the first election, Bennett didn’t pass the electoral threshold and wasted right-wing votes…now Bennett is choosing to take his six right-wing seats to the opposition with Lapid and Liberman instead of joining a government leading a historic process of sovereignty. The Bennett era is over.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)