Yamina’s Bennett says he is gunning to become prime minister

The Likud and Yamina parties are trading barbs ahead of a second bid by the opposition to bring down the government by presenting an alternative coalition, a move known as a “constructive no-confidence motion.”

Seemingly responding to a report that the bid could draw the support of Yamina, the party says it has no interest in trading one bad thing for another (literally, a trief animal for a carcass.)

Instead it announces that it is seeking to replace Netanyahu with its own leader Naftali Bennett, marking a major challenge from the right to the Likud.

Likud responds not by attacking Bennett, but by saying it is “saddened and shocked by Bennett’s use of the term ‘treif’ to describe the prime minister.”

The statement calls on bennett and MK Bezalel Smotrich to support unity and not “divisive politics.”

According to a Channel 12 report, Yamina would have been brought into the fold with the nomination of Moshe Ya’alon, a right-wing former defense minister, as prime minister, as part of the no-confidence bid.