New Right leader and Education Minister Naftali Bennett took full responsibility for his party’s defeat in a statement posted on his Facebook page Tuesday night.
“After six years of kosher service, a hundred days of campaign and another week of struggle for every vote, I can say: I did the best I could for the people of Israel, my beloved nation," Bennett wrote. "This time it was not enough. I have no complaints against anyone. I, and I alone, am responsible for the result."
The New Right will remain out of the 21st Knesset.
“There are those who mocked us for making an effort to pass the electoral threshold," he added. "'It's pathetic, hopeless, desperate.' So what? I prefer that I be counted with those making an effort at the front as opposed to those mocking from the bleachers."
Bennett highlighted that, as Education Minister, the message he would like to tell every student, entrepreneur and person is to never give up.
The leader of New Right also thanked all the party candidates for their work, starting from Ayelet Shaked, whom he described as “the best Justice Minister in Israel's history.”
“I promise: wherever I am, I will never stop being a soldier of the people of Israel,” Bennett concluded.