A bombshell report by Amit Segal on Channel 12 says thousands of defamatory SMS messages sent Tuesday to party members and registered voters in the Democrats were not sent by Ronen Tzur, as many initially assumed, but by the camp of candidate Yaya Shper, also referred to in the report as Yaia Pink’s team. The messages described Shper as “a far-left man who grovels before those who justify October 7.”
The wording echoed, in an exaggerated and especially harsh form, political criticism that Tzur had recently leveled at Shper, which helped create the impression that Tzur was behind the smear campaign. But a technical and factual review of the distribution data showed the opposite: the sender listed in the mailing system as the buyer and distributor of the SMS messages was Shper’s personal spokesman.
According to the report, the apparent goal was to make party members feel revulsion toward what seemed to be an aggressive smear operation by Ronen Tzur, and thereby trigger a political backlash that would strengthen Shper at Tzur’s expense. Neither Shper nor his personal spokesman responded to requests for comment.
The affair now puts Democrats chairman Yair Golan under immediate pressure. Only two weeks ago, the party’s leadership approved a particularly strict internal election statute, under which the party may immediately expel any candidate or member who uses false propaganda, disinformation, or smear tactics during the campaign.
