Yashar Party Slams Host Magal's 'Racist' Remarks About Eisenkot
Translated & summarized from Haaretz by baba
The Yashar party strongly condemned Channel 14 host Yinon Magal for calling Gadi Eisenkot, a candidate for prime minister, a "monkey operated by Ashkenazim." The party criticized Prime Minister Netanyahu and Likud for not condemning the remarks after more than 12 hours. Magal claimed he meant an underworld term for a straw man, but Likud activists shared mocking videos. Other politicians also denounced the statement as racist.
The story in 6 lines · by baba
- The Yashar party condemned host Yinon Magal for calling candidate Gadi Eisenkot a "monkey operated by Ashkenazim."
- Yashar criticized Prime Minister Netanyahu and Likud for not condemning Magal's "racist utterance" for over 12 hours.
- Magal claimed his remark was an underworld term for a straw man, but Likud activists shared mocking videos.
- Gadi Eisenkot dismissed the comment, attributing it to "the person standing behind Yinon Magal."
- Yair Golan called Magal a "dark racist" and demanded public discourse free of racism.
- Rafi Ben Shitrit labeled Magal's words "pure and abhorrent racism" and evidence of Netanyahu's loss of control.
The Yashar party on Sunday sharply condemned remarks made by Channel 14 host Yinon Magal, who called Gadi Eisenkot, a candidate for prime minister, a "monkey operated by Ashkenazim." The party stated that more than 12 hours had passed since Magal's "racist utterance" without a condemnation from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or his Likud party. Magal, in a conversation with "Yedioth Ahronoth" journalist Amihai Attali, had said, "He is a monkey, don't you understand? They put a monkey, behind whom all the elitist Ashkenazim operate him. He is a monkey. His name is Mizrahi Moroccan."
Eisenkot himself dismissed the remark, stating, "Yinon Magal said I am a monkey operated by Ashkenazim, so I have nothing to answer to that level, the problem is not Yinon Magal but the person standing behind Yinon Magal." He vowed to "remove the phenomenon of 'Magalism' and 'Bardugism' from our lives," with his party asserting Magal's comments stemmed from fear of losing. The party drew a parallel to comedian Dudu Topaz's 45-year-old slur against Mizrahim, calling Magal "Netanyahu's senior mouthpiece" who "calls a candidate for prime minister who will bring Israel back to Israelis, a chief of staff who served the country for 45 years and gave it everything, a monkey." They questioned why he would do this, suggesting it was "because he is Mizrahi."
In a social media video, Magal claimed he was referring to an underworld term for a straw man hiding others. However, Likud activists shared videos mocking Eisenkot as a monkey. Other candidates within Eisenkot's bloc also condemned the statement. Yair Golan, chairman of the Democratic Party, called Magal a "dark racist" and demanded public discourse free of racism and violence. Rafi Ben Shitrit, a Knesset candidate for Yisrael Beiteinu, labeled the remarks "pure and abhorrent racism," adding they were "further evidence of the complete loss of direction and composure of Netanyahu and his spokespeople."
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