Gadi Eizenkot Challenges Shas Over Military Recruitment in Election Campaign Clash
Translated & summarized from Maariv by baba
Gadi Eizenkot's party Yashar! has demanded Shas remove a campaign video for unauthorized use of soldiers, sparking a sharp political dispute over ultra-Orthodox military conscription ahead of elections. Shas denied misuse of IDF imagery and accused Eizenkot of other political distractions. The conflict highlights growing legal battles over election propaganda rules involving multiple parties, including Netanyahu's Likud.
The story in 6 lines · by baba
- Gadi Eizenkot's Yashar! demanded Shas remove a campaign video using soldiers without permission.
- Shas accused Eizenkot of focusing on Mansour Abbas and the Muslim Brotherhood instead of conscription issues.
- Yashar! criticized Shas's policy on ultra-Orthodox IDF conscription and Deri's pride in non-serving family members.
- Shas denied misuse of IDF symbols, saying the video counters false claims of draft evasion support.
- Yashar! pointed out Netanyahu also uses soldiers in campaigns, demanding equal rules apply.
- Election propaganda laws are increasingly used as tools in the campaign, with legal warnings and petitions.
Ahead of the upcoming elections, Gadi Eizenkot's party Yashar! has demanded that Shas remove a campaign video titled "A Father's Life" by 11:00 AM, accusing it of unauthorized use of soldiers and the party's letters. Shas responded sharply, accusing Eizenkot of focusing on training Mansour Abbas and the Muslim Brotherhood instead. Yashar! is leveraging this dispute to criticize Shas's longstanding policy on ultra-Orthodox military conscription, highlighting past statements by Shas leader Aryeh Deri expressing pride in family members who do not serve in the IDF. Yashar! condemned what it called promoting draft evasion while using IDF soldiers as election props.
Shas rejected accusations regarding the portrayal of the IDF in the video, clarifying that no official IDF symbols were used and that the video shows a family member returning home in civilian clothes to counter false propaganda, including claims by Eizenkot's party that Shas supports draft evasion. This confrontation follows earlier political clashes between Eizenkot and Deri, including Eizenkot's criticism of Shas's "budget for evasion" policy earlier this year, which Deri publicly regretted.
Eizenkot has carefully distinguished his criticism of Shas's leadership policies from its voter base, praising Shas as a party with broad Zionist components and noting his mother voted for it for 30 years. Meanwhile, Yashar! pointed out that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also uses images and videos featuring soldiers in his campaign, arguing that restrictions on using the IDF for political campaigns should apply equally to all parties.
This legal argument builds on a precedent set by the Likud party against Yashar!, which previously had to remove a video featuring AI-generated soldiers. Yashar! insists the same standards be applied to its rivals. The party also recently faced a cease-and-desist letter from Likud over a digitally altered billboard ad, which Yashar! rejected. Election propaganda laws are increasingly central to the campaign, with parties using legal warnings, removal demands, and petitions to the election committee as part of their strategic battles over campaign messaging and agenda control.
