Eisenkot hits back as Netanyahu’s Likud takes aim at his English-language skills

Yashar party chairman Gadi Eisenkot hit back on Wednesday at an attack campaign led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, which has repeatedly charged that Eisenkot will rely on Arab parties to build a coalition if he wins the election later this year, and also mocked him for his English.

Eisenkot, the child of Moroccan immigrants, blasted the “racist” attack on him in an interview, and questioned sardonically how the prime minister’s English skills had helped Israel on October 7, 2023.

The campaign unfolding against Eisenkot online appeared to be orchestrated, at least in part, by senior Netanyahu aide Jonatan Urich, who is a key suspect in several ongoing police investigations and who is set to be charged with security offenses.

Most of the posts published by Urich and Likud have been short video clips, some featuring AI-generated content depicting Eisenkot with the leaders of Hadash-Ta’al and Ra’am, proclaiming: “There is no Gadi without the Arabs.”

The post that garnered the most attention, however, was a 51-second compilation video comparing Eisenkot’s English-language skills to Netanyahu’s. The video was published by Urich on June 8 with the caption “Want to know where his English is from?” — a reference to a well-known TV ad for English-language lessons. It was not shared on official Likud social media accounts.

The video features snippets from various speeches given by Netanyahu on the international stage — at the United Nations and in Congress — interspersed with footage from a single, undated speech delivered by Eisenkot in the US, in which he speaks English somewhat awkwardly, with a thick Israeli accent.

Netanyahu attended high school in the United States and returned there for university after completing his IDF service, and as a result, speaks perfect English with a slight American accent.

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Netanyahu’s mastery of the English language has been frequently touted by the premier and his allies and supporters as a significant asset in international diplomacy.

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Eisenkot addressed the campaign and Urich’s involvement in it in an appearance on Ynet’s “120 and One” podcast on Wednesday, dismissing it as a “racist” attack orchestrated by a “despicable person” — a reference to Urich.

“Where was Netanyahu’s excellent English on October 7?” the former IDF chief inquired. “Did it help us with anything? It didn’t help us at all.”

“Where is his excellent English in strengthening the relationship between Israel and the United States, which this morning is at rock bottom?” he asked.

“I’ve never boasted about having perfect English,” Eisenkot continued, “but I know how to speak, to read, and to write. I get by, and I’ve managed in many a meeting.”

“I attended dozens of meetings in English with Netanyahu; I don’t recall him ever calling me out for my English,” he noted.

In response to a question from the podcast host, Eisenkot, the child of Mizrahi Moroccan immigrants, agreed that the campaign was a “racist” endeavor carried out by “weak” people intimidated by his popularity in the polls.

“On Channel 14, I am the focus of every slot, except for the weather,” he said, in reference to the right-wing pro-Netanyahu television channel. “I assume this will happen in the coming days, and I will be blamed for the June-July heatwaves.”

In recent weeks, Eisenkot has been gaining traction in election polls conducted by multiple news outlets and pollsters, many of which have placed his Yashar party almost neck and neck with Together, the joint slate of former prime minister Naftali Bennett and Opposition Leader Yair Lapid.

A Channel 12 survey last week found that Eisenkot is narrowly preferred to Netanyahu as prime minister, with 38% of people ranking him as the most suitable candidate for the job, compared to 35% in favor of Netanyahu.

Neither Urich nor Likud has addressed the criticism over their mockery of Eisenkot’s English, although Urich declared on X Wednesday night that “the problem is not the English that Eisenkot doesn’t have, but the Arabic that he needs to form a government.”

The claim that various opposition politicians will join forces with anti-Zionist Hadash-Ta’al or Islamist Ra’am to form a government has been a central talking point for the pro-Netanyahu bloc, despite the premier himself having previously sought to bring Ra’am into his government. Ra’am was part of the rotation government led by Bennett and Lapid in 2021-22.