‘Choose Bibi, not the monkey’: Channel 14 panelist repeats slur targeting Eisenkot

One day after Yinon Magal, a commentator on the pro-government Channel 14, ignited a firestorm by calling opposition frontrunner Gadi Eisenkot a “monkey” on air, another panelist on the same show repeats the slur, drawing laughter.

Magal has faced a barrage of criticism, including from his favored politician, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for the remark, which many have called racist because Eisenkot is of Moroccan heritage. Magal used the slur in the context of a discussion of Eisenkot’s ethnicity and said the ex-IDF chief is “managed” by Ashkenazim.

Yotam Zimri, another panelist on the same Channel 14 talk show, “The Patriots,” repeats the slur on tonight’s edition, during a conversation about US President Donald Trump’s endorsement of Netanyahu.

“He also said, ‘Choose Bibi, not the monkey,'” Zimri says, eliciting laughter from his co-panelists. Magal, who also laughed, has defended making the remark, arguing that he was not using it in a racist context, but that it was a reference to a term from the criminal underworld referring to someone’s “puppet,” or fall guy.

יותם זמרי הערב בפטריוטים: ״טראמפ אמר תבחרו בביבי ולא בקוף״. כל האולפן מתפקע מצחוק.
בערוץ 14 מספיק להגיד ״קוף״ וכולם על הרצפה. pic.twitter.com/z14batYDWf

— Shem Tov Heavy (@ShemTovHeavy) October 18, 2026