Eisenkot says he does not trust Netanyahu after PMO accused of falsifying records

Yashar party chairman Gadi Eisenkot says he does not trust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, following recent accusations by the premier’s former military secretary that Netanyahu’s chief of staff sought to alter an official record from the morning of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught.

“We’re learning in recent days that Netanyahu and his office were busy falsifying transcripts and retroactively arranging the picture,” Eisenkot says at a Yedioth Ahronoth conference.

He adds that “the goals of the war in Iran were not achieved” and that he does not trust Netanyahu “to make the right decisions in the coming weeks,” amid reports of a possible resumption of fighting with Iran before the upcoming election.

Eisenkot goes on to say that the largest party in his bloc should lead it.

“All along, even a year ago when I had five seats, I thought the bloc’s candidate should be the leader of the largest party,” he says. “I thought that then, and I think so today.”

Yashar has been consistently polling as the largest opposition party, marginally surpassing Netanyahu’s Likud. However, neither Netanyahu’s presumed bloc nor the bloc of the four Jewish-led parties opposing him is close to winning a majority in the 120-seat Knesset in the October 27 election.

Eisenkot, born to Moroccan immigrant parents, also criticizes Likud’s campaign against him, saying Netanyahu’s mockery of his English and the party’s “concealment” of Mizrahi candidates, such as Channel 14 commentator Jacob Bardugo, “come from the same place.”

“This comes from hysteria, and what worries me more than racism is a culture of lies,” he says.

Eisenkot turns his criticism to Netanyahu’s family, saying their political involvement makes them fair subjects of scrutiny.

He accuses the prime minister’s wife, Sara Netanayhu, of spreading the conspiracy theory that an inside betrayal led to the events of October 7 and says Netanyahu’s son, Yair Netanyahu, who lives in the US, posts videos that “deepen the lies, divisions and theory of betrayal.”