Netanyahu confidant repeatedly urged Ra’am’s Abbas not to back Eisenkot – report

Close associate to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Natan Eshel, repeatedly contacted Ra’am leader Mansour Abbas before, during, and after the election, urging him not to back Yashar chairman Gadi Eisenkot, according to a Channel 12 report.

In transcripts of their conversations published by the network, Eshel asks Abbas before the vote whether he would allow Eisenkot to pass a law barring an indicted lawmaker from being tasked with forming a government, which could prevent Netanyahu, who is facing a corruption trial, from returning to office.

Eshel later asks whether Ra’am would help Eisenkot in the Knesset despite not being invited into his coalition. Abbas says Ra’am would wait for the election results before deciding; the party later stops responding to Eshel.

Eshel tells Channel 12 that “no messages were conveyed.”

He then says he asked “a few Arabs” whether they had “a shred of self-respect, or if they would support someone who doesn’t want them in his coalition,” adding that Abbas replied: “We’ll do what’s good for us.”