Pro-Netanyahu pundit calls Eisenkot a ‘monkey,’ in apparent racist jab; Yashar compares comment to infamous 1981 ‘chah’chahim’ speech

Leading right-wing political commentator Yinon Magal calls election Yashar party chair Gadi Eisenkot a “monkey,” in what can be interpreted as a racist remark toward the election frontrunner’s Moroccan heritage.

“He’s a monkey. He’s a monkey. You are getting a kick out of the fact that he is Mizrahi,’ Magal says, arguing with a panelist on the “Patriots” TV show which he hosts.

“You put a monkey behind whom stand all the Ashkenazi elitists, who are managing him, telling him what to say,” Magal says, in an attempt to disparage the rival to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“But we gave you a Moroccan prime minister,” Magal mockingly says.

In a statement, Yashar compares Magal’s remark to those of Israeli TV personality Dudu Topaz ahead of the 1981 election, in which he branded Likud voters “chah’chahim,” a derogatory term for Mizrahim, at a Labor party rally, drawing a fiery counter-speech from then-Likud leader Menachem Begin.

“Forty-five years after Dudu Topaz called Mizrahim chah’chahim, a senior mouthpiece of Netanyahu, who makes money from spreading lies and poison, this evening calls a candidate for prime minister who will return Israel to the Israelis, the chief of staff who served the country for 45 years and gave it everything — a ‘monkey,'” Yashar says.

Yashar charges that the comments reveal a long-standing “disdain” for the Mizrahi public.

“I have nothing to respond to this substandard remark. The problem isn’t Yinon Magal. But the person who stands behind Yinon Magal,” Eisenkot says at a campaign event, in response, in a reference to Netanyahu.

“But we will bring change to the country, and the phenomenon of Magalism and Bardugoism we will remove from our lives and bring a better country,” he says, also referencing Jacob Bardugo, a pro-Netanyahu pundit on Channel 14 who is running on the Likud list.

ינון מגל על גדי איזנקוט בתוכנית "הפטריוטים" בערוץ 14: הוא קוף, מזרחי-מרוקאי שמאחוריו כל האשכנזים האליטיסטים מנהלים אותוhttps://t.co/p8Dnv8e5bb pic.twitter.com/6hqfUTFww9

— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) October 17, 2026