Report: PM’s acting chief of staff said Netanyahu was ‘finished’ after Oct. 7, made racist comments about Likud MKs

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesman and acting chief of staff reportedly called his boss “finished” after October 7, declaring that “he must go home,” in addition to making several racist statements against Likud lawmakers of Sephardi origin, calling some of them “baboons.”

According to Channel 12, Ziv Agmon criticized Netanyahu as “old” and declared him “finished” after October 7.

“The question is whether we’ll still have a state. He must go home. I wonder who will be responsible for negotiating for the hostages, [Ministers Shlomo] Karhi or [David] Amsalem?

“It’s over for the Likud,” he also reportedly said, adding that “the Egyptians need to release the recording of the conversation with Bibi” — a reference to claims that Egypt warned Netanyahu ahead of October 7. “And then he’s finished.”

Recalling that Netanyahu “fainted in the synagogue on Yom Kippur [in 2022], Agmon reportedly mused, “Why isn’t [opposition leader Yair] Lapid playing on the fact that he’s old and we need a leader for the long-term?”

All of the quotes broadcast by the network were said to have come from private conversations. No recordings were shared. Agmon declined to respond to a request for comment, Channel 12 stated.

Agmon also allegedly used extreme rhetoric when referring to Likud lawmakers of Middle Eastern descent, calling MK Nissim Vaturi a “baboon” and Eli Revivo a “retarded Moroccan,” adding that “it’s not clear how these people get elected to the Knesset.”

Agmon was said to have called MK Eli Dallal a “nobody,” adding “what baboons. It’s a shame we can’t just appoint the entire list and finish with the primaries.”

In a further attack on the party, Agmon reportedly said “We should publish a wanted ad for rapists and murderers for the Likud list for the Knesset, because there is already a thief, a burglar and a kidnapper.”

Turning to the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, Agmon was quoted as saying that it “only knows how to take money,” while describing members of Benny Gantz’s Blue and White party as “monkeys.”

In addition, Agmon was reported to have criticized Netanyahu’s wife Sara for owning “a Dior bag that is worth as much as a Rolex” and his son Yair for having “forced” former foreign minister Eli Cohen “to issue him a diplomatic passport, even though there is no justification for it.” He also reportedly sent friends an anti-Netanyahu meme.