Yashar accuses Netanyahu of silencing Sephardi Likud candidates in AI campaign video

Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party posts an AI-generated video depicting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu eating lobster and accusing him of sidelining Mizrahi members of his Likud party during the election campaign.

The video comes after remarks by Channel 14 political commentator Yinon Magal, who called Eisenkot a “monkey,” widely interpreted as a racist slur targeting Eisenkot’s Moroccan heritage.

Netanyahu later condemned Magal’s remarks, after Yashar publicly questioned why the prime minister and his Likud party had failed to denounce them. At the same time, however, Netanyahu accused Eisenkot of failing to denounce alleged similar rhetoric directed at Likud voters.

נתניהו, תן למזרחים מיקרופון:
ינון ״כלי להעברת מסרים של נתניהו״ מגל קרא למזרחים קופים, אליו הצטרפה מקהלת השופרות.
אולי בגלל זה נתניהו לא נותן למזרחים במפלגתו להתראיין בקמפיין?

נתניהו אתה בהיסטריה אז סותם פיות – תלמד ממי שיהיה ראש הממשלה המזרחי הראשון ותן למזרחים מיקרופון (ותשים… pic.twitter.com/1jHHE7BUfg

— ישר! עם איזנקוט. (@yashar_eisenkot) October 19, 2026

Alongside the video, Yashar accuses Magal of using racist language against Sephardi Israelis and suggests Netanyahu is preventing Mizrahi members of his party from speaking publicly.

The video features a song in the Mizrahi music style questioning why prominent Sephardi Likud candidates, including Channel 14 commentator Jacob Bardugo and Transportation Minister Miri Regev, have not been interviewed since the campaign began.

“Why does Netanyahu erase the Mizrahim from his campaign?” the song asks.

The lobster imagery appears to reference a March 2023 incident in which Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, were filmed dining at a non-kosher restaurant in London over Shabbat, with lobster visible on the plate of the diner who filmed the video.

“Netanyahu, you’re in a panic, so you’re silencing voices,” the party writes. “Take a lesson from the man who will become Israel’s first Mizrahi prime minister, and give Mizrahim a microphone (and turn up the volume),” it adds, referring to Eisenkot.