Netanyahu condemns ‘monkey’ slur against Eisenkot, but says Likud members face worse

Premier says remarks by pundit Yinon Magal, widely seen as a Netanyahu mouthpiece, 'highly inappropriate,' claims incorrectly that businesswoman called Likud supporters chimpanzees and baboons

By Stav Levaton and ToI Staff Today, 3:19 pm
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Likud party chairman, visits supporters in the northern city of Haifa, ahead of the upcoming election, October 14, 2026. (Sharon Leibel/Flash90)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday condemned remarks by pro-government Channel 14 political commentator Yinon Magal, who called Yashar party chairman Gadi Eisenkot a “monkey” and claimed he was controlled by “Ashkenazi elitists,” but the premier then accused Eisenkot of failing to denounce alleged similar rhetoric directed at Likud voters.

“That is a highly inappropriate remark, and I condemn it,” Netanyahu told Radio North 104.5FM after the remarks by Magal, largely seen as a mouthpiece for Netanyahu, sparked outrage and accusations of racism.

Netanyahu, however, also criticized remarks by businesswoman Galia Albin, who recently sparked controversy after mocking Sephardic Likud voters during a podcast appearance, clapping her hands and enthusiastically chanting “Bibi, Bibi, Bibi,” using Netanyahu’s nickname, before questioning their ability to think independently.

“I would have liked Gadi Eisenkot to condemn all the remarks by Galia Albin and others calling Likud supporters chimpanzees and baboons,” Netanyahu said. “That is inappropriate, and this is inappropriate.”

Albin appears not to have made such comments, and it is unclear whether there is any connection between her and Eisenkot.

The premier claimed that insults directed at his supporters were a daily occurrence, saying: “Although Yinon said something yesterday that he should not have said, every day I hear the arrogance, condescension and contempt directed at Likud voters.”

“I wish this were a one-time occurrence. It happens every day, and almost all of it is directed at Likud voters,” he added.

Yinon Magal arrives at the Jerusalem District Court for a hearing in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s graft trial, July 19, 2023. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Netanyahu also accused Eisenkot of failing to condemn those who call the prime minister a “traitor,” saying that the Yashar leader had himself used the term against him.

Netanyahu’s remarks came after Yashar publicly criticized the premier and Likud for failing to condemn Magal, one of Netanyahu’s most prominent media supporters, over comments widely interpreted as a racist slur against Eisenkot’s Moroccan heritage.

During the popular “Patriots” program on Channel 14 on Saturday evening, Magal repeatedly called Eisenkot a “monkey,” while arguing with another panelist, in an apparent racist jab at the Yashar leader’s Moroccan heritage.

“He’s a monkey. He’s a monkey. You are getting a kick out of the fact that he is Mizrahi,” he said, before asserting that “all the Ashkenazi elitists” stood behind Eisenkot and were “telling him what to say.”

The Hebrew word for “monkey” can also be used as an underworld term for a front man or fall guy — someone placed publicly at the forefront while more powerful figures operate behind the scenes — and, by extension, as a term for a puppet controlled by others.

Magal later called the uproar “fake,” saying in a social media video that he had meant Eisenkot was being used as a front man for Israel’s Ashkenazi elite, rather than making a racial reference.

Magal is no stranger to controversy. Two weeks ago he caused an outcry by saying that people who blamed Netanyahu for the death of hostages in Gaza were “the most despicable people who live in the State of Israel.” Among those singled out were members of the Bibas family and the widow of downed IDF navigator Ron Arad.

Yashar compared the remarks to television personality Dudu Topaz’s infamous use of the term “chah’chahim” for Mizrahi Likud voters at a Labor rally before the 1981 election. The party accused Magal of displaying longstanding “disdain” for Mizrahi Israelis.

Eisenkot himself dismissed the comment as “substandard,” saying that “the problem isn’t Yinon Magal, but the person who stands behind Yinon Magal,” an apparent reference to Netanyahu. He vowed that his party would remove what he called “Magalism and Bardugoism” from Israeli public life, also referring to pro-Netanyahu commentator and Likud candidate Jacob Bardugo.

The controversy also drew criticism from Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman, who called Magal Netanyahu’s “chief mouthpiece” and linked the remark to previous comments by Netanyahu spokesman Ziv Agmon. “When the spokesman and the mouthpiece speak the same racist language, it is clear what the spirit is in the Prime Minister’s Office,” Liberman wrote on X.

David Elbaz, a member of Likud’s internal court, also urged Magal to apologize, calling the comment “unfortunate” and noting Eisenkot’s record as a former IDF chief of staff and bereaved father.

Likud activist Rami Ben-Yehuda, meanwhile, posted an AI-generated video depicting Eisenkot as a monkey delivering a speech in which he says Netanyahu is the country’s real problem, further fueling the dispute.

The dispute comes little more than a week before the October 27 election, in which Eisenkot has emerged as Netanyahu’s principal challenger. A Zman Yisrael poll published October 15 gave Yashar a six-seat lead over Likud, though neither the pro-Netanyahu nor opposition bloc was projected to win the 61 seats needed for a Knesset majority

Gadi Eisenkot, leader of the Yashar party, attends an election rally in September 2026 (Jonathan Shaul/Yashar)

The campaign has increasingly developed into a direct confrontation between the two men. Netanyahu has warned that an Eisenkot-led government would lead to a Palestinian state and Israeli withdrawals from territory currently held in Lebanon and Syria, while Eisenkot has accused the premier of using fear to remain in power and called him “a liar” and “dangerous to Israel.”

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