‘Wanted dead or alive’: Golan campaign billboard vandalized amid fears of political violence
Democrats chair says billboard can be vandalized, ‘hope cannot’; Eisenkot’s Yashar lashes out at Likud in spat over ‘monkey’ slur, warns against PM electioneering at soccer match
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A campaign billboard for the left-wing Democrats party was recently vandalized with threatening graffiti targeting party chairman Yair Golan, images posted on Monday showed, amid growing concerns over political violence ahead of next week’s election.
The words, “Wanted dead or alive,” were scrawled across Golan’s face, alongside graffiti accusing him of being “a vile murderer of Jews,” and the letters “KKK,” referring to the American white supremacist group the Ku Klux Klan.
Golan posted a photo of the defaced billboard on X, writing, “The sign can be vandalized. Hope cannot. In 8 days, hope will defeat hatred. Our response will be at the ballot box.”
The incident comes amid fears of political violence surrounding the October 27 election. In July, President Isaac Herzog warned of “violence rearing its head” during the campaign season, and has repeatedly warned that “elections are not a civil war.”
The potential for physical violence also remained present on Monday. Earlier in the day, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir ordered the military to raise its level of alert ahead of next week’s vote, saying, “The IDF’s mission is to enable the democratic elections to take place on schedule and safely.”
The Democrats filed a petition at the High Court of Justice last month, asking for an interim order requiring the Shin Bet and the government to provide state security for Golan, citing what it described as dozens of threats against him.
את השלט אפשר להשחית. את התקווה אי אפשר. בעוד 8 ימים התקווה תנצח את השנאה.
התשובה שלנו תהיה בקלפי. pic.twitter.com/UbbdTnwICj
— Yair Golan – יאיר גולן (@YairGolan1) October 19, 2026
The High Court later asked Golan to withdraw his petition, saying it “cannot intervene in professional security matters handled by the Shin Bet.”
Spats between the parties continued on Monday, including over a pro-government commentator calling opposition frontrunner Gadi Eisenkot a “monkey” over the weekend. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu touted his recent endorsement from US President Donald Trump, while small parties rebuffed his calls to end their campaigns.
‘We have a job to finish,’ Netanyahu tells Trump, who says PM treated ‘unfairly’
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, has continued to bask in the glow of his endorsement from Trump, thanking the US president over the phone on Monday and stressing that the two leaders have unfinished business in Iran and on the Abraham Accords normalization agreements.
“I’m so grateful for this incredible endorsement,” Netanyahu told Trump in a video posted on his X account, calling the president “an incredible leader of the free world and America, by far the greatest friend Israel has ever had and will have in the White House.”
בשיחה עם ידידי הנשיא טראמפ לאחר שהודיע על תמיכתו בי בבחירות. יחד אנחנו הולכים להסיר את האיום האיראני לתמיד! צאו להצביע מחל! pic.twitter.com/GuPEAPn0Tc
— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) October 19, 2026
“Donald, we have a job to finish [in Iran]…and we’ll finish it together. We’ll finish it, and no one else will do it,” Netanyahu said, apparently speaking from an air force base he visited earlier Monday.
Trump responded that he wrote the endorsement himself, without outside input, telling Netanyahu: “You’re a warrior. You’ve been treated unfairly by your country and probably some others also… But you’re a great warrior, and we will prove that.”
“I think you’re terrific. I was always going to do [the endorsement]. I think you’re going to have a tremendous victory, actually,” Trump said. “You’re the man I want by my side, Bibi.”
Netanyahu added that the two also have work to do in order to expand the Abraham Accords, while declining to name any countries they hope to add to the deal.
Channel 12 poll: No immediate bump for PM from endorsement
A Channel 12 poll taken on Monday, however, found that the endorsement did not provide a bump for the premier, as it showed neither the anti- nor pro-Netanyahu blocs coming close to winning a 61-seat majority in the Knesset.
In fact, the poll saw Eisenkot widening the gap by which he is preferred to Netanyahu as prime minister by two percentage points compared to the same channel’s survey last week. He led 45-33%, though Israel does not hold direct elections for prime minister.
In the poll, the anti-Netanyahu bloc totaled 55 seats in the 120-member Knesset, and the pro-Netanyahu bloc garnered 51, with the balance held by the two Arab parties.
The poll surveyed 507 respondents, with a 4.4% margin of error.
Yashar lashes out at Likud over ‘monkey’ slur, soccer match
Also on Monday, Eisenkot’s Yashar party sent a warning letter to Israel’s Sports Channel, demanding that it prevent the broadcast of electioneering during Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s expected attendance at that night’s soccer match between Beitar Jerusalem and Maccabi Tel Aviv at Jerusalem’s Teddy Stadium.
The party argued that Netanyahu does not regularly attend soccer matches and that his planned appearance, just eight days before the October 27 election, suggests the visit is intended to promote his political campaign.
Yashar called on the broadcaster to instruct its production teams to avoid airing any “speech, greeting, or campaign segment” involving Netanyahu, and to prepare to cut away from such material in real time.
The party stressed that it is not seeking to prevent “legitimate news or sports coverage,” but to ensure that the broadcast is not used for electioneering.
Yashar demanded written confirmation by 3 p.m. that the necessary instructions have been issued, warning that it may petition the Central Elections Committee for an injunction if it believes prohibited election campaigning is likely to be aired.
Later Monday, Yashar posted an AI-generated video depicting Netanyahu eating lobster, which is not kosher, and accusing him of sidelining Mizrahi members of his Likud party during the election campaign.
The video comes after remarks by pro-Netanyahu Channel 14 pundit Yinon Magal, who called Eisenkot a “monkey,” in a remark widely interpreted as a racist slur targeting Eisenkot’s Moroccan and Mizrahi heritage. (Magal denies the remark was racist, saying he was using “monkey” as underworld slang for a mob frontman.)
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
The video featured a song in the style of Mizrahi music, questioning why prominent Mizrahi 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 asked.
The lobster imagery appeared 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 wrote. “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 added, referring to Eisenkot.
Struggling Charedi Public, People of Israel parties vow to stay in race
Moti Leitner, chair of the ultra-Orthodox Charedi Public party, told Channel 12 Monday that he will not bow out of the election after it was reported Sunday that Prime Minister Netanyahu was pushing him to suspend his campaign.
The statement came just before Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz, whose party was at the bottom of polls, announced his decision to withdraw from the race.
Charedi Public has set itself apart from mainstream ultra-Orthodox parties United Torah Judaism and Shas with its relatively moderate stances on IDF enlistment and Haredi education, and by including women on its Knesset slate.
Despite opinion polls consistently showing that Charedi Public will fail to meet the 3.25% electoral threshold necessary to enter the Knesset, Leitner was adamant that the party will continue its campaign, asking, “How can we come to hundreds and thousands of Israelis and tell them, “We’re going to close off your opportunity to bring us your support?'”
He said that despite the polls, he believes Charedi Public could become the “surprise” of election day on October 27, citing the phenomenon of the “shy voters,” who are reluctant or afraid to admit they are voting for his party due to societal pressure and potential retaliation, potentially skewing the results.
Answering those who say that voting for Charedi Public is a wasted vote, Leitner says that “a wasted vote is a vote for United Torah Judaism and Shas. A vote for us is a vote for the future.”
Also vowing to stay in the race until the election was Ofer Winter of the People of Israel party, who said Monday that “we are running to the end.”
People of Israel, which debuted in August, has railed against the government’s effort to enshrine blanket exemptions for Haredim from military service, but has also expressed support for Netanyahu staying in office.
Likud has relentlessly attacked Winter’s party as “fake right,” and recent polls show it falling short of the electoral threshold.
The Times of Israel Community.