Political Gaffe

Candidate Confuses Minister with Grandfather

Yaya Fink tried to mock Otzma Yehudit's Amichai Eliyahu over his controversial IDF recruitment remarks — but mistakenly attributed them to Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, who passed away 16 years ago.

Gila Isaacson

SEP 16, 2026 13:57

2 min read

Democratic Party candidate Yaya Fink weighed in Wednesday on the controversy surrounding Minister Amichai Eliyahu, who recently stated, "I don't want to draft someone from Kaplan, have him enlist in combat, and then he won't get up to charge forward."

Fink posted a cartoon depicting recruits at a draft office, with Minister Eliyahu asking them: "Kaplanist or Kahanist?" But Fink made an embarrassing error, writing: "If they win, this is the plan of Mordechai Eliyahu from Otzma Yehudit, as exposed yesterday."

Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu is Amichai's grandfather and passed away approximately 16 years ago.

Tuesday evening, Minister Eliyahu addressed the controversy, stating: "I know very well what it means to wear a uniform and go out to defend the state. I know what it's like to charge forward with a MAG, with friends from the kibbutz beside you, religious, secular, Sephardic, Ashkenazi, all brothers."

"Anyone who was at the conference knows full well that I wasn't talking about everyone who protested at Kaplan. I was talking about the fact that there's no obligation (nor is it even effective) to forcibly draft that small extremist handful who called for refusal, threatened not to report for reserve duty, and dismantled trust within Israeli society on the eve of October seventh," he added.