The Yisrael Beitenu party, led by former IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, has rejected demands from Likud to remove a campaign video that repurposed the ruling party's classic jingle for critical purposes. Through attorneys Uri Haberman and Adi Marinberg, Eisenkot's party insists the video violates no election law and has no legal basis for removal.
In a statement released Tuesday, the party argued that "Likud's attempt to turn the labeling question into grounds for removing the video is another effort to suppress legitimate political criticism. Political criticism, even when sharp, lies at the heart of political free speech."
The response emphasizes that "these are not questions of tags or labels, but another expression of the gap between today's Likud party and the values it once claimed to represent."
In their formal reply to Likud attorney Ilan Bombach, the party clarifies that accusations of violating labeling requirements for "deepfake" content rest on a false premise. The video comprises authentic documentation of real events, existing publications, and actual footage. No figures, locations, or events were artificially generated, no voice of any Likud representative was used, and no statements were fabricated.
"The gap is not in the label, but in reality itself," the response states. While the jingle accompanying the video was written using AI, a fact explicitly noted, the video itself consists entirely of genuine material. "There is not a single frame created by artificial intelligence. The terrorism, the disasters during Netanyahu's government, the protests against military draft exemptions, and Likud members suspected of crimes, all depict reality as it is. We did not create a false reality or present fabricated documentation; we presented Israel's reality as it exists."
The party expressed particular frustration that Likud, having just completed its primaries, "chooses to engage in a desperate attempt to harm the leading candidate to replace the prime minister, instead of addressing its failures and responsibilities." They noted that Likud's candidate list includes five ministers who served in the security cabinet on October 7th, ministers who opposed ground operations in Gaza, and only two women placed in the top twenty positions. "These are not questions of tags or labels, but another expression of the gap between today's Likud party and the values it once claimed to represent."
Rather than focusing on strengthening the IDF, military recruitment, and security challenges facing Israel, the statement continues, Likud chooses to invest time and energy attempting to harm the leading prime ministerial candidate by any means possible. "This is a desperate attempt to divert discussion from reality and the values gap that has emerged, but the Israeli public deserves better, a governing party that fights for Israel's security, not for erasing criticism against it."
