Magal calls Eisenkot "monkey" on air, sparking election storm

Yinon Magal calls Eisenkot a monkey (Screenshot: Channel 14)

Three days after the Galia Albin affair, a storm is breaking in the opposite direction. Channel 14's Patriots host Yinon Magal called Yesh Atid chairman Gadi Eisenkot "a monkey operated by Ashkenazim" during a live broadcast.

The remark, ten days before the election, could cost Likud votes in the same way Dudu Topaz's "chach-chachim" slur decided the 1981 race.

Yesh Atid is already calling the statement racist, arguing that the word "monkey" was meant to humiliate Eisenkot solely because he is Mizrahi.

Eisenkot responded tonight in a campaign speech: "Yinon Magal said I'm a monkey operated by Ashkenazim ... The problem is not Yinon Magal but the man standing behind [him]. We will bring change to this country, we will remove the phenomenon of Magalism and Bardugoism from our lives and bring a better country."

Yisrael Beiteinu MK Rafi BenShtrit responded to Magal: "Just when we thought the Magal trumpet had hit rock bottom, it turns out there's another level below. To call an IDF chief of staff who is a bereaved father by the name 'monkey' is the peak of distilled and abhorrent racism, the product of the stench of Netanyahu's propaganda lickers. Magal's words are further proof of Netanyahu and his spokesmen's complete loss of direction and composure."

"On October 27 we will remove Netanyahu and his partners from power and take the State of Israel on a new path, a path of repair and hope."