menu_open Columnists
We use cookies to provide some features and experiences in QOSHE

More information  .  Close

Eisenkot hits back as Netanyahu’s Likud takes aim at his English-language skills

92 0
11.06.2026

Yashar party chairman Gadi Eisenkot hit back on Wednesday at an attack campaign led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, which has repeatedly charged that Eisenkot will rely on Arab parties to build a coalition if he wins the election later this year, and also mocked him for his English.

Eisenkot blasted the “racist” attack on him in an interview, and questioned how the prime minister’s English skills had helped Israel on October 7, 2023.

The campaign unfolding against Eisenkot online appeared to be orchestrated, at least in part, by senior Netanyahu aide Jonatan Urich, who is a key suspect in several ongoing police investigations and who is set to be charged with security offenses.

Most of the posts published by Urich and Likud have been short video clips, some featuring AI-generated content depicting Eisenkot with the leaders of Hadash-Ta’al and Ra’am, proclaiming: “There is no Gadi without the Arabs.”

The post that garnered the most attention, however, was a 51-second compilation video comparing Eisenkot’s English-language skills to Netanyahu’s. The video was published by Urich on June 8 with the caption “Want to know where his English is from?” — a reference to a well-known TV ad for English-language lessons. It was not shared on official Likud social media accounts.

The video features snippets from various speeches given by Netanyahu on the international stage — at the United Nations and in Congress — interspersed with footage from a single, undated speech delivered by Eisenkot in the US, in which he speaks English somewhat awkwardly, with a thick Israeli accent.

Netanyahu attended high school in........

© The Times of Israel