Money time of filth: how the election campaign is turning into an arena of lies and incitement
As the elections approach, public discourse in Israel is sinking to a new low: from dangerous incitement against Gadi Eisenkot to the blurring of the basic facts of the October 7 failure, hatred and fear are once again taking center stage. It is going to be especially dirty. We will postpone the work of rebuilding Israel to other days.
Two and a half months until the elections. One week until the Likud primaries, and in less than a month the lists for the Knesset close. We are entering the 'money time' phase. The phase of filth, blood libels, and madness. You will need a lot of resilience to get through this period. And it happens every day. After they told us on Channel 14 that Gadi Eisenkot is just a fool, an idiot, stupid, doesn't read books, doesn't know English, and 'loves Arabs,' this morning there was an escalation in the filth—another dangerous stage in the incitement against Eisenkot. Yinon Magal, in his program on Radio 103, is already stating that all of Israel's enemies want Gadi Eisenkot as prime minister. Hamas, Iran, the Palestinian Authority, Turkey—all of them want Eisenkot and not Benjamin Netanyahu. Forget the big lie; days will come when the moves that Qatar made in Israeli politics will be investigated.
This incitement is seeping into society and doing its work. Last week I hosted the program 'Conversations with Listeners' on Radio 103. It is a real seismograph for me. People call into the broadcast from the north to the south, from Nahariya to Beersheba, and talk about all the issues. Most of the issues are 'yes Bibi' or 'no Bibi.' A lot about the October 7 massacre, and the rest are the daily news topics. A listener from Netanya called with a lot of complaints against Eisenkot and suddenly burst into a string of curses against him. Before I took him off the air, he still managed to scream: 'May the name and memory of Gadi Eisenkot be blotted out.' The rotten fruits of incitement. Eisenkot, who grew up in the tough neighborhoods of Eilat and Tiberias, who made the whole way alone, by his own strength, without connections, from Golani to the Chief of Staff, who lost his beloved son Gal in the war and two nephews, is now being cursed with 'may his name and memory be blotted out.'
Two things drive people to the polls, and they are always effective: hatred and fear. Natan Eshel, who was a close confidant of Netanyahu for generations and was attached to him and Sara in many election campaigns, was once recorded saying: 'Hatred unites our camp. The non-Ashkenazi public hates everything.' And Netanyahu is a master at instilling hatred and fueling fear. Every time it is someone else. This time it is Gadi Eisenkot. It is much harder for him because it is not easy to hate a bereaved father, a Golani soldier, a Chief of Staff, but Netanyahu and his 'shofars' (mouthpieces) work hard at it.
Netanyahu did everything to dim the October 7 massacre. He refused government participation in the anniversary ceremonies, which were held by civilian bodies. He tried to change the name from the October 7 War to the War of Revival. It didn't work for him. He prevented with his body the establishment of a state commission of inquiry so that he would not be stained with responsibility for the huge failure, the disaster, and the massacre. He tried and succeeded in pushing the elections to the last day. But it won't help him. In these elections, the terrible massacre—about 1,200 people murdered in one day, 251 people, babies, children, elderly, women, and soldiers kidnapped to Gaza, tens of thousands of wounded, settlements conquered and destroyed—all of this stands and will stand at the center of the election campaign.
Because of this, we are in a stage of blatant lies. If you have time and want to smile a sad smile, look at the videos that Likud candidates for the primaries are producing these days. Short videos in which most of them tell about our 'tremendous victories' in the last war. From Israel Katz, a 'right-wing defense minister' with a charming smile, to the rest of the candidates who boast of absolute victories over our enemies. Forget that the picture is far from true.
We are at a stage where there is no value to the truth. Truth in many cases becomes a lie, and the lie becomes truth. 'Alternative truth.' This concept is identified with the Trump administration and was born in January 2017 by Kellyanne Conway, who defended incorrect data provided by the White House regarding the number of people who attended President Trump's inauguration. Since then, this concept has become a symbol of the 'post-truth' era. And if it happens in the USA, it immediately reaches us in Israel.
We are in the 'post-truth' era. Already now, ministers and MKs in Likud are telling you fairy tales about what happened on October 7. And the fans listen and quote. You surely know this. In this era, Netanyahu is not at all responsible for the October 7 massacre; everyone is responsible except him. Even the father of Shani Louk, who last week in Jerusalem reproached Minister Miri Regev for how she dares to celebrate, was told by one of the activists that he is responsible for the disaster. He, whose daughter's body was dragged in an open vehicle in the streets of Gaza.
Two and a half months until the elections, and it is going to be especially hot, dirty, and even stinking. We will postpone the work of rebuilding Israel to other days.
