Netanyahu: "The video about Eizenkot? I didn't see it. Why isn't there focus on the death threats against Sara and Yair?"
The Prime Minister said he "only heard about the reactions" to the video he published himself, in which Gadi Eizenkot is seen running to hug a young man, and at the last moment deviates to hug Mansour Abbas. The young man reminded many of Eizenkot's son who fell in the war; the PM stated: "It is better not to engage in bereavement; if it were the other way around, you would have paralyzed the country."
In the shadow of the storm surrounding the AI video by the Likud party against candidate for prime minister Gadi Eizenkot, a "senior political source" who spoke with reporters in Washington on the sidelines of Benjamin Netanyahu's visit, said on Wednesday that the prime minister "has not seen this video to this day."
According to the source, the prime minister only "heard the reactions," and he believes that "it is better not to engage in bereavement from any direction." The same source expressed resentment that there is no focus on the death threats against the prime minister, his wife Sara, and his son Yair:
"If it were the other way around, you would have paralyzed the country. Take this seriously."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Likud party published a video last week created using artificial intelligence against Eizenkot, chairman of the "Yashar!" party, who is emerging as the main candidate for prime minister in the camp opposing Netanyahu. The video caused a storm online, as it shows Eizenkot running with open arms toward a young man presented as a symbol of "Israeli unity," but at the last moment, he shifts his path and chooses to hug the chairman of Ra'am, Mansour Abbas.
Following the publication, many users claimed that the young man's figure resembles Gal Eizenkot, Gadi Eizenkot's son, who fell in battle in the Gaza Strip. This interpretation led to sharp criticism, even though the video itself did not state that it was Gal Eizenkot.
On the same afternoon, Likud and Netanyahu published a new video in an attempt to minimize damage. That video was very similar to the previous one, only the young man was replaced by the figure of a woman. Netanyahu wrote: "There is a shocking attempt by extremists online to create false conspiracy theories with the goal of hiding the simple truth - Gadi Eizenkot has no government without the Arab parties and Yair Golan." His advisor, Yonatan Urich, who distributed it, added: "For the removal of any doubt."
