Gadi Eisenkot caused a stir after he was asked in an interview with Channel 13 whether he ruled out a coalition partnership with Ra'am Chairman Mansour Abbas.
Eisenkot replied that he does not rule out and compared an Arab with the heat of the IDF and an Israeli patriot with someone who refuses to condemn Hamas: "The Likud, with its cynicism, is signing Yosef Haddad as a Knesset member today. He does not say, he is an Arab, I will not sit with him. And therefore this is Netanyahu's method of 'divide and rule.' To exclude 21% of the Arab citizens of Israel from the camp.".
In response, the public relations activist Yosef Haddad published a response in which he attacked Eisenkot's words. "Are you comparing me to Mansour Abbas because we are both Arabs? After all, apart from the Arab identity, we have nothing in common. You are Golenchik, Gadi - so am I. So are you comparing Golenchik, a disabled IDF soldier, to someone who is incapable of calling Hamas a terrorist organization? Are you comparing me, who founded an Arab-Israeli non-profit organization that advocates for partnership and does advocacy for the state, to Mansour Abbas, whose party is connected to the 48 Aid non-profit organization that, according to published investigations, transferred funds to terrorist organizations, including Hamas?""
He emphasized: "There is nothing that connects me with Mansour Abbas and no one will try to whitewash and legalize him on my back... I strongly oppose the path of the Arab parties, I believe that we should not sit with them - we should throw them out.".
Haddad also addressed his political future, saying that he is still considering entering political life, but has not yet made a decision.
""The Arab parties in the Knesset today should be boycotted. Not because they are Arabs, I am an Arab - but because they are anti-Israeli. And boycotting the Arab parties is not racism. Saying that I and Mansour Abbas are the same because we are Arabs - it is.".
Media personality Yinon Magal wrote: "Hello Gadi Eisenkot. Differentiating between Yosef Haddad and Mansour Abbas is not racism. Saying that all Arabs are the same is racism. And even if you say like a parrot, 'This is Netanyahu's divide-and-rule method,' it won't help.".
