Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is responding to the storm that Yashar Party Chairman Gadi Eisenkot stirred up when, in an interview with Channel 13, he compared the public relations man, Israeli patriot Yosef Haddad, to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mansour Abbas.
Netanyahu said in a video he posted: "I heard and was amazed. Eisenkot is trying to justify the fact that he intends to go with Mansour Abbas and form a government that depends on the Arab parties. So to justify it, he says, 'Netanyahu is ready to go with Yosef Haddad.'".
He attacked Eisenkot: "What a terrible comparison. Yosef Haddad is an Israeli hero. He was wounded in Lebanon, he was disabled by the IDF, he fought on the propaganda fronts like a tiger for the State of Israel. The exact opposite of Mansour Abbas, who denies the existence of the State of Israel. He supports Hamas, he received tens of billions of shekels from the left-wing government for Hamas.".
""So Gadi, for a change you told the truth. You are willing to go with Mansour Abbas, and you must go with him and the Arab parties, otherwise there is no government. I will form a broad national government with everyone who recognizes the State of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people. That is the whole difference between us.".
Eisenkot claimed in an interview that "Likud, with its cynicism, is signing Yosef Haddad as a Knesset member today. He doesn't say, he's an Arab, I won't sit with him. And so this is Netanyahu's method of divide and rule. To take 21% of Israel's Arab citizens out of the camp.".
In response, Yosef Haddad published a response in which he attacked Eisenkot. "I tried to understand the context and repeated his answer several times. I admit - I was unable to understand and was even surprised by it," he said.
Haddad wondered: "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?"
""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.".
