Updated

With Israel's election roughly 11 days away, pro-Netanyahu Channel 14 pundit Yinon Magal sparked outrage on October 17-18, 2026 by calling former IDF chief Gadi Eisenkot a 'Moroccan monkey' controlled by Ashkenazi elites, drawing comparisons to a notorious 1981 slur against Likud voters; Magal said he meant 'puppet,' not a racial jab. Separately, opposition leaders Naftali Bennett and Avigdor Liberman outlined plans to pass laws against Netanyahu immediately after the election, including replacing the Knesset speaker and imposing term limits, while Netanyahu urged turnout among his base. The controversy and political jockeying unfold alongside warnings from economists about Israel's fiscal strain from years of war, debate over Netanyahu's push for security chiefs to reveal what they know about October 7, Arab states' expectations that hawkish policies will persist regardless of the outcome, and criticism of Netanyahu's growing use of podcasts for political messaging.