Blue and White Chairman MK Benny Gantz has fired an adviser after a recording published on Channel 12 revealed the adviser as warning against a Gantz victory in the elections, since Gantz is "a danger to Israel."
Blue and White said: "[Yisrael] Bachar fell into a planned ambush which included personal exploitation, use of inappropriate means, and fraud - which will be dealt with via the judicial system. The political sources' manipulative involvement will also be revealed soon."
In the meantime, Gantz has decided to immediately end Bachar's involvement in his campaign.
Bachar responded: "As one who has worked with Lieutenant General (Res.) MK Benny Gantz for over a year, I appreciate the opportunity to work in his presence. Gantz is a worthy and moral leader who has contributed much to strengthening the State of Israel's security - as a solder, as a commander, and as the IDF Chief of Staff. He is a leader who knows how to deal with the challenges facing the State of Israel."
"Without getting into details, the incident published is part of a fraud campaign and attempted false pretenses, which reached a record low. There will be time enough to deal with it. In any case, in light of the hurtful recording which harms Lieutenant General (Res.) Gantz's good name, I accept upon myself his decision regarding the end of my employment as part of his campaign staff for the purpose of completing Blue and White's election process, which I have been working towards for the duration of the past year.
"The rest of the details of this despicable act and the ways in which this recording was organized and given to the media will come to light later."
Gantz also spoke with MK Omer Yankelevitch (Blue and White), who was quoted by Bachar as saying that Gantz is "stupid and completely incompetent." Yankelevitch has claimed that she never said such a thing.
The Likud responded: "Gantz fired his close adviser Yisrael Bachar because he told the truth: 'Gantz cannot be prime minister. He is a big zero, he has no courage to attack Iran - Gantz is a danger to Israel's security.'"