Condemning ‘messianic’ politics, Yair Golan pledges to ‘unify all leftist parties’
Bemoaning ‘corruption of the political echelons,’ candidate for Labor party chairman calls to remove ultra-Orthodox, ‘messianic’ National Religious parties from government
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Pledging to unite the Israeli left, former IDF deputy chief of staff Yair Golan launched a full-throated attack on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his ultra-Orthodox allies and “messianic” Zionism on Thursday, during one of his first campaign appearances after announcing his candidacy for leader of the Labor party.
As a senior IDF commander “I saw the deterioration of Israeli society and the corruption of the political echelons,” he told listeners during an online parlor meeting organized by anti-Netanyahu protest group UnXeptable.
Recalling what he described as his “visionary” 2016 speech — in which he appeared to compare right-wingers to Nazis — Golan argued that the situation in Israel was “so terrible” that he felt compelled to enter politics.
“I swore to reestablish the Zionist left in Israel and today I’m going to run in the primaries for the Labor party to unify all leftist parties in Israel, all members of the protest movement who are willing to fight for the destiny of Israel, for Israel as a democratic liberal state,” he continued, speaking in English.
Golan declared his candidacy for head of Labor last month after the party announced the date of its upcoming primary to replace lame duck leader Merav Michaeli, as the once-dominant but now marginal, left-wing movement struggles to revitalize itself.
A former IDF Northern Front and Home Front commander, Golan, 61, now a general in the reserves, was passed over for the position of IDF chief of staff in 2018 as a result of his 2016 speech — in which he likened processes being seen in Israel to what he said were similar “disturbing processes” that took place in Europe in the run-up to the Holocaust.
He served as deputy economy minister during the shortlived multi-party coalition led by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, then made a failed bid for the leadership of Meretz ahead of the last elections.
On October 7, the retired general headed to the front line of the Hamas onslaught on his own initiative and rescued many partygoers fleeing the attack on the Supernova music festival, with his bravery garnering him praise from across the political spectrum.
After taking over the party from Amir Peretz in 2021, Michaeli increased Labor’s representation in the Knesset to seven seats, but the improvement in its standing was short-lived and, under her leadership, Labor shrank to the Knesset minimum of four seats in the November 2022 election.
Her decision not to join forces with Meretz was seen as contributing to the latter party’s failure to enter the Knesset, to the detriment of the bloc of parties opposed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Repeated polls have shown Labor failing to make it into the Knesset in the next elections.
Doubling down on his criticism of the far-right, Golan claimed that messianic politicians constituted “the most threatening element in Israeli society for the existence of Israel.”
“The minute you adopt a messianic approach you are not Zionist,” he said.
“Zionism was about a homeland for the Jewish people and at the same time a free democratic, egalitarian state. They don’t want freedom, they don’t want equality, they don’t want democracy — so they are not Zionists.”
“I believe that cooperating with Netanyahu is wrong. I don’t understand why Benny Gantz is still in the government. I don’t understand why Gadi Eisenkot is still in the government,” Golan continued, referring to the leaders of the centrist National Unity party, which entered the government at the beginning of the war.
“We cannot start the recovery process for Israeli society as long as Benjamin Netanyahu is in power. We cannot start it as long as Itamar Ben Gvir is a minister, as [long as] Bezalel Smotrich is a minister, as [long as] Orit Strock is a minister.”
Ben Gvir is the leader of the ultra-nationalist Otzma Yehudit party to which Strock belongs while Smotrich leads the far-right Religious Zionism party.
Turning to Netanyahu’s ultra-Orthodox partners in the Shas and United Torah Judaism parties, Golan said that it is imperative that they be pushed out of the government.
And while he described the Haredim as “my brothers and sisters,” Golan insisted that most Israelis had “no intention to fight and die for you [while you do nothing]” — a reference to the draft exemptions granted to most young ultra-Orthodox men.
Almost half a year after October 7, the government has failed to set forth any “realistic goals” for its war in Gaza, Golan further stated, asserting that Israel could not both destroy Hamas and free its citizens being held captive by the terrorist group.
“Now Benjamin Netanyahu says that we want to destroy Hamas entirely and at the same time free all the hostages. I believe that all of us do understand that it’s impossible. You need to choose. You need to define priorities,” he said.
The first priority must be to return Israeli captives, which necessarily entails “some sort of an agreement with Hamas,” he said. “And we won’t be able to reach any agreement with Hamas without stopping the fighting.”
Golan argued that Israel needed to “isolate the Gaza Strip from any external military support” — possibly by way of an American force along the so-called Philadelphi Route in the Gaza Strip, which runs for 14 kilometers (8.7 miles) along the enclave’s border with Egypt — while retaining freedom of action in the coastal enclave.
At the same time, the only “reasonable solution” for civilian governance remains to enlist “the support of external regional forces like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the Emirates — and that could only be done by bringing into the Gaza Strip some elements of the Palestinian Authority,” he said.
“So when Benjamin Netanyahu says that [he has] no intention to let the Palestinian Authority enter the Gaza Strip, first I would like to ask why? What is the problem? Have you found up to now more moderate elements of the Palestinians,” he asked.
“I don’t think so. And secondly, do you believe that any nation on earth will take responsibility for the Gaza Strip without some sort of legitimacy provided by the Palestinian Authority?”
“So, all in all, you can understand that up till now Israel has no intention to finish the war, Israel has no vision to finish the war,” he stated. “So think about it. We are almost half a year after the eruption of the war and there are no prospects and no hope for a better situation. We are stuck.”
