Former Israeli Air Force chief Nimrod Sheffer joins Golan’s Democrats party

23 May 2025, 10:29 pm

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Brig. Gen Nimrod Sheffer, chief of the Israel Defense Forces Planning Directorate, speaks at the Jerusalem Post Diplomatic Conference, held at David Citadel hotel in Jerusalem on December 11, 2014. (Miriam Alster /Flash90)

Former Israeli Air Force Chief Nimrod Sheffer announced yesterday that he has decided to join Yair Golan’s left-wing The Democrats party.

“I am joining The Democrats today because it is a party with a backbone and public courage. The party that is leading the most determined struggle against the government and offers a path and real hope for Israel,” Sheffer said in a video announcement.

“Yesterday I heard the prime minister — a corrupt, failed man, who brought upon Israel the worst disaster in its history — declare that he does not accept the High Court of Justice ruling,” he said, referring to the decision that found Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s firing of Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar to have been “unlawful” and that barred the premier from involvement in selecting Bar’s successor.

In a dramatic denouement of a bitter fight between the government and the judiciary, the High Court of Justice ruled on Wednesday that the cabinet’s decision to fire Bar was made “improperly,” “unlawfully,” and while Netanyahu had a conflict of interest due to the ongoing Shin Bet investigations into his close aides.

יאיר, אני איתך. pic.twitter.com/Wk3oUf7XUv

— Nimrod Sheffer – נמרוד שפר (@NimrodSheffer) May 22, 2025

“I heard how the man who built Hamas and is unable to defeat it, incites against an IDF general who demonstrated courage in battle and continues to demonstrate a Zionist and moral backbone in politics. I understood that we must turn the protest into a political struggle,” Sheffer said, referring to Netanyahu’s criticism of Golan, who said Israel’s government was killing babies in Gaza “as a hobby.”

In addition to heading the air force, Sheffer held senior positions in the IDF’s General Staff and was CEO of Israel Aerospace Industries.

Earlier this week, Sheffer posted another video defending Golan, characterizing as “brave and worthy of this moment” the interview The Democrats chief gave to the Kan public broadcaster during which he said, “Israel is on the way to becoming a pariah state, like South Africa was, if we don’t return to acting like a sane country… A sane country does not fight against civilians, does not kill babies as a hobby, and does not give itself the aim of expelling populations.”

“The IDF is killing a lot of people in this war. When there is a larger goal and it is required, then it is part of the price of war, as hard and sad as that is,” Sheffer said.

“But when a black flag flies above this war and it doesn’t have aims that are possible to achieve, the price of the deaths of just so many innocent civilians — among them thousands of children — is simply an unacceptable one that we must not be willing to pay,” he added, while noting that Golan shouldn’t have used the word “hobby” and was sure he hadn’t meant to.