Golan: Israel should deprive ‘woke’ critics of ammunition by adhering to liberal values

Yair Golan, chair of the left-wing Democrats party, says at an election event for English speakers that Israel should deprive its “woke” and progressive critics of “ammunition” by adhering to “liberal democratic values.”

At the event hosted by the Tel Aviv International Salon, Golan, a former deputy IDF chief, relates in English many of his party’s central pledges, such as ending military service exemptions for the ultra-Orthodox, separating religion and state, curbing settler violence, seeking a diplomatic solution to the “Palestinian problem” and rallying Saudi Arabia and other “moderate” Arab states against Iran.

During a question-and-answer period, one attendee asks Golan how he would work with US Democratic politicians like New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed, who are vocal opponents of Israel.

Golan responds that “there is no need to work with anyone.” British-born Lt. Col. (res.) Peter Lerner, who previously served in the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit and is moderating the event, corrects him, “everyone.”

“Not with everyone,” Golan continues.

But Golan adds, “It’s a wider question, where are we heading. If Israel will be perceived as an extreme nation… a kind of theocratical country — well, the minute we do that, we disconnect our ties with the West.”

As “the homeland of all the Jewish people,” Golan says, “in order to keep our destiny, in order to keep our mission… we need to be with the West, and we need to preserve and to enforce these liberal democratic values.”

He adds that in the military he felt a close kinship with his US counterparts because “we truly felt at that time that we are together, we are the vanguard of the democratic world.”

“So yes, we can work with Democrats and Republicans,” Golan says.

He adds, “I know there is the ‘woke’ and ‘progressive’ and… all kinds of figures that are truly very negative from (an) Israeli perspective,” Golan says. “We should not give them… more and more ammunition from day to day.”