Golan: Rescue of hostage IDF soldier due to US intervention is Israeli ‘national failure’

The return of hostage Edan Alexander due to American intervention is welcome, says Democrats chair Yair Golan, but it also marks a “diplomatic, political, security and national failure” on the part of the government.

“The Israeli government received the announcement exactly as the public received it – from the media,” says Golan during his party’s weekly faction meeting.

“We congratulate the Alexander family and hope for the immediate return of all the hostages. But with the joy, it is necessary to tell the truth. It is not for nothing that Trump bypassed Netanyahu. Trump understood what millions of Israelis already know: Netanyahu has no intention of returning the abductees or ending the war. The only goal that motivates him is personal survival. Even at the cost of human life.”

“When IDF soldiers are returned from Gaza in an American deal, while neutralizing the Israeli government, it is a diplomatic, political, security and national failure,” he asserts.

“It is mainly an act of neglect for which there is no forgiveness,” says Golan, and asks rhetorically if Israeli hostages who are not US citizens should feel that they are worth less and that they are being “abandoned to die in agony.”

Trump now understands that Netanyahu “is an obstacle to security and the release of the hostages,” he says, asserting that the government’s goal to occupy the Gaza Strip will lead to more deaths and “economic devastation.”

“This war has long since become a political war. This is not a war with security goals. This is a war for political survival. A war for the realization of [Finance Minister Bezalel] Smotrich’s messianic delusions,” Golan continues, calling on IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir to “not allow the army to be used to implement political goals.”