From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, May 20, 2025
Golan says baby killer comments aimed at government, not hero IDF soldiers
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"
Defending himself from widespread criticism over his comment that Israel was killing babies in Gaza “as a hobby,” The Democrats chairman Yair Golan praises IDF fighters as “heroes” fighting on behalf of a “corrupt” government.
“We have already tried Gantz’s method of flattering Netanyahu, Smotrich, and Ben Gvir and it failed,” Golan tweets, following a torrent of condemnations from both the coalition and his fellow opposition party leaders.
National Unity chairman Benny Gantz — who following October 7 joined the coalition to serve in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war cabinet before resigning and rejoining the opposition — called on Golan “to retract and apologize” to the troops on Tuesday morning.
“The meaning of my words was clear: This war is the realization of the fantasies of Ben Gvir and Smotrich and if we allow them to put this into action, we will become a pariah state. It is time for us to have a backbone of hardened steel, we must stand up for our values as a Zionist, Jewish and democratic state,” Golan argues.
“IDF fighters are heroes; government ministers are corrupt. The IDF is ethical, and the people are upright; the government is crooked. The war must be ended, the hostages returned, and Israel rehabilitated.”
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