From the Liveblog of
Monday, October 12, 2026
Golan warns PM will not accept election loss, waging disinformation campaign to manipulate voters
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Democrats leader Yair Golan says that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not accept the results of the October 27 election if he loses, and warns that Likud’s so-called “poison machine” will intensify efforts to manipulate voters.
“We know with certainty that he will not accept the election results. In the coming days, the poison machine will operate with unprecedented force, in the hysteria of its final days, in a desperate attempt to manipulate public opinion before, during and after the election,” Golan tells the “Law and Lies” conference in Tel Aviv.
“We will hear conspiracies about the Central Elections Committee, malicious rumors about fabricated election fraud intended to destroy the legitimacy of the democratic outcome in advance,” he says.
Golan accuses Netanyahu and his allies of operating a “planned, ruthless, well-funded and hierarchical” disinformation campaign directed from the Prime Minister’s Office to manipulate voters and, where that fails, suppress their turnout.
“They have created a reality in which the corrupt man is the victim and the patriot who goes out to defend his home is the traitor,” he says, adding that the goal is “to wear us down, to make us think that everything is corrupt, that there is no point in fighting and everyone is a liar. They want you to be afraid, remain silent and stay home.”
Golan says that if his political bloc forms the next government, it will require tech companies to disclose who finances influence campaigns and expose those operating networks of bots, fake profiles and online hate.
He vows to impose legal liability on social media platforms for facilitating incitement, foreign influence campaigns and online abuse, saying they should face consequences similar to those imposed in Europe.
“We will lead an aggressive and uncompromising defensive democracy that does not allow its domestic enemies to destroy it from within under the false guise of freedom of expression,” he says. “Freedom of expression does not mean freedom to incite or freedom to destroy.”
The Times of Israel Community.