Yair Golan: NYT expose proves Netanyahu and allies ‘dragging entire country into the abyss’

Sam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. 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"

Leader of the Democrats party Yair Golan at a faction meeting at the Knesset on July 7, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Leader of the Democrats party Yair Golan at a faction meeting at the Knesset on July 7, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The New York Times’ recent exposé on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proves that the premier and his far-right coalition allies are “dragging [the] entire country into the abyss,” The Democrats chairman Yair Golan declares.

“The New York Times investigation only reinforces what everyone already knows: Netanyahu, Smotrich, and Ben Gvir are preventing a deal to survive politically. The lives of hostages and soldiers are less important to them than their positions,” Golan tweets.

“They are an extreme minority dragging an entire country into the abyss. They are once again derailing the deal. To save lives and the country, the government must be brought down,” he adds.

According to the report, Netanyahu deliberately extended the Gaza war to serve his own political goals of rehabilitating his domestic image and staying in power.

Among the actions listed in the report were Netanyahu’s shelving of a Gaza truce deal that would have secured the release of at least 30 hostages due to a threat by far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to bring down the government. He also allegedly derailed a White House effort to secure Israeli-Saudi normalization conditional on ending the Gaza war due to opposition by National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.

Netanyahu’s office has denied the report, claiming that it “defames Israel, its brave people and soldiers, and its prime minister.”

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