Yair Golan, who now heads The Democrats, the Jewish political party that was forged out of a combination of the Labor Party and Meretz, has been much in the news for the foolish comment he made about Israel killing babies as a hobby, a comment we covered yesterday.
Golan is a serious and accomplished person, and he knows that what he was said not true. Why he allowed himself to say something like that, on the radio, at a time when he needs to be building his political base and not eroding it, I cannot begin to explain.
But the comment caused shock waves in Israel and did him no political help (though polls show that at least as of now, the blowback has cost him only one seat in projected Knesset election results, and that the opposition under Naftali Bennet would still be able to topple the government without Arab or Haredi parties, though not by much).
In fairness to Golan, though, people deserve to know about him not just for that comment, but for his personality and commitments in general. Golan, who is an accomplished soldier, a genuine hero, and who has devoted his entire life to the State of Israel, made a statement clarifying what he either meant or wished he’d said. In fairness to him, it felt important to share that, too.
The video of his comments, to which we’ve added subtitles for our readers, is above. We’ll come back to Golan’s statement below, though for those who may not read to the end, I will say this up front:
One can agree with him, one can disagree. One can plan to vote for him, or plan on voting for someone else.
Still, one particular statement of his struck a chord with me and with many others I know—his comment that there’s a sad and enraging irony about the fact that it is Smotrich and Ben Gvir, both of whom are essentially draft dodgers, who are pushing to keep the war going.
As the father of a reservist who has been called up more than once in this war, I need to know (and so does he, when he leaves his wife and children) that whoever is calling him back to battle is doing so because they believe that it is genuinely what Israel needs, and not what will serve their own political (some would say racist) agendas.
Many of us parents, and many of those reservists, no longer have that confidence. Our sons and daughters are increasingly pawns in a dangerous game that someone else is playing for a variety of likely self-serving purposes. On that score alone, Yair Golan’s comments probably struck a chord even with many who have no plans to vote for him.
More on Golan below.
In the meantime, though, more about yesterday’s point regarding the growing absence of moderation in Israeli political discourse. We pointed yesterday to two examples of statements that reflect the kind of hyperbole and nastiness that Israel simply cannot afford at this junction—Golan’s comment about babies, and Yehudah Schlessinger’s remark that there are no innocent Gazan’s, and they should thus all be killed.
Lest one imagine that those were each a one-off, we return to the same phenomenon today, simply because yesterday’s news afforded more of this, and it’s important to understand what’s brewing in order to understand where we may be headed.
We’ve been here before, of course. In the latter months of the judicial reform period, which Hamas brought to an end when it slaughtered 1200 Israelis and dragged us into a war we did not want and for which we were obviously horribly unprepared, the vitriol had gotten so bad that President Herzog had already warned that Israelis were likely going to shed the blood of other Israelis, while Ari Shavit warned that a country so divided was begging to be invaded.
Shavit was tragically proven right. Herzog’s warning, which he has repeated again much more recently, has, thankfully, not yet come true (though several police officers have now been charged with using excess violence against protesters and then seeking to corrupt the investigations of their behavior). But this fraught period of political divide is far from over, and thus there is tragically much time remaining for Herzog’s warning about Israelis killing Israelis to come true.
Is that what it will take to get people to come back to their senses?
Just yesterday, the government itself had to address two other examples of extreme or even libelous comments by its own members.
One of the instances actually took place more than a year ago, but was finally ruled on by the Knesset Ethics Committee
As you can read in the ToI article and screenshot above, Likud MK Nissim Vaturi called in late 2023 and early 2024 for Israel to “burn Gaza.” Some would obviously say that that’s more or less what happened, but he meant something wider than what’s happened, and other MK’s promptly complained.
As you can see, the Knesset Ethics Committee ruled that his comments were protected by his right to express his political ideology, though the Committee also did belabor the obvious, noting that the remarks brought no dignity to the Knesset.
Of course, MK’s not contributing to the dignified reputation of the Knesset is not exactly a new story.
Then there’s the latest case of Israel’s Ambassador to the US saying that the “extreme left,” which is accusing Netanyahu of prolonging the war for political purposes, was committing a “blood libel.”
There were many things wrong with the comment made by Leiter, who is by most accounts, a decent fellow. The purpose of the “poison machine” (as it’s commonly called in Israel and about which we’ll hear more tomorrow in our podcast with a Shira Eting, a former combat helicopter pilot who also headed the protest movement in 2023) is to discount anyone who disagrees with the government by suggesting that they are enemies of the Zionist project, or liars, etc. Thus, anything “left” or “center” in Israel is now called “extreme left,” to suggest that it is non-Zionist or anti-Zionist.
But who is it who actually thinks that Bibi is prolonging the war? Is it just the “extreme left”? No. Actually, it’s most of the country, it turns out. And Leiter knows that, which is why the government is panicking and why its representatives are pressing all the buttons on the “poison machine.” Note the bottom right story in the TOI screenshot above.
Recent surveys indicate that a significant majority of Israelis believe Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is prolonging the war for political purposes. According to a July 2024 poll by N12 (Channel 12), 54% of Israelis attribute the continuation of the war primarily to political motivations. Another Channel 12 survey found that 55% of respondents believe Netanyahu’s main goal is staying in power rather than winning the war or freeing hostages. Additionally, 59% of respondents in a Channel 12 survey believe that Netanyahu’s handling of the hostages issue is driven by "political considerations.”
While the exact wording and timing of each poll may differ, these results consistently suggest that a clear majority—over half—of Israelis believe Netanyahu is prolonging the war for political reasons.
So first, the characterization of the view as being that of the “extreme left” was grossly inexact, when in fact, it’s actually a minority of the country that believes otherwise.
And second, as Yechiel Leiter knows very well, “blood libels” were accusations against Jews that often led to Jews’ being slaughtered. What, exactly, was he trying to say when he used that term? What he trying to excuse something that he suspects may be coming?
The Foreign Ministry, which has summoned him to explain, will likely find out. Or not. What the ramifications will be for Leiter, of course, we pretty much already know.
Which brings us back to Yair Golan’s statement above. One can agree with his politics, or not. If one is an Israeli citizen, one can vote for him, or not. But what the country needs is for everyone to begin casting even those they disagree with in the best possible light, not the most negative.
Yair Golan is a serious person who said something he shouldn’t have. And it took him too long to walk it back. Ok, duly noted. But he’s much bigger and much more thoughtful than the comment to which we pointed yesterday, which is why in the video above, we’re exposing the more measured Golan to our readers.
TUESDAY: Shira Eting is a former helicopter pilot, a leader of the anti-judicial reform protest movement (during which she figured prominently in a much discussed 60 Minutes interview) and recently shared some powerful thought online about this past Independence Day. I reached out to her to ask her to share her sentiments with us, which she did.
WEDNESDAY: Many people have heard of “Wingate,” the sports facility where many of Israel’s finest athletes train. But why is it called Wingate? Who was he? We’ll hear about the extraordinary story of British officer Charles Orde Wingate, his fascinating and complex personality and a unique period in Zionist history.
And….. What makes life here so compelling, despite all of this, are the stories of people who are very different, who represent the very best of who we can be. Coming soon, the story of a female combat soldier, badly wounded on Passover, and her thoughts on her condition and her service.
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