A recent Israeli strike in Syria, close to the Turkish border, has deepened Democrats chairman Yair Golan’s concerns over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security decision-making during an election campaign.
“Netanyahu is interested in creating a security crisis because of political interests,” Golan said. “I can see it happening before our eyes. It could give him an excuse to delay the election or disrupt it.” Golan said he believes Netanyahu has no red line when it comes to using national security for political or personal purposes. “Anyone who thinks Netanyahu, Smotrich and Ben-Gvir intend to simply give up power or accept the election results because they understand what democracy is does not understand who we are dealing with. A security situation could even lead Netanyahu to postpone the election. We cannot afford to be naive anymore.”
“We have to prepare for attempts to sabotage the democratic process and make sure that even after the results are in, there will be no question marks. The victory has to be clear,” he said. Asked whether he truly believed Netanyahu could interfere with the election, Golan said there was “a real concern” that such attempts could be made.
“The delegitimization of the judicial system and the Central Elections Committee, which oversees Israel’s elections, has already begun,” he said. “The coming election is Israel’s second war of independence. I am convinced Netanyahu will do everything he can to undermine the integrity of the election and challenge its legitimacy if the result is not to his liking. Our task is to bring as many people as possible to the polls and create such a large, clear and unequivocal result that no one will be able to question the will of the voters.”
No coalition with Likud
Golan was equally dismissive of the Likud slate chosen in this week’s party primaries. “There is nothing new there,” he said. “This is the party responsible for the October 7 massacre, the plundering of the public purse, the judicial overhaul and the destruction of Israel’s standing in the world. It has lost the right to lead the country. The people responsible for those failures should occupy the opposition benches with as few seats as possible.”
He also ruled out forming a unity government with Likud even if Netanyahu were no longer its leader. “No,” he said. “And I am a little surprised by the question. Is Israel Katz not responsible for the failure? Is he not responsible for the corruption and destruction of public norms? Is Dudi Amsalem not responsible? Miri Regev? Why do we so casually strip Netanyahu of legitimacy but absolve the partners who helped him?”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
(Photo: AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg, Pool)
“The only thing required of us in the opposition is zero compromise on this issue,” Golan said. “Anyone who gave a hand to Jewish terrorism, the destruction of the rule of law and Haredi draft evasion will not be in the next government.”
Golan said he also opposes bringing the ultra-Orthodox parties into the next coalition, while rejecting a blanket exclusion of Arab parties. “The Haredim must not be in the next coalition, period,” he said, using the Hebrew term for ultra-Orthodox Jews. “If they are, the saga of draft evasion and the plundering of the public purse will continue. It has to stop. We have to create change. I am not against the Haredi public. I am definitely against the Haredi leadership.”
“On the other hand, it is neither democratic nor politically correct to automatically disqualify all 21% of Israel’s Arab citizens and their representatives,” he said. Golan pointed specifically to Ra’am chairman Mansour Abbas, whose Islamist party was part of the coalition that ousted Netanyahu from power in 2021.
“Mansour Abbas is pursuing a line that Netanyahu himself was willing to accept and sit with in his government,” Golan said. “He was a partner in the government led by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, alongside Avigdor Lieberman and Benny Gantz, and we all know he was a loyal partner who said very clearly that Israel is the national home of the Jewish people. Saying that Arabs can be a positive force in any future government is very important for healing Israeli society.”
Ultra-Orthodox extremists protest against IDF conscription
(Photo: Jack Guez/AFP)
Golan stressed that his opposition to the ultra-Orthodox parties is political rather than categorical. “I do not disqualify the Haredim on principle. I disqualify fascists on principle,” he said. “Forces trying to destroy democracy and the foundation that allows us to live together, meaning Likud, Religious Zionism and Otzma Yehudit, are fundamentally and decisively unacceptable to me. For their own good and for the good of the country, the Haredim should not be in this coalition.”
Asked about statements by Avigdor Lieberman, Gadi Eisenkot, Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid that they would not rely on a non-Zionist party to provide the decisive 61st seat needed for a parliamentary majority, Golan said political reality could require flexibility. “I am not ashamed to say that in order to save Israel, we would bring an Arab party into this coalition,” he said.
“We have to stop seeing every Arab as a potential terrorist. Those same Arabs make up 40% of the medical staff in hospitals, have saved the lives of wounded IDF soldiers and are our partners in Israel’s economic activity and resilience. We have no future except through partnership. I say the same about my Haredi brothers and sisters.”
‘We are the ideological backbone’
Golan is in a relatively strong political position. After reviving the Labor Party, merging it with the left-wing Meretz party and drawing in figures from Israel’s anti-government protest movement, he has established the Democrats as a traditional left-wing party polling comfortably above the threshold needed to enter the Knesset.
Polls consistently give the party around 10 seats, although Golan believes it could reach 15. He is nevertheless careful not to cast himself as a candidate for prime minister. “I understand the rules of the game. I understand my role and the Democrats’ role in any future coalition,” he said. “We are the ideological and moral backbone.”
Gadi Eisenkot
(Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen)
Asked whom he expects to become the next prime minister, Golan said Eisenkot currently appears best positioned. “The most likely scenario is that Eisenkot will be prime minister,” he said. “We, the Democrats, will be the party that determines who the next prime minister is.”
“Bennett, Lieberman and Gadi are all competing for the crown. Each of them will need our recommendation to Israel’s president after the election, and our recommendation is not guaranteed to anyone,” he said. Under Israel’s parliamentary system, the president consults party leaders after an election before asking a lawmaker to try to form a government.
“We will support whoever guarantees Israel’s security and Israeli democracy. Whoever can guarantee that more decisively and more practically is the person we will support.”
Golan said the Democrats’ role would be to prevent the next government from becoming another coalition built on compromise at the expense of what he sees as fundamental democratic principles. “Our historic role is to make sure this is not a government of compromise and abandoned principles, but a government that is not afraid of the smear campaigns against us and is not afraid to do what is necessary to preserve democracy. We are not joining a government simply to provide it with a majority. We are joining in order to change Israel’s direction.”
Naftali Bennett
(Photo: Elad Gotman)
Golan sees his party as a central partner in any future government and has ambitions for major portfolios including defense, national security, education, justice and communications. That has caused some friction within the anti-Netanyahu bloc. Asked whether Golan should receive the Defense Ministry, Eisenkot recently said there were better candidates.
“I will not respond to statements by other candidates in a future government because I conduct myself responsibly,” Golan said. “I make sure to preserve our ability to work together.”
‘Democrats versus dictators’
Golan rejected the idea that ideological differences between the Democrats and center-right opposition parties would necessarily make a future coalition unworkable. “We must not fall into the way Netanyahu defines the political story,” he said. “I am very proud to represent a traditional left-wing party, but when I look ahead, the real story is completely different.”
“This is a battle between democrats and dictators, between honest people and corrupt people, between liberals and fanatical messianic nationalists, between those who serve and those who evade service,” he said. “The old concepts of right and left only play into Netanyahu’s hands.”
Asked whether he could become the next coalition’s equivalent of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, using a smaller party’s leverage to pull the government toward its ideological flank, Golan rejected the comparison. “There is no place for that comparison,” he said. “Is there equivalence between, on one side, a man convicted eight times, with 53 indictments, who evaded military service, and on the other side a former deputy chief of staff?”
Cabinet meeting
(Photo: GPO)
“There is no equivalence between someone trying to destroy democracy and someone trying to defend it,” Golan said. “There is good and there is evil, and I am happy and proud to represent the forces of good in Israeli society.”
He said Bennett, Lieberman and Eisenkot would ultimately have to choose between deep structural change and another compromise government. “I will be an easy partner in the next government, but I will be stubborn about repairing and saving Israeli democracy,” he said. “That is my mission.”
Responding to Lieberman’s claim that “Yair Golan works for Likud’s campaign headquarters,” meaning that Golan’s comments help Netanyahu politically, Golan said: “You can check my statements over the past two years. It is simply not true.”
Golan also defended his confrontational political style. “I strongly believe that the role of politicians is to speak to the public,” he said. “Even before I entered politics, I was very careful about telling the truth. It is time for my partners to stop surrendering to the dictates of the smear campaign against us.”
“Netanyahu and his people are trying to delegitimize and silence us,” he added. “We have stopped being silent. We have to fight for our truth with our backs straight and our heads held high. That is the only way to win.”
West Bank tensions
Golan said he believes the anti-Netanyahu bloc broadly agrees on four issues in the West Bank: combating Jewish terrorism, restoring law and order, evacuating unauthorized Israeli outposts and creating a political path forward with the Palestinians.
“We have to talk about substance, and the substance is what is happening today in the West Bank,” he said. “Law and order must be restored there, including rebuilding the Judea and Samaria police district, the Israel Police division responsible for the West Bank, which today is not functioning. What we are seeing today is Jewish terrorism receiving legitimacy from the Israeli government. This must be cried out. It is unacceptable.”
IDF forces in the West Bank
(Photo: IDF)
“First of all, it harms security because it inflames the territory,” he said. “Ultimately, when this area explodes, and I say this as a veteran of the first and second intifadas, many innocent Israelis will pay with their lives. Beyond that, it is destroying Israel’s standing in the region and around the world.”
Golan said military action without a political strategy is ultimately futile. “There must also be a political way forward,” he said. “Without a political way forward, warfare is an act without purpose. I say this on every possible stage, and it is not a political statement. It is a professional statement.”
“Even if I were wearing a uniform today with the rank of major general, I would tell you the same thing,” he added. “Israel’s most successful wars were those in which governments on both the right and left knew how to take military achievements and translate them into long-term security.”
Asked about his controversial 2016 speech in which he warned about troubling social and political trends in Israel, Golan said subsequent developments had vindicated him. The speech became widely known in Israel as his “processes speech.”
“The ‘processes speech,’ which, I remind you, people wanted to kill me over, turns out today to have been a very moderate speech,” he said. “All the processes I pointed to are happening. So apparently Yair Golan is very good at identifying processes.”
The Zangauker reversal
Golan also addressed criticism over his decision not to honor a promise to reserve a place on the Democrats’ Knesset slate for Einav Zangauker, a prominent campaigner for the release of the hostages whose son Matan was held in Gaza.
He said he had originally wanted Zangauker on the list and had asked her to keep the commitment private, but later changed his mind after deciding that reopening the candidate list following party primaries would be wrong, even though he had the authority to do so.
Einav Zangauker
(Photo: Ido Erez)
“I love Einav and have endless respect for her, and I made the decision with a very heavy heart,” he said. “It was a very, very difficult decision. I truly wanted Einav with us, and I still hope she will remain with us. This is not the end of the story. I fully intend to fight for her to be involved in public life both before and after the election. I very much hope she will want that.”
Asked whether the criticism made him question the decision, Golan said no. “I knew in advance that this move would draw criticism. I did it with complete openness,” he said. “I sat with Einav and we spoke honestly and directly, because what was right in February, I later understood was no longer right.”
Asked whether breaking such a promise undermined the distinction he seeks to draw between himself and Netanyahu, Golan said he understood the criticism but stood by the decision. “I understand that, and I have explained the considerations and how difficult it was,” he said. “I am still at peace with the decision. Ultimately, that is leadership. Leadership also has to make difficult decisions.”