A week after his party completed its first primaries since the merger of Labor and Meretz, Democrats chairman Yair Golan said Monday that if his party wins 15 seats in the election, he believes he will serve as defense minister in the next government.
Speaking at the National Security Conference hosted by ynet and Yedioth Ahronoth in partnership with the Institute for National Security Studies, Golan also identified several additional ministries his party would seek, including justice, education, communications and public security.
“If we receive 15 seats, then I also believe I will be defense minister, but that is not what is important right now,” he said.
Golan said the Democrats would seek a “package of ministries” that would allow the party to fight for Israel’s security and democratic character.
“We spoke about the Justice Ministry, the Public Security Ministry, not the National Security Ministry, the Education Ministry and the Communications Ministry,” he said.
Golan said that, as matters currently stand, former IDF chief Gadi Eisenkot is the leading candidate within the opposition bloc for prime minister.
“As things look right now, Eisenkot will be the natural candidate,” he said, while stressing that the decision would depend on the election results.
Former IDF chief Gadi Eisenkot
(Photo: Yuval Chen)
“The person who leads the largest party in the bloc should lead the next government,” Golan said. “For this to be a government of real change and repair, it must have a large and strong Democrats party, with 15 seats or more.”
Responding to claims that his presence drives moderate right-wing voters away from opposition parties, Golan dismissed them as “fairy tales from the school of the poison machine.”
He said each party in the bloc has a different task.
“The mission of Lieberman, Bennett and Eisenkot is to bring in votes from the right,” he said. “My mission is to form a large and strong democratic-liberal bloc that will serve as the moral and ideological backbone of any future government.”
‘The Iran war was badly managed’
Golan sharply criticized the handling of the war against Iran, arguing that it had set unrealistic goals.
“This war was badly managed,” he said. “From the outset, it set goals such as replacing the Iranian regime. That is extremely damaging to Israel, and in practice Iran improved its regional strategic standing as a result of the war.”
He said Israel must translate its military achievements into a diplomatic initiative focused on stopping Iran’s military nuclear program.
Golan called for an agreement stricter than the 2015 nuclear deal, with tighter and longer-term oversight, restrictions on launch technologies and severe sanctions on Tehran’s regional activities.
“A goal of replacing the Iranian regime through bombing and some imagined Kurdish invasion of northern Iran is not realistic,” he said. “We need to return to the real world and ask what can and cannot be achieved. At the heart of the Israeli interest is first and foremost stopping the military nuclear program.”
IDF strikes in Gaza
(Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas)
On Gaza, Golan said Hamas cannot be defeated as long as it continues to rule the enclave’s 2 million residents.
He called for the establishment, together with regional and international actors, of “another moderate Palestinian governing entity” that would serve as an alternative to Hamas.
“Every day that passes while Hamas remains in power, Hamas grows stronger,” he said. “It collects taxes, rebuilds its force and digs tunnels again. This is a diplomatic and security disgrace that mortgages the security of Israel’s citizens.”
Golan accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of dragging his feet and blocking progress toward establishing an alternative governing authority in Gaza.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
(Photo: ilia YEFIMOVICH / AFP)
He also called for an Israeli initiative in Lebanon under which a new international force with enforcement powers would be deployed in the south of the country instead of UNIFIL.
Golan said Lebanon’s current government is “perhaps the most positive from Israel’s perspective since the assassination of Rafik Hariri,” but lacks sufficient ability to confront the threats in the area.
Separation from the Palestinians
Golan presented a plan for steps toward separation from the Palestinians, arguing that the alternative, annexing millions of Palestinians, would destroy Israel from within.
“Like Ariel Sharon, I believe we need to separate from the Palestinians, because the alternative of annexation is intolerable,” he said.
Golan said the next government should fight both Palestinian and Jewish terrorism, restore law and order in the West Bank, reestablish the police’s West Bank district, evacuate all illegal outposts and begin marking borders.
“We need to start saying: This is where the Jews live, this is the State of Israel,” he said. “If we want a Jewish and democratic state, it must have a solid Jewish majority. There will not be a state with a solid Jewish majority if we annex 5 million Palestinians.”
Golan expressed confidence that he could also persuade Eisenkot, Naftali Bennett and Avigdor Lieberman to support steps toward separation.
“I think Eisenkot understands this very well,” he said. “We spoke about it quite a bit in the past in security contexts. I think that in the future, Bennett and Lieberman will also understand the matter.”
‘Zini should not have been Shin Bet chief’
Golan said he had not been invited to meet Shin Bet chief David Zini, despite having previously commanded him in the Northern Command, unlike other party leaders including Eisenkot, Bennett and Benny Gantz.
The former IDF deputy chief of staff did not rule out meeting Zini, but sharply criticized his performance, saying he had so far failed two tests Golan had set for him: the investigation into “Qatargate” and the fight against Jewish terrorism in the West Bank.
“In my view, he failed in both of those challenges,” Golan said. “I did not think Zini should be Shin Bet chief, and so far reality shows that he should not have been Shin Bet chief. But he is currently the Shin Bet chief, and I live with reality.”
Shin Bet chief David Zini
(Photo: Shalev Shalom)
Golan said Zini’s next test would be safeguarding free and fair elections.
“I very much hope he changes his habit of failing at missions and achieves great success in holding the elections,” he said.
Golan was also asked about comments by Omri Ronen, who was elected seventh on the Democrats’ primary list and has not withdrawn his support for refusing reserve duty as a tool in the fight against the judicial overhaul.
Golan declined to condemn the use of that tool and argued that the discussion was intended to smear the protest movement.
“It is unacceptable to take the public that serves, contributes and volunteers and try to smear it,” he said. “This is the public that fought the regime coup, turned resistance organizations into remarkable civilian aid organizations after the war began and fought for the hostages’ release. I am proud of that public.”
Golan nevertheless said he did not intend to return the IDF to the center of the political dispute.
“As far as I am concerned, the IDF should not be part of the political argument,” he said. “That is how we have acted since October 7 until today, and I do not intend to return the IDF to the heart of the dispute.”