Left-wing politician dropped from World Jewish Congress confab

 

Left-wing politician dropped from World Jewish Congress confab

 

Outrage as opposition party leader Golan says Israel ‘killing babies as a hobby’ in Gaza

Ex-general says Israel becoming ‘pariah state’; PM accuses him of ‘antisemitic blood libel’; IDF chief condemns comment casting doubt on soldiers’ morality; Lapid: ‘Gift to our enemies’

 

By Sam Sokol Follow

and ToI Staff

20 May 2025, 2:15 pm

https://www.timesofisrael.com/outrage-as-opposition-party-leader-golan-says-israel-killing-babies-as-a-hobby-in-gaza/

 

Left-wing politician Yair Golan faced a wave of backlash on Tuesday from across the political spectrum after he accused Israel of killing babies in Gaza “as a hobby.”

 

Golan, a former IDF deputy chief of staff and current head of the The Democrats party, a merger of Labor and Meretz, said in an interview with the Kan public broadcaster that “Israel is on the way to becoming a pariah state, like South Africa was, if we don’t return to acting like a sane country.”

 

The political leader, who is not a current member of Knesset, added that “a sane country does not fight against civilians, does not kill babies as a hobby, and does not give itself the aim of expelling populations.”

 

“I vehemently condemn the wild incitement from Yair Golan against our heroic soldiers and against the State of Israel,” Netanyahu said in a statement. “The IDF is the most moral army in the world, and our soldiers are fighting in a war for our existence.”

 

 The prime minister added that “Golan, who encourages refusal to serve and compared Israel to Nazis while he was still in the military, has now reached a new low when he claimed Israel is ‘killing babies as a hobby.’”

 

Netanyahu continued: “At a time when we are fighting a multifront war and leading complicated diplomatic efforts to free our hostages and defeat Hamas, Golan and his friends in the radical left are trumpeting the most despicable antisemitic blood libels against IDF soldiers and the State of Israel. There is no limit to the moral decay.”

 

The prime minister was referring to a controversial speech Golan gave in 2016 as deputy IDF chief during which he likened societal developments he said were being seen in Israel to what he said were “horrifying processes” that took place in Europe in the run-up to the Holocaust. Many attributed the speech to Golan being passed over to become IDF chief.

 

Responding to Golan’s comments without naming him, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said that he “strongly condemns any statement that casts doubt on the ethical integrity of IDF operations and the morality of its soldiers.”

 

“The IDF and its soldiers operate against our enemies with loyalty to the values of the IDF, the law, and international law, while uncompromisingly safeguarding the security of the State of Israel and its citizens,” the military said in a statement. “IDF soldiers operate, and will continue to operate, day and night, on all fronts, with determination and morality, as they always have.”

 

While a controversial figure, Golan, 63, emerged as a brief consensus hero in the immediate aftermath of Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, when he headed to the front lines and helped rescue partygoers fleeing the attack.

 

Golan retired from the IDF in 2018 after 38 years of active military duty. He entered politics in 2019 as part of the left-wing Democratic Union’s electoral slate, before joining Meretz ahead of the March 2021 elections. He subsequently won the Labor party primary and became chairman in May 2024, overseeing its merger with Meretz to become the party now known as The Democrats.

 

Hours after his original comments, Golan sought to defend himself from the criticism, praising IDF fighters as “heroes” fighting on behalf of a “corrupt” government.

 

“The meaning of my words was clear: This war is the realization of the fantasies of [far-right minister Itamar] Ben Gvir and [Bezalel] Smotrich and if we allow them to put this into action, we will become a pariah state,” Golan wrote on X. “It is time for us to have a backbone of hardened steel. We must stand up for our values ​​as a Zionist, Jewish and democratic state.”

 

He added: “IDF fighters are heroes; government ministers are corrupt. The IDF is ethical, and the people are upright; the government is crooked. The war must be ended, the hostages returned, and Israel rehabilitated.”

 

Shortly after his original comments, Golan was dropped from the schedule of the World Jewish Congress conference in Jerusalem, where he was scheduled to speak at a closed forum of WJC members on the subject of Israel-Diaspora relations.

 

The politician’s comments were immediately slammed by both opposition and coalition lawmakers, who accused him of siding with Israel’s enemies and endangering IDF soldiers.

 

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid said that any claim that Israeli soldiers kill babies is “a gift to our enemies.”

 

“I support the IDF and its fighters and condemn the statement,” he said.

 

National Unity chairman Benny Gantz called on Golan “to retract and apologize” to the troops for his “outrageous, false, and extreme” statement, which Gantz said “endangers the freedom of our heroic fighters” to operate in Gaza.

 

Justice Minister Yariv Levin called for the IDF to revoke Golan’s military rank in the wake of his comments.

 

“The terrible things that Yair Golan said this morning are a vile and despicable blood libel, the brainchild of the greatest haters of Israel,” Levin said in a statement calling Golan’s remarks an “unprecedented low for the Labor Party.”

 

“This is also a time of trial for the heads of the army. Anyone who spreads such a lie about IDF soldiers can no longer bear the rank of general,” Levin declared. “The revocation of the rank is the least that can be done to erase the slander that has been cast on our loved ones who are fighting right now on the battlefield for the release of the hostages and victory over our enemies.”

 

Far-right National Security Minister  Ben Gvir said Golan apparently “took a page from the Hamas spokesman,” while Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi called Golan a “terrorist” who is “sabotaging efforts to achieve war goals, sabotaging the safety of IDF fighters and sabotaging Israeli democracy.”

 

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar slammed Golan’s “blood libel against the State of Israel,” and Defense Minister Israel Katz said he must be “ostracized from public life.”

 

Golan’s comments were supported by Knesset members in the Arab-majority Hadash-Ta’al joint list, who praised his criticism of the IDF.

 

Faction chairman Ayman Odeh said it was only Golan’s comments that “managed to shock the hollow opposition leaders, not the unimaginable killing of 20,000 children, not the siege, not the starvation, not the destruction of homes, schools and hospitals.”

 

Ofer Cassif, the party’s only Jewish lawmaker, wrote on X that Golan’s comments were “better late than never.”

 

Despite political differences, criticism of IDF activity has long been considered a taboo among Israel’s Zionist parties, though in recent months, ex-Likud MK Moshe Ya’alon — a former defense minister and former IDF chief — has also adopted a sharp tone, accusing Israel of carrying out “ethnic cleansing” and saying that politicians were corrupting the military and sabotaging its moral compass.

 

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 53,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters.

 

The Strip’s Hamas-run authorities say that figure includes thousands of children.

 

Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.

 

Emanuel Fabian contributed to this report.