(Aug. 21, 2026 \/ JNS)\n <\/p>\n
With the Oct. 27 Knesset elections a little more than two months away\u2014and following the ruling Likud Party primary<\/a> on Aug. 17\u2014the campaign jingles are beginning to multiply. As has always been the case, most of them are cringe-inducing.<\/p>\n Perhaps that\u2019s because they\u2019re directed at the TikTok generation, whose attention span is about as expansive as that of a flea. But today\u2019s content creators really ought to factor in the nationwide acknowledgement that Israel is at a critical juncture, and that the makeup of the next government will determine not merely the political path of the country, but its very identity.<\/p>\n One sector that grasps the above is the radical left and the Arab politicians its representatives are trying to court. This group is led by former deputy chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces Maj. Gen. (Res.) Yair Golan. It\u2019s comprised of what Israelis refer to as the hard-core \u201cKaplanists.\u201d<\/p>\n These were the most vocal of the anti-judicial-reform protesters who pounded the pavements before the Hamas massacre on Oct. 7, 2023, to declare that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin (\u201cBibi\u201d) Netanyahu and his right-wing coalition were signing democracy\u2019s death warrant.<\/p>\n Their nickname derived from the main street in Tel Aviv where the demonstrations took place. But it came to be an inclusive code word for the \u201cCrime Minister\u201d crowd\u2014the intersectional \u201canybody but Bibi\u201d contingent battling against the sentiments of more than half of the public. So much so that swaths of Israeli Air Force pilots and IDF officers threatened not to perform their duties in the event of a call-up.<\/p>\n Little did they realize that a major war was actually around the corner. Nor did they take into account that the monsters in Gaza perceived the internecine strife to be a disintegration of Israeli society and military apparatus\u2014a notion that accelerated their carefully laid plans to invade southern Israel and perpetrate the atrocities that we all witnessed on that deadly Shabbat\/Simchat Torah holiday nearly three years ago.<\/p>\n The horrific nature of the attack\u2014the torture, rape, mutilation and mass murder of 1,200 innocent men, women and children, in addition to the abduction of 250 others\u2014caused the \u201crefusniks\u201d to do an about-face where their army service was concerned. For a brief period, solidarity in the face of external enemies took precedence over domestic debate.<\/p>\n The national cohesion didn\u2019t last long. Shifting their anti-government focus to the plight of the hostages and the execution of the war against Hamas, the Kaplanists resumed turning out in droves, megaphones in hand. Calls for Netanyahu\u2019s ouster and \u201celections now\u201d drowned out any appeals for support of the powers-that-be during such a precarious situation and demands for victory.<\/p>\n Golan featured prominently at the protest podium.<\/p>\n This, in itself, doesn\u2019t distinguish him from the many other figures who were actively involved not only in trying to topple the government, but in capitulating to Hamas and the Biden administration by ceasing the war.<\/p>\n No, the 64-year-old head of HaDemokratim<\/a> (\u201cThe Democrats\u201d party, a merger between Labor and Meretz) is notable for his illustrious military credentials, spanning more than four decades, and his increasingly post-Zionist ideology. Given the former, the latter is especially jarring, not to mention harmful.<\/p>\n Two examples suffice to drive home this point. One is a speech he delivered on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day in 2016, while serving as then-IDF chief Gadi Eisenkot\u2019s second-in-command.<\/p>\n As problematic as Eisenkot\u2019s pronouncements were at the time\u2014making the army he led sound as though it was on a slippery slope to warranting the slurs it incurred from Palestinians and their Western apologists\u2014Golan\u2019s went above and beyond the call of duty, so to speak.<\/p>\n Metaphorically cocking his weapon and firing, he said, \u201cIf there\u2019s something that frightens me \u2026 it\u2019s the recognition of the revolting processes that occurred in Europe in general, and particularly in Germany, back then \u2026 and finding signs of them here among us today.\u201d<\/p>\n What a vile way to address the troops on such an anniversary. But it was almost mild compared to his last year during an interview with Kan public radio.<\/p>\n \u201cA sane country does not kill babies as a hobby,\u201d he said, warning that Israel was running the risk of becoming an international \u201cpariah state\u201d if it didn\u2019t change its actions in Gaza. Naturally, IDF soldiers in the field were outraged at the false and immoral accusation, which Al Jazeera and others gleefully quoted.<\/p>\n Rather than attempting to moderate his positions to garner votes from the mainstream, however, Golan seems to be doubling down. Take his latest campaign commercial, for instance.<\/p>\n