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Israeli left-wing leader Yair Golan doubles down after suggesting Israel ‘kills babies as a hobby’

JTA – Israeli left-wing leader Yair Golan is standing by his words after facing a wave of criticism for suggesting that Israel “kills babies as a hobby”.

Golan is the most prominent voice in a growing chorus of Israelis who supported the war against Hamas following its 7 October 2023 attack, but are now calling for the fighting to end while airing concerns about Israeli atrocities in Gaza. That mounting critique comes amid a storm of international condemnation of Israel’s decision to block humanitarian aid from entering Gaza. This week, Israel began to allow some aid to enter.

“Israel is on the way to becoming a pariah state among the nations, what South Africa once was, if it doesn’t return to acting like a sane country,” Golan, the leader of the left-wing Israeli Democratic Party, which has been rising in the polls, said on Tuesday, 20 May. “A sane country doesn’t conduct a war on civilians, doesn’t kill babies as a hobby, and doesn’t set goals for itself of expelling a population.”

Golan’s remarks are especially significant because he is a former deputy chief of staff of Israel’s military. He gained widespread admiration in Israel for driving into the fighting on 7 October, singlehandedly rescuing people, and killing Hamas terrorists.

Israel’s leaders attacked his comments, accusing him of fomenting antisemitism and besmirching Israel as well as the military he once helped lead.

“I condemn Yair Golan’s wild incitement against our heroic soldiers and against Israel,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “The IDF [Israel Defense Forces] is the most moral army in the world, and our soldiers are fighting in a campaign for our very existence.

“Golan and his friends on the radical left are echoing the most contemptible antisemitic blood libels against IDF soldiers and the state of Israel. There’s no limit to the moral rot,” Netanyahu said.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog, a centre-left politician whose position is meant to be above the political fray, called Golan’s comments “a severe and false slander” and a “red line”.

In the firestorm, the World Jewish Congress cancelled a private talk Golan was scheduled to give to the organisation.

Golan’s base acknowledged that his rhetoric might have gone too far when he suggested that killing babies was a “hobby”, but said he had articulated a powerful and distressing reality.

Golan responded later in the day by doubling down in a much longer attack on the government’s management of the war. He clarified that his criticism was aimed at Israel’s leaders, not its soldiers. And, citing officials who have called for starvation or mass killing in Gaza, he compared the Israeli government to a Hamas mouthpiece.

Canada, England, and France vow ‘concrete action’ over Israel’s Gaza war expansion and blockade

JTA – The leaders of Canada, the United Kingdom, and France have condemned Israel’s expanded war in Gaza and vowed to penalise Israel if the war, and its months-long blockade on humanitarian aid, continues.

“We have always supported Israel’s right to defend Israelis against terrorism. But this escalation is wholly disproportionate,” the leaders – Canada’s Mark Carney, Britain’s Keir Starmer, and France’s Emmanuel Macron – said in a joint statement.

“If Israel does not cease the renewed military offensive and lift its restrictions on humanitarian aid, we will take further concrete actions.”

The statement, which also called on Hamas to release the Israeli hostages “they have so cruelly held”, didn’t offer specifics about what actions the countries might take. The Netherlands is urging European countries to reconsider their relationships with Israel, and Macron and Starmer are both reportedly considering unilaterally recognising an independent Palestinian state.

The statement represents a sharp escalation by three allies of Israel at a time when the Israeli government is facing steep pressure to end its 19-month war against Hamas. The leaders noted that members of the Israeli government have said they hope that Gazans will seek to leave, saying, “Permanent forced displacement is a breach of international humanitarian law.”

Netanyahu lashed out against the statement, saying that the three countries had handed “a huge prize” to Hamas, and vowed to continue the war until Hamas was defeated.