If it hadn't been for a certain speech on Holocaust Remembrance Day five years ago, former GOC Northern Command Maj. Gen. (res.) Yair Golan would have become IDF chief of staff. That is neither a guess nor an analysis. Golan has been told that explicitly by the person who decided to nominate Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, instead – former Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman.
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Five years on, Golan admits for the first time that if he had known what the response to his remarks would be, he would have expressed himself differently. For anyone who might have forgotten, speaking at the Massuah International Institute for Holocaust Studies as then-deputy commander of the IDF, he said, "If there is one thing that is scary in remembering the Holocaust, it is noticing horrific processes which developed in Europe – particularly in Germany – 70, 80, and 90 years ago, and finding remnants of that here (in Israel) among us in the year 2016."
"I didn't believe the speech would cause so much fuss," he tells Israel Hayom. "Call it naiveté, but I didn't realize I was heading into an incident like this. Who had ever heard of Massuah? I was speaking from my heart, because I had seen the insanity that unfolded here after the Elor Azaria incident [in which Azaria shot and killed a Palestinian man who was already restrained following an attempted attack on IDF troops in Hebron], the wave of nationalism that isn't us. If I had known that what I said would echo so loudly, I would have expressed myself differently."
Q: Now that time has passed, are those processes really happening with us?
"We are in the midst of very dangerous processes. We aren't unusual. Look at what is happening to democracies in the world. There is a book by two guys from Harvard, Jews, called How Democracies Die. They looked at over 40 countries in which there is a populist leadership – and Netanyahu is a populist leader – and you see how democracy is being shredded everywhere. So it's not that we're becoming Nazis, but rather that there are processes here of offensive nationalism and the destruction of democracy."
Q: Why do you think what you said created so much uproar?
"Because the politicians said to themselves, 'He sees us.' He sees what we try to hide. So they went after me so strongly. The approach of the Right today is to go full-steam against any opposition, including campaigns of slander and lies. They spread it around that I'm dismissive of soldiers' lives, that I told IDF soldiers they were Nazis. They signed 100 bereaved families on a petition not to appoint me chief of staff. It was a campaign to silence me."
Q: Because of it, you didn't become chief of staff.
"It doesn't consume me. I don't wake up frustrated. True, there was an element of unconscious choice, but the responsibility is mine and I feel fine with it."
'Don't fight the deal'
Yair Golan was the most militant of the generals in the General Staff. If anyone had asked back then what political party he would join upon retiring from the IDF, most people would have thought he was firmly on the Right. That image was built up not only from years of combat service in the toughest roles, but also because of his character.
When he was commander of the Judea Samaria Division, he approved the use of the "neighbor" policy in arresting Palestinian fugitives, in which the IDF has a neighbor or relative ask the fugitive to turn himself in, against the explicit ruling of the High Court of Justice. He paid for it by having a promotion delayed, but he was at peace with the decision – I did what I had to do to protect soldiers' lives, he said at the time. As GOC Northern Command, his role when the Syrian war erupted in 2011, he ran an independent policy that created major friction between him and then-chief of staff Benny Gantz. In this case, too, Golan was convinced he did the right thing for Israel's security.
His IDF colleagues find it difficult to explain the apparent discrepancy between the hard-core officer Golan was while in uniform and his almost opposite public image now. But for Golan, everything is clear: "When there's a need to fight – I fight. And I think I fight well. I know the profession pretty well. When you're dealing with things at the political level, it's political tactics, not a battle between thugs in a dark neighborhood," he says.
Q: Give an example.
"Take Iran. The idea that the only thing to be done is to threaten and attack is simply foolish. That's not how you manage a strategy. Anyone who has some understanding of the issue knows that it would be irresponsible for Israel to handle Iran without the US. What Netanyahu did with his speech to Congress in 2015 was irresponsible, and caused enormous damage. That's not how it works. You need to have the US with you.
"The nuclear deal, which Netanyahu condemns morning, noon, and night – joined, horrifyingly, by the chief of staff [Kochavi] – is a good deal. That doesn't mean it doesn't have flaws. We knew about them from the start. I was deputy chief of staff when the deal was signed, and I was responsible for Iran in the General Staff. When the deal arrived we held a discussion with all the officials and said to ourselves that if Iran complied with it, it would be an amazing achievement. The fact is that without the deal, they'd be closer to nuclear weapons than with it, so we need to take action to improve the deal and then create a new one, rather than fighting it and losing."
Golan does not hold back criticism. As a colonel, he was at his wits' end at how the 2006 Second Lebanon War was fought. As someone who grew up in the area, fought there, and was even wounded when serving in the security zone in southern Lebanon, he thought that the IDF was making every mistake possible. At the time, he was in charge of the Judea Samaria Division, but that didn't keep him from sending a harshly-worded letter to then-Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz.
He did the same during Operation Protective Edge in the summer of 2014, of which he wasn't in charge. He had been made GOC Northern Command, but his opinion echoed in meetings of the General Staff.
"We were behaving hysterically from the moment the three teens were abducted. It was a terrible event, but the hysteria involved in the decision making was unneeded. I'm not squeamish about using force. And when there's a need to use force, I do. But how things were handled there was scandalous."
Golan does not direct his criticism at Netanyahu, of whom he expects nothing, and whose handling of strategic matters Golan does not admire. His criticism is aimed mainly at the military: How Gantz ran Operation Protective Edge, how Kochavi is dealing with the Iranian issue, and in general, what he calls "the paradigm of intelligence and fire." He says that Israel has learned nothing from the last four big events: The Second Lebanon War and the three major Gaza operations that followed it.
"Einstein defined foolishness as doing the same thing and expecting different results. That's what we do. Lebanon was a huge failure. We missed an opportunity to beat Hezbollah to a pulp. To send three divisions in and give it a real blow, explain to them that they don't mess with us. That's the kind of warfare I want to see. War comes with terrible costs, and we need to do everything possible to avoid them. But if we've made the decision to go to war – we wage war with all our might."
The same goes for the Gaza operations, he says. "Again, we're in the same pattern in which we bomb and get frustrated, bomb and get frustrated. What happens in these operations? The first day is always very successful, because you initiate it and come in with good intelligence, and achieve your goals. But it takes the enemy 24 hours to understand what's holding him back, and from then things start to die down, and tensions rise in the General Staff because the operation isn't succeeding. In Operation Protective Edge the IDF dug in and basically told Hamas how far they would be going, so Hamas went on a stronger offensive than us, the strongest army in the Middle East. How can that be?"
'The army doesn't have confidence'
Q: Who can guarantee that the next war or operation will look different?
"No one is guaranteeing that. When I see the direction in which the IDF is headed, I realize that it won't change. It's legitimate to say that we don't intend to maneuver, just attack and bomb. I don't agree with that approach, but I respect it as someone else's strategy. But that's not what they say – they talk about maneuvers, maneuvers, maneuvers, and it's all drivel.
"The investment in the ground forces is just lip service. The ground army isn't prepared, no one should have any doubt about that. It has units that are prepared, but on the whole, as an army, it isn't … How do I know that? Because if someone says repeatedly that they intend to maneuver, and never does, it's a sign that something's wrong. The ground forces have lost their confidence."
When Golan says, "the IDF today has no instinct for war," it should worry us.
"Show me a single division commander in the Second Lebanon War or in Protective Edge grabbed a GOC or the chief of staff and said, 'What is this?' Show me one of them who shut off the radio and went out to kill Hezbollah or Hamas. When there's an opportunity, you need to take it. Unfortunately, the army now says, 'Keep these people way, give me conformists.'"
'How many Israelis have been to Judea and Samaria?'
As someone who is willing to go as far as necessary in battle but will do everything to prevent another war, Golan is somewhat surprised that people are surprised he's on the Left of Israeli politics. As far as he's concerned, he's in exactly the same place as generations of generals before him, who saw Zionism like he does: "loyal to the original definition of Zionism as 'a national home for the Jewish people, a free and democratic state.'"
From that perspective, he thinks that Israel must not avoid the Palestinian issue and that Israel needs to take its fate into its own hands. If there is no partner for peace – and at the moment, there is not – it should take unilateral action. The idea that the problem will disappear he sees as absurd, and mostly, dangerous.
"The settlers are really pleased with themselves, but they don't have a reason to be. The settlement enterprise is a terrible failure. 215,000 of the people considered settlers live in Jerusalem. None of them is there for ideological reasons. Even the 200,000 who live in the big settlements don't care about territory, yes or no. The people who live in Modi'in Illit or Betar Illit lives there because they need a place to live. And anyone who lives in the settlements close to the Green Line doesn't understand the issue. They were given a gorgeous villa in Beit Arie at half price, so where does ideology come in? Under a permanent arrangement, they'll be within Israeli borders, anyway. In short, we're left with the Jewish parts of Hebron, and the hilltop settlements in Samaria. That's the heart of the problem, and for that they're demanding that the entire state of Israel come crashing down."
Golan is concerned that Israel isn't taking initiative when it comes to the Palestinians. "It's much more important than the Iranian issue. This is where our fate will be decided, not in Tehran. And we are running away from it. The right-wing leadership is really blind. And lacking in vision. All the people on the Right I talk to are talking about the dangers only. About 'What will happen it…' None of them has a plan. No solution. No long-term vision."
Golan says that the leadership is "taking advantage of the fact that Israelis don't' care about the settlements. For most citizens of Israel, they're the dark side of the moon. How many Israelis have ever been to Judea and Samaria? How many can take a map and point out Shilo or Eli? But the leadership should behave differently. It should lead. This problem won't go away. It will only get bigger, and Zionism cannot live in peace and be free and democratic if it controls another people."
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However, Golan also thinks that the Zionist Left is getting it wrong, and that there should be one large left-wing list in the upcoming election.
"This division between Meretz and Labor, and then [Ron] Huldai and [Ofer] Shelach is unparalleled stupidity. This has to change. That's why I got into politics, to create that unity, In the meantime, I'm sorry to say, I haven't succeeded."
Q: The Left is just getting weaker. Meretz is hovering around the minimum electoral threshold.
"We can't drop out. I believe we'll pass [the minimum threshold], and I'm working really hard to make that happen. But the Left is in trouble. Together with Labor, the base of the Israeli Left is 11-12 seats, on a good day. That's a base to start with. My job in politics is to shake up the Left, unite it, and get it started on a new path. I'll remind you that in 1992, when Rabin was elected, Labor had 44 seats and Meretz had 12. It's just insane what has happened to the Left since then."
Q: Oslo. Terrorist attacks. The Second Intifada.
"Oslo killed it. There's no doubt about that. But since then, the Left has been delegitimized, and it behaves likes its scared and doesn't put any effort into building political power. Ehud Barak, who was the most important figure on the Left from the time he was elected prime minister in 1999 until he left politics in the middle of the last decade, didn't focus on building power. That has to change."
Golan thinks that the path to this kind of change leads to an alliance with the Arab public. "They say we love Arabs. What is that nonsense? This isn't a romantic matter. They're 20% of the public, citizens of the state, and we have an interest in connecting with them. If we bring them in, we can ensure that there will never be a united Palestinian front against us."
However, most of these issues won't be in play in the upcoming election. Like the previous ones, the vote on March 23 will be primarily a referendum about Netanyahu. Golan is urging his fellow Meretz members, who think that the party must not join a government with Naftali Bennett or Avidgor Lieberman to stop being so self-righteous.
"Netanyahu is corrupt, and today he's the biggest danger to the state of Israel. If they want to get rid of him, we need to cooperate. I wouldn't rule out anyone, except for considerations of corruption, or someone like [Itamar] Ben-Gvir, who is an Israeli fascist. But other than them, I'm willing to sit with anyone – the Haredim, the Arabs, Bennett, Gideon Sa'ar. To agree about what we will be addressing and what we won't, and get started," he says.
Q: Some people would say this is a betrayal of the Meretz principles.
"A betrayal is doing something different than what you promised. Amir Peretz took his base of support and betrayed them. He violated his voters' trust, and I think that history will hold him accountable. You can't shave off your moustache and say that you won't join Netanyahu's government, and then join it. And he shouldn't tell me he had to – he didn't. He could have wished Blue and White luck and stayed in the opposition."
Q: And Benny Gantz?
"Benny Gantz has a weak character. He's a good man, wise, worthy, a good professional, but he's weak-willed. This stuck out in his military service, when I was his deputy. And because he has a weak character he gives in."
It's not easy for Golan to say this about Gantz – they have known each other for decades, fought side by side, lost mutual friends.
"What holds me up is the loyalty to what I see as the truth. I don't live with a lie, and I don't tell stories. I'm not Yoav Gallant, who built an image and feeds it, or Bennett, who is a fiction. He doesn't understand COVID, and he doesn't understand security. He was defense minister for six months, and behaves as if he invented the job. I think that after the army I'm the same person I was in the army, who is loyal to his truth, and I don't intend to change."
