Retired IDF Major General Yair Golan, who served as Deputy Chief of Staff, was blocked from the top job over his 2016 Holocaust Day speech, when he drew a parallel between Nazi Germany in the 1930s and Israel today, articulating: “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 among us in the year 2016.”
The next day, after his statement had ignited a firestorm, Golan issued a clarification, saying he “had no intention of comparing the IDF and the State of Israel to the processes that took place in Germany 70 years ago.”
Since then, Golan was elected to the Knesset on the leftist Meretz Party list, lost a bid for the party leadership to Zehava Gal-On, and was eliminated from the House when Meretz failed to cross the vote threshold. He is considered one of the leaders of a new left-wing party that is being erected on the foundations of the Kaplan protests, and as such was interviewed by “pilots’ protest” inciter, founder of Forum 555, retired helicopter pilot Guy Poran, 67, whom you may recall from his interview with former Prime Minister and Chief of Staff Ehud Barak, 82, when the aging ex-general fantasized about Jewish bodies floating in the Yarkon River (Netanyahu Warns: Israel Is on the Brink of a Military Coup).
In the Poran interview, Golan said that the IDF should educate religious Zionists about democracy and liberalism, and they should undergo a “corrective campaign” within the army because of the “extreme nationalist education” that the knitted yarmulke people absorb in their educational institutions.
Golan said these things when he was asked about the “disturbing” phenomena taking place in the IDF in Gaza since many religious Zionists are serving in command positions in the army.
“What needs to happen is that we recognize that a great many of the religious Zionists, some of whom received an extreme nationalist education, will receive a corrective campaign within the IDF,” Golan elaborated. “If the IDF wants to contend with building the future generation, it must provide every soldier with education for democratic citizenship, for liberal citizenship, for citizenship that is compatible with a country in the third millennium. It’s very simple.”
This, of course, from a man whose protest movement advocated for a coup d’état, encouraging the military leadership to unseat the elected Prime Minister, one Benjamin Netanyahu.
Before I continue, please read this report from December 29, 2023: “40% of the Fallen in Gaza Graduated from Religious Zionist Schools.”
Thank you.
Golan’s sense of entitlement and class superiority was spritzing out of his skin pores when he revealed that he had held a tête-à-tête with IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi:
“The IDF is a tremendous education system, I say to the Chief of Staff, and I told him this tête-à-tête: ‘There is a need to move to a clear procedure: there is not a soldier in the IDF who is not given democracy education as part of his service. No soldier does not receive an education for democracy. Because the soldiers come from all kinds of places, and they don’t necessarily get a proper civil foundation. They don’t necessarily gain a civil foundation that enables the building of a healthy civil society. The IDF will complete it just as it completes many other things.”
Golan then said that the “normal government” that will replace the current government will instruct the army to start citizenship classes whose purpose, according to Golan, would be mainly to take care of the “extremist religious public.”
“The future normal government that expresses a liberal democratic worldview should guide the IDF to deliver citizenship lessons to every soldier in such a way that a soldier who completes his service has undergone a profound perceptual transformation. He recognizes the value of a democratic life, of a pluralistic life that allows a diverse society to live with each other, and he feels deep respect for the laws of the State of Israel and its institutions. As we know, in the extremist religious public we have seen quite a few phenomena of absolute contempt for the State of Israel and its institutions.”
And you thought Hamas was the problem.
At this point, the interviewer, Guy Poran, told Golan that the pre-military training of religious Zionists, among them the Eli preparatory yeshiva, operate exactly contrary to the messages he is talking about.
Golan responded that these yeshivas should be shut down in an “orderly process.” However, prep yeshivas that convey “correct messages” will be able to exist: “On the other hand, there are prep yeshivas that convey very correct and good messages, so they should be allowed to operate.”
Can rank-and-file Israelis recognize this as the militaristic fascism that it is? Let’s pray that this is the case, but I ask you, don’t pray too extremely.
Also, read: “Full Transcript: Ehud Barak Is Alive and Well and Continues to Fantasize about a Coup D’état“
