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Israel’s opposition leader sparked outrage on Tuesday after he accused the Israel Defense Forces of killing babies in the Gaza Strip “as a hobby.”
Yair Golan, a former IDF deputy chief of staff and current head of The Democrats party, said the war in Gaza was transforming Israel into an international “pariah,” as he called for a cease-fire and hostage exchange deal.
“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,” he told the Kan public broadcaster, per a translation by The Times of Israel.
Golan’s condemnation triggered intense backlash from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and those supporting the war against Hamas, with the premier accusing Golan of “blood libel.”
“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.
“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,’” he added.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir also condemned “any statement that casts doubt on the ethical integrity of IDF operations and the morality of its soldiers.”
The IDF maintains that its soldiers operate “with determination and morality, as they always have.”
Golan also faced backlash from fellow opposition leader Yair Lapid, who said such statements against the IDF served only as “a gift to our enemies.”
Following the backlash that saw him dropped from speaking at the World Jewish Congress conference in Jerusalem, Golan claimed his comments were taken out of context and were aimed at Netanyahu’s far-right coalition members who called for no aid to reach Gaza and for Israel to fully occupy the Strip.
“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.”
The opposition leader went on to describe the IDF fighters as “heroes” who operate in an “ethical” manner.
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