Yair Golan

Yair Golan served in the IDF from 1980 to 2018. A paratrooper by training, he commanded the Home Front Command from 2008 to 2011, then the Northern Command from 2011 to 2014, before becoming deputy chief of staff, the IDF's second-in-command, from December 2014 to 2017.

On May 4, 2016, on the eve of Yom HaShoah, in a memorial speech, he referred to "terrifying processes" that he said could be found "among us today," referencing phenomena observed in Europe 70, 80, and 90 years earlier. The speech sparked intense controversy, with some seeing it as a comparison to Nazi Germany; he clarified the next day that he had "no intention of comparing the IDF and Israel to what happened in Germany 70 years ago," calling such a comparison "absurd and baseless."

In 2022, Yair Golan lost the race for the Meretz leadership; that November, the party failed to pass the electoral threshold. On the morning of October 7, 2023, he took action as a civilian: he drove to the site of the Re'im music festival and, with the help of a local farmer, helped rescue several groups of survivors under fire.

He won the Labor primary on May 28, 2024, with about 95% of the vote, promising to unite the left. The merger with Meretz was announced on June 30, 2024, creating The Democrats, which he has chaired since July 2024.

Yair Golan remains at the top of The Democrats' list. The party's online primary on July 20, 2026 (about 97,000 voters, 86% turnout) chose the candidates behind him.

On Judea and Samaria/West Bank, he presents Israel's choice as "annexation or separation." He rejects annexation and says it is too early to talk about a Palestinian state now. On the judicial system, he proposes a constitution and a limit of two terms for the prime minister. He also campaigns to bar anyone under indictment from government office. On Haredi conscription, he supports a gradual rather than immediate approach, an issue that caused controversy in 2026 (see "Controversies"). He supports Arab parties taking part in a future government, a position he repeated on September 27, 2026.

On May 4, 2016, on the eve of Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day), Golan, then a major general and the IDF's second-in-command, spoke at a ceremony at the Massuah Institute: "If there's something that frightens us about the memory of the Holocaust, it's identifying nauseating processes that occurred in Europe in general, and Germany in particular, 70, 80, and 90 years ago, and finding evidence of their presence among us today, in 2016." The remarks caused a major controversy. The next day, he said he was not comparing Israel to the Nazis and called such a comparison "absurd and baseless."

On January 6, 2022, while Deputy Economy Minister, he called the residents of the illegal Homesh outpost "subhuman" in a Knesset Channel interview, after those residents attacked Palestinians in the nearby village of Burqa. He said he regretted the word but stood by the substance of his criticism. The remark came up again in September 2026 in a petition by Otzma Yehudit to disqualify his party. The Central Elections Committee rejected it 14-2 on September 24, 2026.

On May 20, 2025, in an interview on Kan Reshet Bet, he said about the government's conduct of the war that "a sane country doesn't wage war against civilians, doesn't kill babies as a hobby." This ambiguous wording was widely understood as aimed at the IDF. Netanyahu called the remarks a "blood libel," and Justice Minister Yariv Levin demanded that he be stripped of his military rank. Opposition figures such as Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz also criticized the wording. In the following days, Golan said his criticism was aimed at the government, not the IDF: "My army is my home and my heart."

At a meeting with party activists in Kiryat Ono, about a month before Channel 14 aired the recording on August 5, 2026, Golan spoke about the Haredi community. He said it "lives like a parasite on the rest of Israeli society" and that the country should not want "a population that is uneducated, unmotivated, and lacking physical capability." Itamar Ben Gvir accused him of racism and filed a request to disqualify his party. The Central Elections Committee rejected it 14-2 on September 24, 2026.