It's not certain which is worse. Does deputy minister and former deputy IDF Chief of staff Yair Golan not control what comes out of his mouth? Or is he intentionally doing what he cautioned us about? Because after he warned that Nazi norms were entering Israeli society, he himself did the same thing and called members of his own people by the Nazi term "subhuman." So if it was an intentional act, and not a slip of the tongue, then we're talking about something truly insane.
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Either way, Yair Golan is again revealed as an inciter of the lowest kind, a provocateur who is a disgrace to his IDF uniform and rank. Not only the opposing camp, but now his home court, too, is unable to stand his provocations. Golan's friends in Meretz took a stance against his remarks, Defense Minister Benny Gantz condemned them explicitly, and others on the Left expressed reservations.
The trouble is that the general isn't alone. He is part of what calls itself a "unity government" and even "a government of healing." But the government, about whose founding we still don't know all the details, is neither healing nor calming anyone. It tramples its opponents and crushes democratic norms in a vigor and style never before seen here. It has no inhibitions. Again and again, the principles and values that the current prime ministers used to hold sacred are being eradicated.
The new idea is to approve a budget through the end of 2024 at the start of 2022. This bizarre idea is designed solely to ensure political survival, since no one has any idea what will happen with the local economy two to three years down the road. The proposal means clipping the Knesset's wings, effectively shutting down Israeli democracy. If the bill passes, we can close down the Knesset.
Earlier, high-ranking members of the coalition said there was no need to listen to legal counsel. Transportation Minister Meirav Michaeli took steps to dismiss two functionaries because they were associated with Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu. Before that, the government approved the problematic format of the rotation, which it had vigorously opposed when it was in the Opposition. And of course, this is a huge cabinet, which was established only after its leader went back on his basic promises to his voters.
All these are a shocking reversal of what the current prime ministers preached to Netanyahu for a decade or more. They claimed that Netanyahu was destroying democracy, but six months after this government was founded, Israeli democracy is weaker than it has ever been. There is real reason to worry.
This is the atmosphere in which Yair Golan exists. One of clashes, aggressions, expressions of "let's screw them" and take advantage of power as long as we have it, because who knows how long it will last? Not everyone in the coalition behaves this way, but some certainly do.
The right wing of the coalition accept the situation. Not only did the electricity bill pass, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett asked members of his faction not to make remarks in favor of young settlements in order to keep the peace in the coalition. Why is Yamina the only party being asked to restrain itself, while all the rest can babble as much as they like?
Of course, despite it being the prime minister's pet issue, Bennett has no time to shut Golan up or kick him out. Golan answers to Yair Lapid and no one else. He doesn't care about Bennett and allows himself to argue with him publicly, on Twitter. Who ever heard of such a thing – a deputy minister arguing with the prime minister in public?
Yair Golan's anti-religious incitement and the lack of any way of stopping it make it clear once again what position the Right holds in the coalition. Without any awe of the boss or the coalition partners, Golan feels at liberty to say the most awful things about settlers in Judea and Samaria. He knows that it is not to his detriment.
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