Hero of Oct. 7 aims to revive Israel's moribund left

Foresight Autonomous Holdings

11/07/2024 08:00

By Emily Rose
       JERUSALEM, July 11 (Reuters) - It was around two hours
after Gazan militants launched an onslaught on Israel’s southern
border communities that major general in the Israeli reserves
Yair Golan began to understand the gravity of the attack on
Israeli soil. 
    He got in his car and sped down south, stopping only to get
an automatic weapon at an army base.
    When he arrived at the site of the Nova Music Festival, he
began rescuing survivors from what he described as "a massacre
scene". Hamas gunmen had shot, bludgeoned or burned to death 364
people and took another 40 hostage.  
    "This is something I never saw previously - not in Beirut,
not in the West Bank, not in the Gaza Strip," Golan told Reuters
in an interview, reflecting on his nearly 40 years of combat
experience.
    Calls for national elections are becoming more frequent, as
negotiations for a ceasefire with Hamas progress and Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu straddles conflicting demands
from members of his rightwing coalition.
    Golan won the centre-left Labor Party's primaries in May and
then formed a union with the smaller Meretz party, re-branding
themselves as "The Democrats." The parties had suffered a
crushing defeat in Israel's 2022 elections, with Labor, which
governed for more than half of Israel's existence, reduced to
just four seats in the 120 seat parliament, and Meretz shut out.
    A July poll by Israel’s Channel 13 shows the Meretz-Labor
union now winning 9 seats, giving them modest influence in a
potential future coalition.
    Golan is similar to Labor leaders from a different era, who
carried a sword in one hand and an olive branch in the other. In
discussing military tactics in Gaza, the left often appears to
differ little from Netanyahu's rightwing government.
    With five sons serving in the military, including four in
combat units, Golan praised the military for reducing Hamas to
"a very primitive phase of terror and small guerrilla actions"
during the assault on Gaza that followed the Oct. 7 attacks.  
    "This is very good," Golan said. "But because it's not a
stable situation, we need to keep freedom of action inside the
Gaza Strip," mirroring the Netanyahu administration's insistence
that Israel maintain security control over the enclave. 
    But Labor differs with Netanyahu over what would follow the
war. Netanyahu rejects any role in Gaza for the internationally
recognized Palestinian Authority that now exercises limited
self-rule in the Israeli occupied West Bank. Golan said the PA
would be integral to governing Gaza the "day after", with
support from Arab states and Washington.
    In tandem with the fighting, Golan said, Israel must "create
islands of security" inside Gaza, which are "supported by
regional alliances" and will provide Gazans with an alternative
to Hamas. 

 (Reporting by Emily Rose
Editing by Peter Graff)
 ((Emily.Rose@thomsonreuters.com;))