Ex-Israeli general hits out at government for 'killing babies as a pastime' in Gaza

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded with anger Tuesday after a former senior military official said Israel risked becoming “a pariah state” over the war in Gaza.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded with anger Tuesday after a former senior military official said Israel risked becoming “a pariah state” over the war in Gaza.

“A sane country does not wage war against civilians, does not kill babies as a pastime, and does not engage in mass population displacement,” Yair Golan, a left-wing opposition voice and the former deputy chief of staff of the Israeli army, said in a charged interview with local radio station Reshet Bet.

Comparing Israel's actions to those of South Africa’s during the decades of apartheid, the leader of the small Democrats party and longtime critic of Netanyahu, added, “The Jewish people, who have endured persecution, pogroms, and genocides throughout our history .. are the ones now taking actions that are utterly unconscionable.”

Golan’s words drew swift condemnation, with Netanyahu calling them an “outrageous incitement against our heroic soldiers and against the State of Israel.”

Israeli defense minister Israel Katz called the comments “vile blood libel against our regular and reserve soldiers,” while the far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said Golan “knowingly spreads lies, defames Israel and the IDF in the eyes of the world.”