Yair Golan Says He Would Form a Government With Mansour Abbas

Yair Golan, chairman of the Democrats party, said publicly that Ra'am, led by Mansour Abbas, would be an inseparable part of the next government he wants to build. In an interview with Gadi Ness on Radio North 104.5FM, Golan outlined what he sees as the center-left bloc’s political path ahead of the coming election and praised Abbas’s conduct in the former Bennett government.

"We will form a government with Mansour Abbas," Golan said. He added that "Liberman worked with them, Bennett worked with them in the previous government, it will work excellently, and Gadi Eisenkot will work with them too. Ra'am and Mansour Abbas are preferable to Religious Zionism and Smotrich." Golan argued that the partnership with Ra'am is not a fallback compromise, but a tested and stable political solution.

"If Mansour Abbas is needed in the coalition, Mansour Abbas will be in the coalition," he said. "All the possible partners in the government know he was a worthy partner, they know it was possible to work with him. I was in that government too, it was easy to work with him, that is the solution."

Golan also ruled out any party from the current governing coalition, blaming them for the October 7 failure, the ongoing war, and Israel’s deteriorating standing. "None of the parties responsible for the disaster of October 7, responsible for the endless war, responsible for the suffering and the deterioration in the State of Israel’s status, should be in the next government," he said. "Not one of the parties in the current coalition should be in the next coalition, not the draft dodgers, not the corrupt, and not the extreme nationalists." He further said the Religious Zionism party under Bezalel Smotrich does not represent its electorate, calling it "an extreme party with a violent worldview, a messianic and fanatic worldview," and said a Zionist coalition, with Abbas’s support, is needed to fix what the current government has destroyed.