Strategic adviser Ronen Tzur, who quit the primaries of the Democrats a day earlier, launched a sharp public attack on the party’s leadership and chairman Yair Golan. Speaking to Radio 103FM, Tzur said the party had drifted far from the vision that drew him in and had become, in his view, a more extreme political framework that leaves little room for differing opinions.
Tzur said the party, meant to unite Labor and Meretz, had become “much more extreme than anything I have ever seen.” He argued that it was being pulled toward positions associated with more radical figures on the left and no longer reflected the line he had hoped to find there.
Most of his criticism focused on the SMS scandal involving party members in recent days. Messages sent against two primary contenders, including Nimrod Sheffer, were later found to have been sent by Sheffer himself while appearing to be messages on Tzur’s behalf. Tzur said he was disappointed that Golan did not issue a clear condemnation once the truth emerged. “The act was an act of fraud,” he said. “I waited for a phone call from Yair Golan saying this is intolerable and unforgivable.” He added, “If it had been the other way around, they would have slaughtered me alive.”
Tzur also accused the leadership of selective enforcement and double standards, saying he would have been suspended immediately had he done the same. He said the episode exposed a troubling political culture and rejected what he called “sanctimony and purism.” In his view, a democratic party should allow a range of voices, but Golan did not act like a leader who would make room for everyone.
Reactions online were mixed. Some users took Tzur’s departure as evidence that the Democrats had moved further left, while others dismissed the story as a public-relations stunt by a former PR figure who joined the race only briefly before leaving.
