When Yair Golan recently accused Israeli soldiers of killing babies “as a hobby,” he wasn’t making a political statement. He was betraying my 21-year-old son and every young Israeli who wears the uniform Golan once wore with pride.

Golan knows exactly who he’s talking about. As a former deputy chief of staff, he commanded soldiers like my son. He sent them into combat knowing the impossible moral terrain they would navigate, the weight they would carry home, and the decisions that would haunt them. Yet when political opportunity called, he chose to describe their service as recreational child murder.

Golan's accusations are personal 

This is personal for me because my son is the one Golan is slandering. But it should be personal for every Israeli, because what he has done represents a fundamental betrayal of the social contract that holds our democracy together.

In Israel, we ask our children to serve. We ask 18-year-olds to put their lives on hold and to risk those lives, to face impossible choices, to carry moral burdens that would break most adults. We ask this of them because we believe their service protects something precious – our families, our democracy, our future.

My son answered that call. He didn’t volunteer for entertainment or because he enjoys violence. He serves because he believes in protecting what we’ve built here. When he comes home exhausted, when I hear the weight in his voice during our phone calls, I know he’s carrying the moral complexity of decisions no young person should have to make.

Golan knows this. He lived this reality. He commanded these soldiers and bore responsibility for their actions and their welfare. Which makes his betrayal all the more devastating.

The word “hobby” wasn’t chosen carelessly. Golan understands language and its power. He deliberately selected the most dehumanizing characterization possible – describing military service not as duty or sacrifice or even tragic necessity, but as entertainment. As recreation. As something done for pleasure.

This isn’t harsh political criticism. This is blood libel, weaponized by someone who should be the last person on earth to employ it.

Giving international credibility to tropes about soldiers

What Golan has done breaks the fundamental trust between those who command and those who serve. He’s taken his authority as a former military leader and used it to legitimize the worst possible interpretation of Israeli military conduct. He’s given international credibility to antisemitic tropes about Israeli soldiers.

But more than that, he’s betrayed the young people who once served under his command and continue to serve under his moral authority. He’s told the world that my son and his fellow soldiers are monsters who derive pleasure from killing children.

This isn’t about Left or Right, hawk or dove. This is about basic decency and the responsibility that comes with leadership. Golan has abandoned both.

My son will continue to serve, as will thousands like him, because they understand something Golan seems to have forgotten: that service means sacrifice, not self-promotion. That protecting democracy sometimes requires making impossible choices in impossible circumstances. That wearing the uniform means carrying a moral weight that politicians like Golan apparently find too heavy to bear.

Golan’s attempt to walk back his comments changes nothing. Words have consequences, and leaders must live with theirs. When you describe military service as recreational child murder, you cannot simply take it back when the political cost becomes clear. The damage is done, the slander is permanent, and the character revealed in that moment of political calculation cannot be undone by press releases. Golan has shown that he is willing to sacrifice the honor of the soldiers he once commanded for his own political benefit. That is not the judgment of someone who can be trusted with democratic leadership.

The writer made aliyah from the UK.