For many Israelis who still believed in coexistence with the Palestinians, Hamas’s devastating attack on October 7 was the moment that hope was snuffed out. But for Yair Golan, the catastrophe only underscored his conviction of the need to find a lasting, two-state solution to the conflict.
That morning, as news of the attack emerged, the 62-year-old former soldier who heads the Democrats, a new party uniting Israel’s left-of-centre groups, got in his car and drove towards the fighting. Having arrived in the south, he shuttled to-and-fro amid the carnage, rescuing six survivors from the Nova music festival, where Hamas militants killed 364 partygoers.
The scenes Golan witnessed around Nova gave him a visceral understanding of what unfolded that day. But they also strengthened his determination “to move forward, and not to postpone this issue which is so crucial to our ability to survive in this region”.