Yair Golan rejects unity talks with Netanyahu and urges outreach to Arab parties

Yair Golan, chairman of the Democrats party, has said he will not take part in a unity government with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Jerusalem Post reported that Golan ruled out such an arrangement and also warned that a caretaker government could lead Israel into a new war with Iran.

Golan also came out against a negotiating meeting between representatives of Yashar, Likud and a third party named in Hebrew as Beyachad, meaning Together. Israeli broadcaster N12 reported his opposition, citing political correspondent Dvir Gabra, and carried his statement that the road to change does not run through talks on unity with Netanyahu and Likud.

What Golan wrote

The statement N12 quoted is drawn from a longer post Golan published on X. In it, Golan wrote that the bloc of parties seeking to replace Netanyahu, which he called the change bloc, should alter the rules of the game. He said its leaders should meet the heads of Israel's Arab parties, consider partnerships on what he described as a substantive basis, and stop allowing Netanyahu and what he termed a poison machine to decide who counts as a legitimate partner.

Golan held Netanyahu and Likud responsible for the massacre of October 7, for what he called a regime coup and for the crushing of the rule of law. Instead of unity talks, he argued, the opposition should build a partnership able to replace them and repair the damage he said they had done. He wrote that voters had delivered a clear democratic decision and that it was time to listen to them rather than, in his words, dance to the tune of Netanyahu's racism.

These are Golan's own characterisations, made in a political post, and are reported here as his views.

Who Golan is and where his party stands

Golan leads the Democrats, a party on the Israeli left and one of the most consistent opponents of Netanyahu. A photograph published by The Jerusalem Post shows him with party members at a protest march in Tel Aviv on October 24, 2026, days before the general election.

Likud is Netanyahu's party. The reports do not describe the positions of Yashar or Beyachad, or say who represented them in the meeting with Likud. Golan's objection, as reported, is to the principle of opposition parties negotiating with Likud over a broad government at all.

Key terms in Golan's statement

• Unity government: a coalition in which rival camps share power, usually formed when neither side can assemble a majority alone. Golan is rejecting any such arrangement that includes Netanyahu.
• Caretaker government: after an election, the outgoing government stays in office with limited authority until a new coalition is sworn in by parliament. The Jerusalem Post's account indicates Golan warned this interim government could take Israel into a new conflict with Iran.
• October 7: the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel that triggered the war in Gaza. Opposition politicians have repeatedly blamed Netanyahu's government for the failures surrounding it.
• Regime coup: the term Netanyahu's critics use for his government's plan to curb the power of the courts, which its supporters called judicial reform and which drew mass street protests.

The question of Arab parties

Golan's call to meet Arab party leaders touches one of the most sensitive questions in Israeli coalition politics. Arab parties have rarely been part of governing coalitions, and Netanyahu's camp has often campaigned on the claim that relying on them would be illegitimate. Golan's post directly challenges that framing, urging the anti-Netanyahu bloc to treat Arab parties as potential partners rather than accept what he described as Netanyahu's definition of legitimacy.

His position puts him at odds with any opposition figures exploring a path through talks with Likud. The reports present the two approaches as competing: negotiating with Netanyahu's party, or building an alternative coalition that includes Arab parties.

What the reports do not say

None of the reports carries a response from Netanyahu, Likud, Yashar or Beyachad to Golan's remarks, and none says whether the meeting he opposed has taken place or what was discussed. The material available does not detail the basis for Golan's warning about a possible war with Iran under a caretaker government, beyond the Jerusalem Post's summary. There is also no reported reaction from the leaders of the Arab parties Golan proposed meeting.