Dr. Yehuda David, a commander and friend of Maj. Gen. Yair Golan for the past 35 years, hears the attack on the general who is among the four candidates for the position of Chief of Staff, and is angered in light of his long acquaintance with Golan and his military activities.
"I read the words of the bereaved father Eliezer Rosenfeld, and with all due respect to the bereaved father, I think there is a complete misunderstanding of his words from two years ago," Dr. David begins, recalling that "terrible things have happened before. Does Mr. Rosenfeld think burning a baby inside his house is okay? Is this the Israeli spirit? It is in this context that Yair Golan expressed himself when he said that things permeate Israeli society."
"I have known him for 35 years, he gave three sons to the army and two others are on the way. This is a family devoted entirely to the defense of the people of Israel and Israel's security. When General Golan attacks the enemy, he does not bend over, he is erect, and so he was mortally wounded in one of the operations. I operated on him and fixed one of his limbs
"He did not intend to compare us to a Nazi society," Dr. David is convinced, "He did not express himself to the right or to the left. He expressed himself as a commander who stands only the defense of the people of Israel. There is a total misunderstanding here. I call on anyone whose fate is dear to Israel to know that Yair Golan deserves to be chief of staff, just as the others deserve to be chief of staff, and the ones who will decide is the prime minister, the defense minister."
In light of these remarks, we mentioned that the investigation into the fire in Duma had not yet ended, and it was not at all certain that the Jews had committed the act. Golan was somewhat quick to say that Jewish extremists were responsible without waiting for the results of the investigation, and we also mentioned the speed with which people such as former Defense Minister Ya'alon and President Rivlin spoke, even before the details of the incident were clarified.
"I agree completely, but we are a society that is not in Sweden and the things are very sensitive, and it concerns military and cultural politicians," said Dr. David. He proposds to discuss the main question of the appointment of the chief of staff, whether he should be a professional, and that this question should be what concerns us.
In the wake of these remarks, we reminded Dr. David of the affair in which he himself exposed the great lie, the affair of Mohammad al Dura, and wondered if he thought that an officer who would choose to blame the IDF for that act without waiting for clarification of the circumstances was worthy of the Chief of Staff, "Yair Golan is everything but reckless. I've known him for 35 years. He is a very close and attentive man who is attentive to Israeli and Jewish values. We must learn from mistakes, and it is possible that the event really touched the threshold of sensitivity of a particular faction of our people, but we must stick to the goal - who should be the chief of staff - the most professional, the most caring and the most prudent - That's how things got fixed."
We asked for Dr. David's comment on another statement made by Maj. Gen. Golan, in which he said that the army's role is to protect the civilians, including the civilians of the enemy, even at the cost of soldiers' lives. "I am convinced that Yair did not express himself in such a way. I have been through a lot of situations with him and he will not endanger any soldier for the benefit of the enemy's families, and he is acting according to criteria that the State of Israel has determined for the army. We need laws and these are the laws that Yair keeps."
After these statements, we wondered if it was possible that if those bereaved families heard and understood these two statements by Major General Golan as they were understood, could he understand the conclusion they reached to send the letter to Minister Liberman.
"These facts were not presented correctly and there may be manipulation coming from another direction at the expense of the bereaved families, which is terrible," said David. "As things were presented, it is very possible that the bereaved families' threshold of sensitivity led to the sending of this letter, but Yair Golan never endangered or the life of an IDF soldier or an Israeli citizen. He and his entire family are devoted to the protection of Israeli citizens and Israeli law.
Towards the end of the story, Dr. David said: "On the last Shabbat - before sundown - I corresponded with Yair about the weekly Torah portion, as we do every week. I give an interpretation and he responds. I noted that it is written in the parasha that we are a virtuous people. He answered me and wrote to me to see what is written in the continuation of the parasha, to be filled with compassion for a stranger to an orphan and a widow, and those values that the Torah gives to the people of Israel, and this is the spirit of optimism. Perhaps it is possible to present these sentences to the bereaved families in order to show who Yair Golan is."