Golan: Eliminating Khamenei in Iran war ‘was a mistake’

The Democrats Party leader Yair Golan on Friday criticized Israel’s decision to kill former Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Feb. 28, the first day of “Operation Roaring Lion.”

“I think it is absolutely clear that assassinating the elder Khamenei was a mistake. Not because he didn’t deserve to die, but because it does not serve the interests of the State of Israel,” the former Israeli general said at an event in Rishon LeZion.

He explained that there is a “certain advantage” in dealing with an elderly leader; Ali Khamenei was 86 years old.

Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba Khamenei, has replaced him as Supreme Leader, even though he was reportedly seriously injured in the same attack that killed his father.

Now, Golan assessed, Khamenei’s successor is “controlled by Iran’s senior strategic and security leadership, which is ultra-hardline. In fact, after we eliminated the top-ranking figures at many key points in the Iranian [leadership], we were left with people who are more extreme and more violent.”

“In that respect, I can say that Israel was at the peak of its achievements against the Iranians at the end of [June 2025’s “Operation] Rising Lion,” and "[Operation] Roaring Lion” actually worsened our position from a long-term strategic perspective rather than improving it,” Golan said.

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir lashed out at Golan over the remarks.

“The deranged Israeli left is approaching the antisemites in Europe with giant strides,” Ben-Gvir wrote in a Hebrew-language post on X. “The one who accused the [Israel Defense Forces] of killing babies as a hobby is now lamenting the elimination of the greatest enemies of the Jewish people since the Holocaust,” the minister said.

“Israel is on the path to becoming a pariah among nations, like South Africa once was, if it doesn’t return to acting like a sane state,” Golan said in May 2025 in an interview with Israel’s public broadcaster Kan News.

“A sane state does not wage war against civilians, does not kill babies as a hobby, and does not set goals of population expulsion for itself,” he added.

Ben-Gvir on Friday criticized Israel’s judicial system for allowing Golan’s faction to run in the Oct. 27 general election, saying that it is a “mark of shame upon the State of Israel.”

The Democrats’ chairman seemed to backtrack from his earlier statement, saying later on Friday on X that eliminating Khamenei “could have been a historic turning point” had the Israeli government in the aftermath of the attack advanced a “regional diplomatic move that would ensure Israel’s security.” He did not provide details regarding what this move should have entailed.

Golan has come under fire over a series of controversial remarks in recent years.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu berated his “killing babies as a hobby” statement last year, labeling it as “outrageous” and slamming the lack of a “limit to [Golan’s] moral decay.”

During a Holocaust Remembrance Day address in 2016, Golan said that he recognized “processes” in modern Israeli society that were reminiscent of trends in the 1930s in Europe and in pre-Nazi Germany.

In January, the left-wing leader said that Israel’s broadcaster Channel 14 should be shut down, referring to it as a propaganda network and stirring debates about free speech and freedom of the press.