As you have already probably figured, in order to keep my/our sanity, I want to also post positive and inspirational stories and not just the doom and gloom.
Here is one such tale of heroism, the kind for which Israelis are becoming increasingly renowned.
Meet Yair Golan, a former Israeli military officer and left-wing politician whose views include supporting the 2005 Israeli Disengagement from Gaza.
He’s also a kick-ass hero.
Yesterday, when IDF and the police were in complete chaos, Golan put on his old uniform, took his weapon, and drove into the war zone multiple times to rescue civilians under fire. He rescued two young adults hiding under a bush after 260 of their friends were murdered at an outdoor party. He answered a call from a journalist that his son was hiding under fire and simply said, “Give me his location, and I will bring him back home.” An hour later, the son called his father from Golan’s car.
Golan collected a small crew and went in and out of the war zone, rescuing dozens of people while exchanging fire with Hamas terrorists. He is 61, he could have stayed home, but he chose to risk his life for people he does not know.
Golan is one of the strongest voices from the Israeli left and was constantly attacked by the right wing in Israel. But when the time came, he was first fighting the barbaric attack. The same brain wiring that supports peace, is often the same wiring that drives people to do the right thing. A true hero.
Walla News reports about his heroics from the point of view of the father of one of the people he saved:
The deputy chief of staff in the past, and the member of the Knesset representing Meretz in the years 2019-2022, was one of the first to come to his senses and respond to the terrorist attack by Hamas, and went to the ground almost immediately, without instructions and without hesitation.
“This heroic man saved my son’s life and the lives of his two friends,” said Roni Gaon, “They were at a nature party and when the rockets fell they started running everywhere along with everyone else. In the end they found themselves running like crazy and finding hiding in a bush.
“I immediately went south and a police checkpoint stopped me at the Mishmar HaNegev intersection. From the morning hours I gave the army officers who were there the exact location of my son and his friends, but no one reached them for hours. All this time the three young men were hiding in the thicket of bushes, hearing the noise of gunshots and motorcycles above them, and did not know what to do.”
Gaon described how “suddenly, out of nowhere, the angel arrives at the location of my son and his friends, calls my son, calls him by name, tells him ‘Hello, Major Yair Golan is speaking, come to me.’ Golan came to collect us. He will bring us all the way to you’, and so it was. This person, this hero, this angel, came and rescued them from the area, simply unbelievable. I have no words to thank and salute you, Yair Golan.”
Even earlier, Golan was at the center of the rescue of the son of the journalist Nir Guntz. “He asked for a location and said ‘I’m going to bring it to you,'” he described, “and then they informed me that they were already in the car, on the way out. Wow.”
And you can Yair speaking about it here.
As my friend Noah wrote, “I disagree with Yair Golan on every conceivable political issue. He is a hero, and he has my endless gratitude.”
