Killing Khamenei was a 'mistake,' Yair Golan says
Golan says Iran’s surviving leaders are more extreme and violent, accuses Netanyahu of setting an unrealistic goal of regime change
Democrats leader Yair Golan said killing Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei did not serve Israel’s interests, arguing that the operation left more extreme figures in power.
“I think that, without a doubt, eliminating Khamenei senior was a mistake. Not because he didn’t deserve to die, but because it did not serve Israel’s interests,” he said at a Friday Culture event in Rishon LeZion.
“There is a certain advantage to having an elderly, long-standing leader like Khamenei. He was 86, after all,” Golan said. Of Khamenei’s son and successor, he added: “If he is even functioning at all, I get the impression that he is controlled by Iran’s ultra-extremist security leadership.”
“After we wiped out the top tier of leadership across so many key areas, we were left with individuals who are more extreme and more violent,” he said, arguing that Israel’s achievements against Iran peaked with Operation Rising Lion in June 2025.
Golan said the subsequent Operation Roaring Lion “did not improve our position,” accusing Netanyahu of setting “an unrealistic war objective — overthrowing the Iranian regime — which ultimately failed and was never achieved.”
Khamenei was killed in an Israeli airstrike on his Tehran compound on February 28, in the opening wave of the joint U.S.-Israeli offensive against Iran.
Golan, a former IDF deputy chief of staff, heads the left-wing party formed by the merger of Labor and Meretz. His remarks came ahead of Israel’s October 27 election, with his party among the opposition factions seeking to oust Netanyahu.