Former defense minister compares Religious Zionists to Nazis, calls to shut down the country

Ex-IDF Chief of Staff urges civil disobedience, charges Netanyahu’s government with deliberately prolonging the war and sacrificing the hostages.

By World Israel News Staff

Israel’s former defense minister and ex-chief of staff of the IDF compared the current governing coalition, headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to Nazis in a fiery speech on Wednesday.

Moshe “Boogie” Ya’alon slammed the government during a conference at Tel Aviv University, calling for a mass public uprising to oust the coalition.

“The State of Israel is currently experiencing the most severe crisis since its founding — perhaps since the dawn of Zionism. Understanding this crisis is the key to emerging from it. We are at a crossroads: either we return to being a Jewish, democratic, and liberal state, or we continue down a path that is messianic, racist, fascist, homophobic, misogynistic, corrupt, and cursed,” Ya’alon said.

“They are willing to prolong the war indefinitely, even at the cost of sacrificing the hostages. This is a chaotic situation. Abandoning the hostages is part of their worldview,” he added.

Referencing prominent Religious Zionist rabbi Dov Lior, Ya’alon claimed that the Religious Zionist party “follows teachings” that are based in “an ideology of Jewish supremacy, a kind of Mein Kampf. I get goosebumps just saying that.”

Mein Kampf is a manifesto written by Adolf Hitler and considered the bible of Nazism.

Ya’alon said that the political situation in Israel is dire,and that the public must take drastic action in order to “save” the Jewish state.

“In this reality, there will be no choice but to shut down the country in order to save it. For me, that means nonviolent civil disobedience — sitting around the Prime Minister’s Office, his home, the Knesset. teachers, doctors, unions — everyone is crying out. We’ll need to paralyze the country,” he said.

The former politician served as defense minister under Netanyahu from 2013 until 2016.

In a March 2025 radio interview, Ya’alon accused Netanyahu of receiving tens of millions of dollars in bribes from Qatar. Netanyahu immediately filed a defamation lawsuit against Ya’alon, to which he responded, “Bring it on!”