Usually when Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon makes international headlines, it is because of some unbecoming slip of the tongue. Ya’alon never earned himself the reputation of a peace seeker. He is actually considered one of the major factors who helped Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu withstand the Obama administration’s peace assault of 2013-14, led by Secretary of State John Kerry and former special envoy Martin Indyk. True, Ya’alon spent most of his life as a supporter of the Labor Party (now the Zionist Camp), but went through a process of rethinking a shifting worldview while serving as the chief of military intelligence. Today, he is one of those who believe that it is impossible for Israel and the Palestinians to reach a permanent agreement and achieve real peace in this generation, or at the very least, over the next few years.

Having said all that, this year Ya’alon has proved himself to be one of the last voices of sanity in Netanyahu’s far-right government. Credit for this begins with his firm stance in support of democratic values and against all of the far right's repeated efforts to hurt them. It can be seen in his uncompromising stand against the “price tag” phenomena (attacks against non-Jewish religious institutions or against Palestinians) and its remarkable growth, culminating in the murder of the Palestinian teen Mohammed Abu Khdeir in July 2014 and the burning of the Dawabsha family to death in their home in the village of Douma in July 2015. It was Ya’alon who defined (by name) the Jewish fringe groups behind these attacks as terrorists, and for the first time allowed the Shin Bet to use methods of investigation usually reserved for Arab terrorists.

Ya’alon also did not bat an eye when he was ordered to evacuate and tear down the Dreinoff neighborhood in the settlement of Beit El in July 2015. While Education Minister Naftali Bennett was showing his support for the settlers by addressing them late at night from the roof of a caravan in their settlement, the defense minister showed strength and determination by instructing the security forces to carry out the Supreme Court’s order to the letter.

Together with President Reuven Rivlin, Ya’alon is now considered to be the last line of defense in the battle for the rule of law, the Supreme Court and liberal democratic values. Usually Netanyahu barely expresses himself on all of the aforementioned issues, and when he does say something, he stammers it out far too late. Netanyahu is too concerned about his historical electoral base on the right, and particularly the support of the settlers, who went to the polls in droves on election day last March and kept him in power. But Ya'alon, it seems, isn’t afraid of anyone.