“The Iranian people and the Israeli people, we love each other, we support each other,” Haddad said at Iran International’s studio in Washington. “Every time I went for a demonstration, for a protest, I had Iranians behind me helping me. »
Haddad, a Christian from Nazareth and a volunteer veteran of the Israeli army, is one of Israel’s best-known defenders abroad. He ran second on Amcha Yisrael, a new right-wing list led by retired Brigadier General Ofer Winter, in Israel’s October 27 election. The list obtained 1.68 percent of the votes and no seats.
“The same mission”
Haddad said he wanted to turn ties between ordinary Israelis and Iranians into a joint campaign.
“My plan is to take this relationship between the Israeli people and the Iranian people and strengthen it, and with numbers we together serve the same mission, which is one: to destroy the IRGC and bring security to Israel and the entire Middle East,” he said.
Israel has fought on what Haddad called seven fronts since the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, including a direct war with the Islamic Republic. According to him, Israel won militarily but failed to finish the job, and the reason was the battle for public opinion.
“Do you know why we were arrested? Because of public diplomacy and anti-Israeli propaganda,” he said. “The way to fight the IRGC and destroy the IRGC is through public diplomacy. »
He said Israel’s own government had failed. “We could have done more for Israeli public diplomacy. We could have done more for the public diplomacy of the Iranian people, and in particular for the Iranian people against the IRGC,” he said.
He accused Qatar, which hosts the Hamas political office and funds Al Jazeera, of dominating this arena. “We have completely ceded this arena to Qatar, and they are changing the narrative,” he said.
An Arab in the Israeli army
Haddad served in the Golani Brigade and was seriously injured by a Hezbollah anti-tank missile during the Lebanon War in 2006. “It was my Jewish brothers in arms who saved my life and brought me back to Israel,” he said.
Arab citizens, about a fifth of Israel’s population, are exempt from compulsory service, and Haddad volunteered.
“As an Arab, I was commander of Jewish soldiers in the Israeli army,” he said, rejecting the accusation that Israel is an apartheid state.
In 2024, he lit a torch at Israel’s official Independence Day ceremony. “It’s a huge thing for an Israeli, yes, but for an Israeli Arab it’s absolutely crazy,” he said.
Criticism of Arab-led parties
Arab parties won a record 19 seats in the October 27 elections, and their support helped opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot win the mandate to form a government. Haddad said the result demonstrated that Israeli democracy was working, but he accused party leaders of neglecting their own voters.
“When the elections come, all the leaders stop talking about Gaza, stop talking about Jenin and Ramallah, and finally they start talking about Nazareth and Haifa again,” he said. “They lie to us time and time again.”
He chose Ahmad Tibi, the veteran leader of Ta’al. “He tells you that Israel is an apartheid state. He tells you that he does not want Israel as a Jewish state,”
He also said Tibi was protected by his parliamentary immunity. “He hit a cop, but because he’s a politician, he has immunity. No one can do anything to him,” Haddad said.
Haddad said he had already been excluded from a session of a Knesset committee chaired by Joint List MK Aida Touma-Sliman on the grounds that Israel was an apartheid state.
“I told him, ‘You are actually apartheid, because you won’t listen to me, and I’m one of you, an Arab like you,'” he said. “Pure apartheid towards me. »
He also cited Sami Abu Shehadeh, head of the Balad party, who withdrew from elections in October after the central electoral commission voted to exclude him over comments made after the October 7 attack.
“They don’t want to set a precedent,” Haddad said of the Supreme Court, which recommended withdrawal rather than ruling. “I’m all for free speech, until you start inciting terrorism.”
Teaching children to die
Haddad said Guardian proxies indoctrinate children from a young age and that education can work both ways. He praised the United Arab Emirates, which designated the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group in 2014 and later began teaching about the Holocaust in schools.
Regarding children raised by Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, he said: “When you get to 12, you are already serving in their terrorist organization, completely brainwashed. When you get to 16, you are ready to die.”
Haddad said he hoped Israelis and Iranians would build a common front.
“Together, the people of Israel and the people of Iran, we can really achieve this,” he said.
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