Public diplomacy activist Yoseph Haddad announced on Tuesday that he was joining Ofer Winter's Amcha Yisrael party as its number two after extensive public speculation if he’d be entering the political sphere.
Haddad said he had deliberated over whether to enter political life but had ultimately decided to do so because the party brings what he described as “a new slate free of career politicians, made up of people who have contributed to the country from outside politics and are now seeking to influence it from within the Knesset.”
He stated the public had grown tired of "cheap politics" and was now demanding a new right-wing party that understands the Middle Eastern mentality and challenges the security and diplomatic assumptions that, he said, led to the greatest disaster in the country's history.
Haddad: I will be the next Hasbara minister
Haddad argued that public diplomacy is inseparable from Israel's national security, saying he aimed to be Israel’s next public diplomacy minister and the first Arab member of Israel's security cabinet.
"We will bring to the decision-making table the voice of a proud Israeli Arab who understands the enemy, thinks like him, and lives the regional mentality," Haddad said. "Together with Ofer Winter as the next defense minister, we will challenge the system from within and ensure that the IDF reaches decisive outcomes on every front."
"After what we went through on October 7, the horrific massacre on the darkest day in the country's history, there is only one way to guarantee our existence here: to be powerful and speak to the enemy in the only language he understands," he added.
Haddad said another central reason for entering politics was his belief in partnership. He pointed to the party's makeup, with a religious Jewish leader and an Arab deputy alongside representatives from across the country, as a symbol of partnership that, he said, was “reviving the vision of Ze'ev Jabotinsky.”
Referring to what he called the "curse of the eighth decade," Haddad said two Jewish kingdoms had previously collapsed during their eighth decade because of internal disputes and division. He claimed Israel's enemies hoped the same would happen again and referred mockingly to Hamas's new spokesman as "Abu Obeida from AliExpress."
"Our party will not give our enemies that pleasure, and therefore we will do everything in our power to bring a unifying approach precisely in these years, not out of naivety, but out of love for the country, the need for national resilience, and an understanding of the gravity of the hour in light of the major challenges we face," Haddad said. "At the same time, we will stand our ground. We will not compromise on values, ideology, or our path."
He added that there could be no partnership or dialogue with those inside Israel who, in his view, harm the country or incite against IDF soldiers.
Haddad also sharply attacked the Arab parties, saying that as an Israeli Arab he intended to replace them so that Arab society would have Knesset representatives who worked on its behalf rather than for Gaza, Jenin, and Ramallah.
"I despise them, and I also despise people who, for political interests, are prepared to carry out serious public diplomacy attacks and say about our country: 'A sane country does not kill babies as a hobby,'" he said.
Haddad concluded that although entering politics was difficult, he found it even harder to remain on the sidelines while believing he could influence the country's direction and help move it toward a better place.
He said that just as a Hezbollah missile had not stopped him 20 years ago in Bint Jbail when he served as a Golani soldier, nothing would stop him now from turning Amcha Yisrael into a defining story of the elections and "the greatest nightmare of Israel's enemies from Tehran to Gaza."