Israel can defeat Iran under a government led by former IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party, though there is still “a lot of work to do in this field,” former Mossad and Shin Bet official Dvora Sharifian Bachar told The Jerusalem Post.
Bachar’s comments came at Yashar’s Knesset slate unveiling in Rosh Ha’ayin on Monday, a day before the deadline for parties to submit their final candidate lists.
Bachar received the 14th spot on Eisenkot’s slate, and with recent polls projecting Yashar to win around 23 seats, she is well-positioned to enter the next Knesset.
“Iran was the focus of my 20-year career in the Mossad,” Bachar told the Post. “I think we have a lot of work to do in this field.”
She added that she believed Israel has the capability to “win against Iran” and “bring security back” by confronting the Islamic Republic as well as its regional proxies, including the Houthis and Hezbollah.
Smuggled out of Iran by Mossad, Bachar joined the intelligence service later in life
Bachar, 44, was born in Tehran several years after the 1979 Islamic Revolution toppled shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and brought Ruhollah Khomeini to power.
When Bachar was seven, the Mossad covertly smuggled her and her family out of Iran and brought them to Israel. There, despite being raised in a conservative Jewish family, she enlisted in the IDF and became a commander, eventually rising to the rank of captain.
After completing her military service, Bachar began a 22-year career in security, first serving as a field operative in the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), before moving to the country’s foreign intelligence service, the Mossad.
Now on Eisenkot’s list, Bachar believes her party is well-positioned to triumph in the October elections and “make Israel great again.”
“With my colleagues, and of course, with Gadi at the head of the party, we have all the best chances to win this election,” she said.
Plans to focus on Iran, national security, and education
If elected, she added, beyond focusing on Iran and national security, she would also like to work on education.
“There is also education, which is something I love,” she said. “I’ve been working for five years now as a teacher. I teach Persian, as well as intelligence and defense, in high schools from Kiryat Shmona to Eilat.”
Following her career in Israel’s intelligence apparatus, Bachar founded the “Security and Intelligence: Iran Track,” an education program that works to prepare high school students for service in the IDF, particularly in intelligence and cyber units.
“I think that Israel’s real security is education,” she noted.
Eisenkot’s Yashar party has led most recent polls and is part of the opposition bloc seeking to replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the October election.