Yoseph Haddad outlines plan to overhaul Israel’s public diplomacy

Yoseph Haddad is running for Knesset as the No. 2 in Ofer Winter's Amcha Israel; if they enter government he wants to be Israel's public diplomacy minister, he joins i24NEWS's On The Record to lay out his plans.

Haddad is an Arab Christian from Nazareth, he was injured in Lebanon in 2006, and since 2014 has been advocating for Israel in Hebrew, Arabic, and English. Haddad says that while Israel succeeded on the seven military fronts since October 7, it lost on the eighth front: public relations.

His first move as minister would be to provide weekly press conferences in Hebrew, Arabic, and English aimed not just at the foreign press but also at an Israeli audience to keep them updated on government moves.

Haddad says that his aim in Hebrew is to challenge "extremists" in Israel who are parroting the Hamas narrative, while in Arabic he plans to take the fight to the Arabic-language channels that are "twisting the facts in Arabic."

"If they don't come, it's even better, because I will show that those people are not even willing to confront me," Haddad said.

"I want CNN reporters to ask me the toughest questions about what's happening in Gaza, what's happening here in Israel, about Israel being an apartheid state, about ethnic cleansing, genocide, all that nonsense, that they've been telling about Israel for years and years. Bring it on. Let me show you."

When asked why Israel had failed to respond, Haddad said "Israel did not realize the change of tactics and strategic of our enemies."

"Israel knows that no one can beat the soldiers of the IDF. No one. You can temporarily put us on our knees, just like on October 7, where our fighters both female and male, rose up and we will conquer our enemies."

When asked how effective outreach to the Arab world could be, Haddad pointed to the UAE as a success story, but he said that an even better example was Arab Israelis themselves.

"If you ask the majority of Arab Israeli, for instance, no one will deny the Holocaust. No one will actually say that it was a lie. So it's possible."

Haddad said that his own entry into a War Cabinet would be an even better example to counter claims that Israel is an apartheid state.

"So the idea is to strengthen the Jewish community and to strengthen the pro-Israel community through my story and through actually my experience as an Arab Israeli citizen."

"I'm going to take my Middle Eastern mentality to the public diplomacy in the Middle East and bring it to the Middle East," he said. "When they lie, I will expose their lies. But I will expose their lies in my own way, the Arab way, especially if I'm speaking to them in Arabic. That itself will make a lot of noise."

Haddad said that there is already support for such diplomacy in the Arab world. "My idea is to strengthen the relationship with the Lebanese."

"We have an ally in Lebanon. You have about 80-90% of the Christians want normalization and even peace with Israel. You have about 70% of the Sunni Muslims want normalization, 60-70% from the Druze community, even 20-30% from the Shia who are sick and tired of Hezbollah. And they say, 'We want to do something for Lebanon, not for Iran or the IRGC.'"

"We need to capitalize on that," Haddad said. "I want to open that dialog with the Lebanese. There's a better future where Israel and Lebanon are close friends together."

Haddad said US Vice President JD Vance was very dangerous for Israel and that he hoped Vance would not be nominated by the Republican Party. "I really hope Rubio is going to be the next president of the United States."