Eisenkot’s party adds Dvora Sharifian Bachar, former Shin Bet and Mossad operative smuggled from Iran as child

By Nava Freiberg

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9 July 2026, 1:40 pm

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Nava Freiberg is The Times of Israel's deputy diplomatic correspondent.

Yashar party chief Gadi Eisenkot, right, welcomes former Shin Bet and Mossad official Dvora Sharifian Bachar to the party in a handout photo released on July 9, 2026. (Courtesy Yashar)

Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party announces that former Shin Bet and Mossad official Dvora Sharifian Bachar is joining the party ahead of the upcoming election.

Sharifian Bachar, 44, a resident of Kibbutz Eilot in the south, was born in Tehran shortly after the Islamic Revolution and, at age 7, was smuggled with her family to Israel in a covert Mossad operation, according to a statement from Yashar.

She began her career in the Shin Bet as a field fighter in an elite counterterror force made up of Shin Bet fighters and members of the police’s elite Yamam unit, known as a Tequila team, and afterwards joined the Mossad.

In the Mossad, she served in operational roles and a range of intelligence positions before moving into data and cyber, and later advanced to head an intelligence branch in the operational department.

Sharifian Bachar, whose mother tongue is Persian, holds a bachelor’s degree in criminology and political science from Bar-Ilan University, a teaching certificate in civics and Persian, and a master’s degree specializing in educational leadership, teaching and learning.

“For years, I worked behind the scenes as a fighter and manager for the security of the state, and I saw up close how fateful decisions are made. Today, our internal challenges require us not to remain on the sidelines, but to take responsibility and influence matters from within the centers of decision-making,” Sharifian Bachar says in the statement, stressing the “obligation to give every boy and girl in [Israel’s] periphery the tools to lead and excel” – a key component of Eisenkot’s campaign.

Eisenkot hails Sharifian Bachar as a “fighter for the periphery,” saying her experience “will lead the repair the country needs.”

Sharifian Bachar joins other figures who have teamed up with Eisenkot, including former Shin Bet chief Yoram Cohen, former Finance Ministry budget chief Shaul Meridor, and former ministers and MKs Matan Kahana and Orit Farkash-Hacohen.