Sarah Idan, a former Miss Iraq and now a candidate in the 2024 US Congressional elections, toured decimated Israeli communities along the Gaza border this week, in a show of solidarity with the Jewish state similar to those that saw her Iraqi citizenship revoked in 2019.
In a Channel 12 interview, Idan, who is running to represent California’s 30th Congressional district, explained she was compelled to show the “October 7-deniers” among her tens of thousands of social media followers — largely Iraqis — the truth of what took place in Israel on October 7, when some 3,000 Hamas terrorists invaded and massacred some 1,200 people, taking another 240 hostages to Gaza.
She said it makes her sick to her stomach to hear students on US campuses say the Hamas attack was an act of self-defense.
“I want them to see the horror that caused the war on Gaza. The world is shouting ‘Free Palestine’ and it was never about freeing Palestine. This is not about freeing Palestine — killing innocent families and burning them alive. This is not freeing Palestine, this is terrorism,” she told Channel 12 on Tuesday.
Idan has prior experience with jihadists. In 2008, at age 18, Idan, having taught herself English while a refugee in Syria from the war in Iraq, offered her services as a translator to US forces in Iraq. During her military service, as she recounted in a recent X post, she aided US troops in fighting Hamas of Iraq, an extremist group separate from the Palestinian terror organization.
“So us, the US military, and the Iraqi military were fighting [Iraqi] Hamas together. Tell me, if Hamas were trying to free Iraq, why were they trying to hinder the process of Iraqis establishing their own government and becoming independent?” she said on X. In Israel, she reiterated for Channel 12, “Here it’s exactly the same war, the same enemies.”
The California district Idan is running for is currently represented by staunch pro-Israel Democrat Adam Schiff, who is vacating the seat in order to run for the US Senate in 2024. It includes the cities of Burbank, West Hollywood, and parts of Glendale and Pasadena.
US Congressional candidate Sarah Idan (second from right), a former Miss Iraq, tours the Hamas-wrought destruction of Kibbutz Kfar Aza, December 28, 2023. (X, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
Running as a Democrat, Idan intends to be “the anti-squad,” she told Channel 12, referring to the group of hard-left Democrat progressives that have staked out positions highly critical of Israel, among them Reps. Rashida Tlaib, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley and Ilhan Omar.
“It’s not just about Israel. My Iraq is already lost. I lost my Iraq to the Iranian regime and to the radical Islamists and I could never live there. So the US is my only home and I need to protect my home and sadly, The Squad, when it comes to the Middle East, I feel like they have no experience, they’re being told what to say.”
In this week’s tour of Israel, the former beauty queen dressed to make a statement, wearing gray-streaked camouflage pants and a gray T-shirt reading “fight back,” with matching gray and black nail polish and beige combat boots. She called it her uniform in Iraq and said, “I thought, if I’m coming to a war zone, if anything happens to me, I want to die in this uniform. These boots have seen war, have seen explosions, suicide bombers, snipers, everything.”
The 2017 candidate from Iraq for Miss Universe caused an international uproar after meeting and taking a selfie with Miss Israel Adar Gandelsman in Las Vegas, captioned, “Peace and Love from Miss Iraq and Miss Israel.” The pair remain close friends and met up this week in Tel Aviv’s Hostage Square during Idan’s third trip to Israel.
Miss Israel Adar Gandelsman (left) and Miss Iraq Sarah Idan pose for a picture at the Miss Universe pageant in 2017. (Instagram)
Within three days of posting that first selfie in 2017, the virulent backlash to the photograph caused her family to again become refugees as they were forced to leave Iraq, emigrating to the US.
This anger is unleashed against her and her family each time she posts on Israel, and she lost her Iraqi citizenship in 2019 following an address at the UN Human Rights Council in which she stated that the Israeli-Arab conflict was not based on genuine policy disagreements but was “deeply rooted in the belief systems taught in Muslim countries, which are antisemitic.” She further said this “hatred and intolerance” was “reinforced by biased media.”
This week in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, she was shown the destruction wrought by Hamas, including against the Israeli Idan family. Four-year-old Avigail Idan was taken captive by Hamas terrorists on October 7, father Roee Idan and mother Smadar were murdered, while siblings Michael and Amalya, ages 9 and 6, hid for 14 hours in a closet in their house. A US-dual citizen, Abigail was released on November 26 as part of a temporary ceasefire deal brokered by Qatar and the United States between Hamas and Israel.
Speaking to her IDF guide, Idan asked, “That’s the Idan family? Like I-D-A-N? That’s my last name.”
Avigail Idan, 4, who was released from Hamas captivity in Gaza on November 26, 2023, having been taken hostage on October 7. Both her parents were murdered by the terrorists. (Courtesy)
It was her “Jewish-sounding” name that fueled conspiracy theories following her 2017 selfie that she was actually a Mossad agent and that she herself was Jewish. Through this experience, she has said she began to understand the nature of antisemitism.
In reading the Arabic comments to her recent social media posts about October 7, she said she is incredulous when she sees people responding, “Long live Hamas, God bless them for what they’ve done.”
She drew parallels between the optics of the US war in Iraq and Israel’s war with Hamas, and the number of casualties incurred in both conflicts.
“No one has killed the Iraqi people as much as Iraqi people have killed Iraqi people,” she said, referring to the reign of Saddam Hussein, who used her childhood school as a human shield for armaments, as well as the violent insurgency that followed his removal.
“The civil war killed us, the radical Islam killed us and that’s literally what I see is happening with Palestinians,” she said.
Sarah Idan (left) serving as a translator in Iraq, embedded with US forces in 2008. (courtesy, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
Idan told Channel 12 that she is surprised by the lack of popular uprising against Hamas in Gaza.
“What is really sad is that the Gazans have not taken action against Hamas. What are they waiting for? In Iraq, we had Saddam Hussein and he was brutal and Iraqis couldn’t really stand up to him, but the minute the US came in they went and they brought down his statues and they celebrated the victory.”
“What I don’t understand is why, when the IDF went into Gaza to take out Hamas, is why Gazans are not helping the IDF. Why they did not take this opportunity to turn against Hamas because now Hamas is weakened. So do they approve? Do they approve of the killing? I hope not,” she said.
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‘This was not about freeing Palestine’: Former Miss Iraq tours decimated southern towns - The Times of Israel
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