The Magnificent Dor Harari: Winner of Dancing with Stars and Brave Maglan fighter in Gaza

One night, Dor Harari is onstage at Beit Lessin, dressed in a khaki costume for the political satire Blues for the Big Holiday. The next, he’s deep in Gaza in real khakis, a reservist with Israel’s elite Maglan unit, gun in hand. And between the two? A tuxedo, a samba, and a smile for the judges on Dancing with the Stars, the show that made him a household name.

“I’m literally fighting for our existence,” he explains to Ynet. “And the moment after, I jump to the dance floor to fulfill what I’m fighting for.”

It sounds impossible. For Harari, 35, it’s simply life. A life split cleanly down the middle, between the beauty of performance and the brutality of war. Between camera flashes and flares. Between the stage and the battlefield. Between hope and horror.

October 7 and the Shattered Illusion

The rupture came, as it did for so many, on the morning of October 7. Harari was backstage at Beit Lessin, when news broke: a brutal assault by Hamas, over 1,200 dead, 253 kidnapped.

“It caught me completely unprepared,” he recalls. “I hadn’t done reserve duty since Operation Protective Edge in 2014. But once I heard my team was heading south, that was it. There was no question.”

What followed was a brutal new reality, one in which Harari toggled between war and art with dizzying frequency. One day filming The Commander, the next, burying comrades. He’d come back from the field with dirt still under his nails, only to jump into a costume, or onto the Dancing with the Stars stage, where he and his partner Hagar Dekel eventually won the season, as reported by Ynet+.

The Dance Floor as Release Valve

Filming the show became an escape, though not an easy one.

“It was exhausting. The injuries, the rehearsals, the cameras... it reminded me of the army in how relentless it was. No weekends, no sleep, just performance after performance.”

Yet it also gave him something vital: purpose. “Every time I stepped onto the floor, I lived to the fullest,” he says. “It helped me remember why we fight, to be able to dance, to move, to create.”

The victory brought public recognition and a campaign with Amishragas Energy, a company founded on Zionist values that Harari says “saw” him. “They understood what I stand for. That matters.”

A Fighter’s Unfiltered Truth

But Harari doesn’t shy away from the brutal side of his dual life. The war haunts him. Stories circulate constantly among his unit, like the family who held a safe room door for six hours while Gazans wandered the house. “They called the terrorists back to shoot the handle again,” he says. “This is firsthand. There are many like it.”

For Harari, the war’s root problem is clear: Gaza’s educational system.

"It’s accepted that a minor is under 18, but there they don’t even have a concept of a teenager, a minor, a family unit, or respect. They have Allah, they have books, millions of copies of Mein Kampf, Hamas charters, and Ahmed Yassin’s teachings. I’ve seen it in their homes. They don’t strive for a peaceful life, and that’s the truth, and we need to know this to understand who we’re dealing with. If there’s no change in their education, in October 2035 there will be another massacre."

He believes in destroying Hamas and possibly more. “The destruction of Gaza has to be complete. Only then can something new be built. Maybe then we can change how the children there see the world.”

He’s quick to acknowledge civilian suffering but draws a sharp line. “There are innocent people. And they really didn’t do anything, and they’re paying a price. So why do they stay there? Even those who didn’t engage in terrorism believe the Jewish people should be erased, and to me, they’re just as dangerous as those who actively took part in terror. They’re the ones who took the hostages and passed them from hand to hand like sheep. A living Jew is worth a lot of money to them. They could have stopped at murdering Jews, but that wasn’t enough. They raped, they slaughtered, they dismembered bodies. Why do you need to tie up parents and murder their children in front of their eyes, or rape a woman in front of her husband? From this, you can understand that the events of October 7 and the nature of the acts that day are a direct result of a deep, distorted religious education that has nothing to do with morality. And we’re supposed to defend that?"

Is this hardline view compatible with his artistry? He shrugs. “Art helps me release the tension. But it doesn’t change the truth. We’re fighting people who would sacrifice their neighbors to survive. That doesn’t happen in our unit. That’s the difference.”

How to Save Gaza's Children

Harari says that he children in Gaza need to be saved in terms of their worldview. They’re not raised with a desire for peace, a two-state solution, or the ambition to work, progress, or leave the Strip for the territories or Europe. "They know what kind of world is out there, they have TikTok, but these people choose barbarism as a worldview ... The Gazans don’t strive for a peaceful life, and that’s the truth, and we need to know this to understand who we’re dealing with. If there’s no change in their education, in October 2035 there will be another massacre ... A five-year-old is born into the existing reality, so if I could, I’d give him chocolate and teach him Jewish values that might replace the evil they absorb. But let’s not fool ourselves: as long as there’s no one to fix this, the problem will remain.”

The Soulmate, the Sofa, and the Search for Peace

Amid the chaos, there is quiet. Harari is dating relationship with Hagar Dekel, whom he met during Dancing with the Stars. “She’s the best thing that happened to me from the show,” he says. “I’m not belittling the trophy, but she’s a soul.”

He also speaks of his parents, who still live in Ra’anana. “They’re proud of me. That gives me peace.”

Still on Call

A new Tzav 8 call-up is already knocking. Harari’s back could be summoned to the front at any moment. He knows many aren’t showing up now, worn down after 20 months of war. He gets it. But he still believes in the mission.

“The real leaders?” he says. “It’s not politicians. It’s the married reservists with mortgages who show up. No glory, no fame, just duty.”

And if the war takes him away again?

“I’ll go,” he says. “Because the dance floor is only possible if the battlefield is defended.”