Supporters of Israel’s Arab-led Joint List political alliance cheer at the alliance’s campaign headquarters in the northern Israeli city of Nazareth, Tuesday October 27th. Credit: Ahmad Gharabli/AFP
By Jerry Ginsberg
Netanyahu and his allies have won just 53 seats in the 120-member Knesset, down from the 64 seats that gave them a solid majority four years ago. Still, Netanyahu may stay in office unless the opposition, led by Yashair’s Gadi Eisenkot, can get support from the historic win from the two Arab Parties in the Knesset.
The 19 seats held by Arab Parties (11 from Joint-List and 8 from United Arab List) in the 120-seat Knesset reflect strong support, as many Palestinian Israeli citizens, despite their frustrations, chose to vote and ended a boycott of elections by a government that had mistreated them and limited their freedoms.
Arab party leaders have urged the opposition to work with them to replace Netanyahu. Yousef Jabareen, head of Joint-List, has called for a “genuine Arab-Jewish partnership” to remove Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and said his party was “ready to pave the way for Netanyahu’s ouster.” Ahmad Tibi, who leads one of the factions in the Joint-List party, said Wednesday that Eisenkot’s bloc could form a government “if it wants to, if it is brave enough to.”
As MK Ofer Kasif (Hadash and Joint-List) said after the election results were published: “This is now or never: the removal of the malicious government and the beginning of a correction, or the continuation of the atrocities of the past four years. We are committed to the correction – will the block of change rise to the size of the hour? The ball is in [Eisenkot’s] court.”
Eisenkot, the former Chief of General Staff of the IDF, campaigned on removing Netanyahu and his right-wing coalition but also said during the campaign that he would not include the Arab parties in his coalition. His commitment to keeping the government pro-Zionist conflicts with the goal of unseating Netanyahu.
Netanyahu’s coalition government formed in 2022 was the most right-wing in Israel’s history. Recent revelations that he did not act to report information to the IDF about a potential Hamas-led attack before October 7th and sabotaged efforts to return hostages show he did not prioritize the security and well-being of the Israeli people during his adminstration. His motives to weaken the judicial system have been clear, and he continues to undermine democratic processes and institutions.
While Netanyahu and the far-right have lost seats, the election results also show that the previous Zionist coalitions in the Knesset, made up of center-left and center-right parties, have lost ground. A coalition based on Jewish-Arab unity is the way to strengthen the country’s democracy.
The Fight for Democracy in Israel
As election results came in, protesters gathered outside Eisenkot’s home and chanted slogans like “The people have decided – Jewish-Arab partnership” and “Jews and Arabs refuse to be enemies.” They also issued a statement: “We will demand that [Eisenkot] act to prevent further abandonment of civilians and citizens, and to lead a political process based on a real partnership with the Arab public and its representatives.”
The only hope for democracy is a Jewish-Arab partnership. Many Israelis understand this and support such a partnership in the coalition, but incitement and intimidation are widespread and lead party leaders to join the boycott of the Arab parties. Now, during government formation talks, is the time to pressure all party leaders of the opposition. Netanyahu and his partners are comfortable when Arabs are not counted, but the opposition, if they are serious about removing Netanyahu, continues to go along with the racist disregard for 20% of the citizens.
Many Arab citizens reached out to the public that calls itself “democratic” and said they want to be part of Israel, even though voting this way comes with emotional and social costs for most of them.
This is also an achievement of the Joint-List and Hadash which successfully moves the Left into politics. The Joint-List’s campaign was especially effective in motivating voters and raising Arab citizen turnout to historic levels. Many Jewish voters also supported leftists on the Joint-List, giving it thousands of votes in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, and other cities.
The main messages of the Joint-List Alliance—ending the occupation, peace, national and civic equality, social justice, Jewish-Arab solidarity, and a promise to overthrow the right-wing government—reached wide audiences and brought hundreds of thousands who did not vote in previous elections to the polls. This success is an important milestone in building an Arab-Jewish left that is working to change the reality in the country for both peoples living in Israel and Palestine.
Netanyahu and far-right extremists are already trying to undermine this unity by claiming that “Arabs are stealing the election.” Netanyahu uses this fear-mongering because he worries the opposition, including the Arab parties, with a solid majority, will pass laws to undo the judicial and legal changes from the outgoing government’s regime coup. Netanyahu and his allies are determined to stop that.
Now is the time for Eisenkot and the left-center Zionists to compromise to defeat Netanyahu, even if it is difficult. Unity should be democratic and not based on Jewish supremacy. The United Jewish Peoples Fraternal Order does not support Eisenkot’s anti-Arab policies, but strategy and tactics dictates a coalition to defeat Netanyahu and his party. The stakes couldn’t be higher: an end to the current war with Iran, Hadash entering the government, and defeat of the now fascist Likud party.