Israeli Elections
The Arab-majority alliance’s endorsement is contingent on Blue and White leader Benny Gantz forming a center-left government, says Joint Arab List leader Ayman Odeh.
“We are in the midst of a global event unlike anything in the history of the state’s existence,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Likud Party minister Ze’ev Elkin told JNS that the first hurdle is that by working in partnership with the Arab parties, “Blue and White, and Lieberman are lying to their voters.”
“The law is unnecessary. At the time, it greatly wronged my people, but now it’s time to rethink it—and many other things,” says the Joint Arab List’s Aida Touma-Suleiman.
Knesset increases Blue and White leader Benny Gantz’s security detail after death threats against him following last week’s election are deemed credible.
Those in the “anti-Netanyahu” camp have begun the process of trying to pass legislation that would ban a Knesset member who has been indicted from being tasked with forming a government and becoming prime minister.
Ayman Odeh says the Blue and White Party must reject the idea of a “Jewish majority” government and abandon plans to apply sovereignty in Judea and Samaria if it wants the support of the Arab parties.
Left-wing bloc comprises 55 mandates: 33 for Blue and White, 15 for Joint Arab List and seven for Labor-Gesher-Meretz • Netanyahu blasts Gantz for “trying to steal the election” following center-left push for legislation to block his path to forming a government.
The proceedings seemed muted by the clash of Democratic presidential candidates, the spread of the coronavirus, the rise of anti-Semitism and continued Iranian aggression.
“If you ask Israeli Arabs, they will say that part of their identity is Israeli. The younger generation feels more Israeli than Palestinian, but now they feel the state is accusing them of being traitors,” said Rodayna Badir, an expert on Arab society in Israel working on research at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Even after two other elections, the numbers remain tight, and other issues loom on the horizon—namely, the March 17 trial of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Contact has already been established with “a number of MKs from the other side,” says a spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
