Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday evening accused former prime ministers Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett of seeking to form a government with the Islamist United Arab List after the next election.
“The cat is out of the bag: proof that Lapid and Bennett will form a government with the Muslim Brotherhood,” Netanyahu tweeted, sharing an interview with United Arab List leader Mansour Abbas.
“Even if I’m the 61st [Knesset vote], yes, we will form a government. That’s my opinion,” Abbas, whose party is also known its Hebrew acronym, Ra’am, tells Israel’s Channel 12 News broadcaster in the interview.
Abbas, whose party served as a coalition partner in the Lapid-Bennett government that unseated Netanyahu between June 2021 and December 2022, said he hoped the former prime ministers would achieve a majority of 61 seats in the general election set to take place by Oct. 27.
“But if not, if we have a reality where we are going to elections again, and again have a government that won’t meet the needs of Arab citizens, I need to act so that a good government is formed,” the Arab politician concluded.
Abbas announced on Dec. 6 that he would cut ties to the Shura Council, a body linked to the Muslim Brotherhood-inspired Southern Branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, which has traditionally guided his decisions.
The announcement came a month after Netanyahu announced that he intends to ban the Muslim Brotherhood. The premier’s declaration followed a similar announcement by President Donald Trump.
Israeli opposition parties largely remained silent regarding the separation from the Shura Council. Right-wing politicians were more vocal, dismissing it outright, with Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich calling Abbas a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” who is seeking to “deceive the Israeli public.”
Asked in 2024 about his views of Hamas, Abbas said that the terrorists are “part of the Palestinian people.” He has also urged ending the recent war, claiming the Israel Defense Forces “murdered” 50,000 Gaza civilians.
Also in 2024, a probe by the Israeli Justice Ministry found evidence that entities controlled by the United Arab List “transferred funds or cooperated with organizations outside of Israel that were declared as terrorist groups.”
According to an investigation published in February 2024, Igatha 48 (“Aid 48") transferred large sums to and carried out joint activities with a Turkish organization called Khir Ummah, which serves as a Hamas front group.
Igatha 48 serves as a fundraising arm of the Southern Branch of the Islamic Movement.
Between 2020 and 2023, Igatha 48 transferred more than $120,000 to Khir Ummah, and the two organizations hosted pro-terror summer camps for children in Turkey, the HaKol HaYehudi outlet reported.
The Tel Aviv District Court on April 8, 2024, rejected a request by Igatha 48 to unfreeze its accounts held at Israel’s Bank Leumi. During the court proceedings, lawyers for the Jewish state’s largest bank said the red flags surrounding the charity were “shocking.” The group acknowledged in court that 10 banks had refused to open accounts for it in the past.
In related news, Blue and White Party leader Benny Gantz, who served as a defense minister under Lapid and Bennett, told Kan Reshet Bet on Sunday that he would be willing to join a Netanyahu government.
“I do not like Netanyahu and am not Netanyahu’s friend,” Gantz, a former IDF chief of staff, told the radio station. “I am a soldier of the State of Israel; if I am willing to die for the country, can I not sit [in a government] with Netanyahu?
“I am not willing to abandon the country to extremists or rely on the Arab parties,” added Gantz, who served as a member of Netanyahu’s War Cabinet following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led terrorist attacks.
