In an Oct. 30 op-ed in the Forward, Park Avenue Synagogue Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove calls for Israeli parties to include in a governing coalition Arab parties—Ra’am and the Joint List—that oppose Israel’s existence, call for violence against Israel, and side with and represent Israel’s enemies instead of Israel.
Frighteningly, the Joint List celebrated its 2026 election gains by singing the Palestinian national anthem, which calls “Palestine” “my home” and clamors for violently conquering Israel with fire, guns, blood and the volcano of revenge.
The Joint List and Ra’am’s platforms also confirm that these parties aspire to weaken, endanger and destroy the Jewish state.
The platforms call for “acting to halt all Israeli wars”—meaning ending Israel’s self-defense against terrorists; ending the weapons blockade of Gaza; establishing a Palestinian state on suicidal-for-Israel lines; a so-called Arab “right of return” to overrun and destroy Israel; ending the Jewish “right of return”; reconstructing Gaza without removing Hamas, thereby creating the conditions for more Oct. 7s; resuming Hamas-infested UNRWA operations, despite the involvement of some of its employees in Oct. 7 and the use of its facilities by Hamas; “fighting Israelization” and ending Israel’s Jewish identity; protecting or releasing all prisoners, meaning terrorists; legalizing and expanding illegal Arab construction on Israeli lands; and opposing the “Judaization of the Galilee and the Negev.”
Israel’s Basic Laws—the equivalent of a constitution—provide that a candidate or electoral list may be barred from running if its goals or actions include negating Israel’s existence as a Jewish and democratic state, inciting racism or supporting armed struggle against Israel by an enemy state or terrorist organization.
Citing those provisions, the Central Elections Committee voted to disqualify both Ra’am and the Joint List from the Oct. 27 election. The Supreme Court unanimously overturned those decisions on Oct. 2, ruling that the evidence presented did not meet the stringent legal threshold required to bar the parties from running. We believe the CEC was right and the court was wrong. Bringing parties whose positions we regard as hostile to Israel into a governing coalition would only exacerbate the dangers that Israel’s Basic Laws were designed to prevent.
The sole glimmer of light Cosgrove offers is his misleading statement that Islamist Ra’am leader Mansour Abbas “condemned the atrocities of Oct. 7 and has acknowledged Israel’s Jewish character.” However, Abbas’s statements never identified or condemned the terrorist groups that perpetrated Oct. 7 and never identified Jews as the victims. Tellingly, Abbas has repeatedly refused to condemn Hamas or answer whether he considers Hamas to be a terrorist organization. The United States, Israel, Canada and the European Union designate Hamas as a terrorist organization.
Abbas is also clear that he is recognizing the current reality of Israel’s Jewish character in order to run for the Knesset. He does not support or accept that character. Instead, he asserts that this Jewish reality was “imposed on the Arabs.” Abbas also still believes his previous statement that “Zionist gangs captured Palestine,” but phrases this differently nowadays. Moreover, Abbas’s grudging nod to reality was rejected by his party.
Abbas has also called Israel’s re-establishment and very existence a “Nakba” (“catastrophe”) and praised Arabs who maintain a separate Palestinian Arab identity rather than an Israeli identity.
Joint List MKs also have horrendous records. For instance, Osama Saadi has defended “pay to slay.” Ahmad Tibi called Jews “invaders and murderers” and tried to pass a law requiring Israeli textbooks to honor as “fighters” the Arab gangs who murdered Jews in pre-state Israel.
Moreover, contrary to Cosgrove’s suggestion, bringing these parties into a governing coalition would not improve Israel’s “international standing.” The two previous instances Cosgrove mentions in which anti-Israel Arab parties joined or supported an Israeli governing coalition from outside failed to improve Israel’s international standing. Israel’s enemies and antisemites continued—and will continue—to do everything possible to harm the Jewish state. Bringing disloyal, viciously anti-Israel Arab parties into a governing coalition will only increase Israel’s enemies’ power to harm the Jewish state.
If Cosgrove truly desires a “big tent” governing coalition, there are better alternatives than joining with Israel’s anti-Israel Arab parties. If all or even part of the Eisenkot-led bloc joins with the Netanyahu bloc, Israel will have a big, pro-Israel tent.
