BAQA AL-GHARBIYYE, Israel — Mansour Abbas has done nearly everything Israel asks of its Palestinian citizens.
The leader of a small Arab political party condemned Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack. He rarely speaks about the war in Gaza or Israel’s occupation of the West Bank , instead focusing on local issues like crime. He broke a taboo in 2021 by bringing an Arab party into an Israeli government, in which he served as a loyal partner. This time around, the second-ranked member of his party list is a mainstream Jewish candidate.