{"id":427056,"date":"2026-05-05T20:47:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T20:47:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/427056\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T20:47:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T20:47:17","slug":"golan-zionist-opposition-must-partner-with-arab-party-raam-to-topple-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/427056\/","title":{"rendered":"Golan: Zionist opposition must partner with Arab party Ra&#8217;am to topple government"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Democrats party chairman Yair Golan on Tuesday urged fellow Zionist opposition leaders to again partner with Ra\u2019am and \u201cstop playing along\u201d with the demonization of the Arab Islamist faction.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf we must rely on the votes of the Ra\u2019am party to topple this failed government of disaster \u2014 the most dangerous to Israel\u2019s security \u2014 then Ra\u2019am is a worthy partner,\u201d said Golan, the head of the left-wing party, in a video statement.<\/p>\n<p>He also said publicly declaring Ra\u2019am chief Mansour Abbas a \u201clegitimate partner\u201d would be \u201cthe appropriate Zionist response\u201d to Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timesofisrael.com\/smotrich-including-arab-party-in-government-a-thousand-times-worse-than-oct-7-failures\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">said<\/a> earlier Tuesday that Ra\u2019am\u2019s inclusion in the last government was \u201ca thousand times worse\u201d than the current government\u2019s failure to prevent the Hamas-led onslaught of October 7, 2023.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe murderous Hamas organization acts out of blind hatred of Jews, and Smotrich, on the other hand, prefers to sacrifice Israel\u2019s security for the sole purpose of not cooperating with Arab society and its representatives,\u201d Golan said.<\/p>\n<p>Accusing Smotrich of forming an \u201cextremists\u2019 pact\u201d with Hamas, Golan said the far-right minister \u201cand his partners in the government were willing to sacrifice\u201d the victims of the onslaught \u201cfor the sake of racism\u2026 and boundless lust for power.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\tGet The Times of Israel&#8217;s Daily Edition<br \/>\n\t\t\tby email and never miss our top stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\tBy signing up, you agree to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timesofisrael.com\/terms\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">terms<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Right-wing former premier Naftali Bennett, the Zionist opposition bloc\u2019s main candidate to unseat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has rejected Ra\u2019am as a potential coalition partner, despite having led the 2021-2022 government that included Ra\u2019am.<\/p>\n<p>Other Zionist opposition leaders have also either explicitly rejected Arab parties as coalition partners or called for a purely Zionist government, which would exclude the Arab parties. Meanwhile, Netanyahu and his supporters regularly equate Arab parties with the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas.<\/p>\n<p>\t<a href=\"https:\/\/static-cdn.toi-media.com\/www\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Image-from-iOS-e1622665538240.jpg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-2557529\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Image-from-iOS-e1622665538240-640x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"375\"\/><\/a><br \/>\n\t\tYesh Atid leader Yair Lapid (L), Yamina leader Naftali Bennett (C) and Ra\u2019am leader Mansour Abbas sign a coalition agreement on June 2, 2021. (Courtesy of Ra\u2019am)<\/p>\n<p>Opinion polls regularly show that the Zionist opposition parties \u2014 Golan\u2019s left-leaning Democrats, Bennett and Opposition Leader Yair Lapid\u2019s newly minted Together, hawkish MK Avigdor Liberman\u2019s Yisrael Beytenu and former IDF chief Gadi Eisenkot\u2019s Yashar party\u2013 would fail to secure a majority in parliament on their own. The next elections are set to take place in October at the latest.<\/p>\n<p>Golan, a former IDF deputy chief who served as a deputy economy minister in the 2021-2022 government, said in his video statement that rejecting Ra\u2019am \u201cdoes not serve our fateful mission: saving Israel and replacing the disaster government.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Instead, he said, it \u201cplays into the hands of Netanyahu and his partners, who are deliberately dragging us toward national catastrophe and the destruction of the Zionist enterprise.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI personally and directly address all my fellow leaders in the liberal democratic bloc: It\u2019s time to stop playing along with the campaign of incitement and de-legitimization, and start acting like a real governing alternative,\u201d said Golan. \u201cIt\u2019s time to stop dancing to the tune of Netanyahu\u2019s fiddle.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\tWhich gorgeous bird do you prefer?\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img width=\"200\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Untitled-design-3-200x200.png\" class=\"attachment-square size-square wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\"\/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>THIS MONTH ONLY: Join our reader support group for as little as $6\/month and receive an exclusive tote bag featuring one of Israel\u2019s native birds.<\/p>\n<p>Choose between the\u00a0Duchifat (orange), Israel&#8217;s national bird, or the Shaldag (blue), a beloved symbol of the Israeli landscape.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>As a member of the Times of Israel Community,\u00a0you&#8217;ll also enjoy:<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\nAn ad-free experience of our site and podcasts.&#13;<br \/>\nExclusive access to award-winning films via DocuNation.&#13;<br \/>\nWeekly letters from founding editor David Horovitz.&#13;<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/crm.timesofisrael.com\/sign-up?utm_source=article&amp;utm_medium=module&amp;utm_campaign=tote_bags&amp;utm_term=both&amp;utm_source=website&amp;utm_medium=article_end&amp;utm_content=BDFCFF\" class=\"crm-post-module__btn crm-post-module__btn-desktop\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\tJoin ToI Community &amp; claim my bag\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/crm.timesofisrael.com\/sign-up?utm_source=article&amp;utm_medium=module&amp;utm_campaign=tote_bags&amp;utm_term=both&amp;utm_source=website&amp;utm_medium=article_end&amp;utm_content=BDFCFF\" class=\"crm-post-module__btn crm-post-module__btn-mobile\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\tCLAIM YOUR BAG\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a class=\"crm_under_btn_link\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/crm.timesofisrael.com\/sign-in?RedirectTo=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.timesofisrael.com%2Fgolan-zionist-opposition-must-partner-with-arab-party-raam-to-topple-government%2F\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Already a member? 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Sign in to stop seeing this<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Democrats party chairman Yair Golan on Tuesday urged fellow Zionist opposition leaders to again partner with Ra\u2019am&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":427057,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1982,85,46,101649,43,200457,200605,22171],"class_list":["post-427056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-bezalel-smotrich","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-mansour-abbas","tag-news","tag-raam-party-united-arab-list","tag-the-democrats","tag-yair-golan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=427056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/427057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}