For decades, Israel\u2019s Arab parties have been relegated to the margins of Israeli political life, often sitting on the sidelines while Jewish parties assembled a governing coalition in Parliament and picked a prime minister.<\/p>\n
Heading into Israel\u2019s pivotal election on Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned his supporters that the Arabs were \u201ctrying to steal the election,\u201d though electoral officials said there were no reports of widespread irregularities. He repeatedly invoked the specter of Arab voters to galvanize his right-wing base, vowing to keep them out of power.<\/p>\n
Mr. Netanyahu\u2019s leading rival, Gadi Eisenkot, largely declined to answer whether he would partner with Arab parties if necessary to topple the Netanyahu government, though he said none met his conditions as potential allies.<\/p>\n
But record turnout on Tuesday by supporters of the Arab parties looks to deliver them their largest vote totals in generations, possibly since Israel\u2019s establishment 78 years ago.<\/p>\n
Now, the Arab minority represents a political reality that cannot be ignored.<\/p>\n
Turnout in the Arab community, which represents about 20 percent of Israeli citizens, appears to have translated into a stunning windfall of parliamentary seats \u2014 potentially as many as 19 combined between the two leading parties, Raam and the Joint List alliance. The Arab parties have 10 seats in the outgoing Parliament.<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s future could turn in part on whether Mr. Eisenkot decides to take the political risks of partnering with them. Without their support, Mr. Eisenkot and his alliance will almost certainly fall short of the 61-seat majority required in the 120-seat Parliament to form a new government and end Mr. Netanyahu\u2019s hold on power. Mr. Netanyahu\u2019s alliance also looks to fall short of 61 seats.<\/p>\n
Many Israeli Jews have long objected to building a governing coalition that relies on Arab party backing for a majority. Some say a Jewish state should be ruled exclusively by Jews. Some cite national security reasons, questioning whether Arab leaders who see themselves as part of the wider Palestinian people can be entrusted with crucial matters of state.<\/p>\n
Those objections became even more acute after the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel and the subsequent rightward shift in Israeli politics. Both Raam and some members of the Joint List condemned the assault, although they have also been highly critical of how Israel has conducted its war against Hamas in Gaza.<\/p>\n
The Arab parties for many years were themselves reluctant to join governments that oversaw the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. And turnout among Arab Israelis has traditionally been lower than Jewish turnout, reflecting doubts about their ability to influence national decision-making.<\/p>\n
Raam, a socially conservative party with roots in Islamist politics, has achieved some acceptance in Israel\u2019s mainstream by putting less emphasis on the cause of Palestinian statehood. But the Joint List, an alliance of three smaller parties that includes a joint Jewish-Arab leftist faction and a Palestinian nationalist faction, is seen as more antagonistic toward Zionism.<\/p>\n
Initial election results show that the Joint List will be the significantly larger of the two in Parliament.<\/p>\n
\u201cNetanyahu knows that without the Arab parties, there\u2019s no majority to unseat him. That\u2019s why he incites against us,\u201d said Yousef Jabareen, the leader of the Joint List alliance in an interview. \u201cThe opposition should reject that incitement.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cThe ball is now in Eisenkot\u2019s court. Whoever wants to remove Netanyahu and change his policies \u2014 we are ready to cooperate to topple his government.\u201d<\/p>\n
Political analysts say the Joint List would be more likely to support Eisenkot from outside the governing coalition, for instance by agreeing to block any no-confidence votes. There is some precedent for this: In the 1990s, then Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin relied on Arab lawmakers to prevent the collapse of his own minority government.<\/p>\n
Arab citizens, some of whom view themselves as both Israeli and Palestinian, experience a tension that can cut to the heart of daily life. Unlike Palestinians in the West Bank \u2014 who live under Israeli military rule \u2014 Arab Israelis can vote, and some have held high office, including on the country\u2019s Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
But they largely live in separate cities and towns from Jewish Israelis and retain tight familial and historical bonds with Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. Many view themselves as second-class citizens in the Jewish state, saying they face discrimination in housing as well as neglect in receiving public services.<\/p>\n
Before this year, the largest electoral success recorded by Arab parties was in 2020, when they secured 15 seats. And the first \u2014 and so far, only \u2014 time an independent Arab party joined the Israeli governing coalition was in 2021, when Mansour Abbas, the leader of Raam<\/a>, joined Mr. Netanyahu\u2019s rivals to unseat him in favor of a short-lived government.<\/p>\n Mr. Abbas has since worked to make his party more acceptable to Israeli Jews. He has recognized Israel\u2019s Jewish character as a fact of life and publicly considered integrating Arabs into the country\u2019s mandatory national service, in particular community service.<\/p>\n