The Joint List—an alliance of Arab political parties—emerged from the most recent Israeli election as the third-largest party in the Knesset. Thus Benny Gantz, the leader of the Blue and White party now tasked with trying to form a governing coalition, must consider if he should court the Joint List’s support. To Ben-Dror Yemini, the positions taken by group’s parliamentarians, who have vocally supported terrorism and remain committed anti-Zionists, should disqualify them as political allies:
Two surveys conducted this year both show that a clear majority of the Arab public supports some form of participation in an Israeli coalition government. The problem remains the colossal gap between the will of the Arab public and the will of its leadership.
Almost every possible scenario for a future government is met by pundits saying—and rightly so—that the chances of it being formed are slim. But . . . out of all the options, a minority government supported from outside by members of the Joint List, even if not all of them, is not the least likely.
To prevent the worst possible scenario from becoming a reality—a third round of elections in less than a year—Blue and White must sacrifice one of its two core principles in order to form a coalition: either team up with Netanyahu despite the party’s “anyone but Netanyahu” policy, or partner with the Joint List, despite promising it wouldn’t do so.
Blue and White acts under the banner of bringing back sanity into politics and reducing polarization in society, but establishing a government with the support of provocative lawmakers like the Joint List’s Ofer Cassif, [the sole Jewish member among them, who has accused Israel of “genocide”], would only make things worse and Israel would become even more polarized. . . . A coalition partnership with Arab factions can wait.
Read more on Ynet: https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5611778,00.html