Israel's Arab Citizens Could Change Israel's Mixed Up Government

A television poll published June 18 found that only a sliver of Israelis feel their country won the Iran war, or trust US President Donald Trump to look out for their interests as he negotiates a deal with the Islamic Republic. The Channel 12 poll, asking whether Netanyahu's conduct benefited or harmed Israeli interests in the US-Iran agreement, finds that 52% say it was harmed, while 24% felt it helped, and 24% didn't know.

Asked whether they trust Trump to look out for Israeli interests in an agreement with Iran, 71% said they don't, while just 13% said they do and another 16% don't know. Those numbers mark a decline for Trump on this question since last week, when the split was 62% to 21%. And asked about how they think the war ended, 43% say Israel lost, while 41% say it ended inconclusively. Just 11% feel Israel won the war.

Now a newer poll found that: 92% of Israelis believe Iran emerged as a winner after war and deal with US.

Netanyahu's leadership has suffered a big bang from Israeli Jews and Arab Muslims. This is another opportunity for a two states at peace just as the Yom Kippur war was. I pray that the end be better than the past when the Palestinians chose victims of a "settler colonial project," and their own failed leadership wanted all or nothing, and got nothing. Can two people share the land, by dividing it? The idea that things could have indeed gone differently, and that they weren't fated for endless conflict, suggests maybe they still can go differently in the future, unless they want to fight for another 90 years.

The increased talk about elections in Israel in 2526, has awakened Israeli Arab citizens, who seem particularly interested in the vote. Arab parties in Israel have already started preparing. There is one big question: Will all four Arab parties unite and run together in a joint list in the next elections? So far, efforts to form a single political list have failed. "Most Arab citizens want the Arab parties to reunite into a joint list," said Mohammed Darawshe, a prominent Arab Israeli political analyst. "There is anger in the Arab street because the Arab politicians haven't managed to work together" he said.

Established in 2015, the Joint List was a political alliance that consisted of the four parties. In 2020, the Joint List won 15 seats, the largest number since the establishment as Israel. On the eve of the 2021 election, however, Abbas's Ra'am quit the Joint List to run on its own. The other parties stayed together but won only six seats. Before the November 2022 elections, more disagreements led to another split among the remaining three parties of the Joint List, dividing into two.

A survey conducted by the Konrad Adenauer Program for Jewish-Arab Cooperation shows that if the Joint List is reestablished, 62% of Arab citizens in Israel would participate in the vote. In the absence of such a list, the poll found, voter turnout is expected to drop to 51%. But 77% said they support an Arab party joining the coalition formed after the next elections. Many Arab Israeli residents are convinced that political unity may bring them more power and a better chance to address the critical problems they face, especially the escalating crime and violence.

What has prevented the Arab parties from reuniting is a deep struggle between two camps. The first, headed by Ra'am leader Mansour Abbas, has been pushing for integration in the State of Israel and focusing more on civil rights for Arab citizens. Abbas made history as the first Arab Israeli leader ever to join an Israeli coalition in 2021.

The other camp, which includes politicians like Ayman Odeh, puts its main focus on Arab-Palestinian identity rather than civil issues. In principle, members of this camp are opposed to being part of any coalition to avoid any responsibility for controversial and sensitive decisions.

Unlike Abbas, who takes a pragmatic approach and declares that he recognizes Israel as a Jewish state, members of the rival group maintain a hardline position.

They view the Arab citizens living in Israel as an integral part of the Palestinian people, and often stress the national aspirations of the Palestinians, calling for "an end to the occupation."

Abbas's political opponents have accused him of foiling efforts to form a joint list ahead of the elections, claiming that he doesn't want to close the door to a future coalition.

"Increasing the number of seats is not a goal in itself," Abbas pushed back in an interview with the Arab media. "It's only a tool for achieving our aim, which is to serve the Arab society in Israel and change its reality for the better." He explained that winning more seats as part of the Joint List is not enough, and that the real challenge is to turn political power into meaningful achievements for Arabs in Israel.

In response, members from Odeh's camp criticized Abbas for prioritizing budgets while overlooking the Palestinian cause and the national aspects of Israeli-Arabs. Later, Odeh himself joined the critics, describing Abbas's acceptance of Israel as a Jewish state as a "sellout." He said he disagrees with Abbas's view that the Jewish identity of the state is an existential matter for the Jews.

Despite the controversy, Darawshe, the political analyst, said he did not rule out the possibility of a "technical unity" shortly before the elections, to prevent a waste of Arab votes. The day after the election, however, the differences are likely to resurface as both camps are set to resume the debate over joining the coalition.

Other Arab parties have already or are contemplating opening up their parties to Jewish candidates, according to an unnamed source with knowledge of the issue.

As a Reform Rabbi, I would add that there will be no peace until both Palestinians and Israelis declare that the chant 'From the river to the sea' becomes an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, and not for death, destruction, or hate. We can make it truly aspirational by making it focus on both peoples first, and the land second. "From the river to the sea Palestinians and Israelis should be freed of hatred and suffering by 'a two states for two peoples sharing of the land peacefully solution.'"

Between 1936 and 1939, several thousand Palestinians living under the British Mandate rose up violently against a growing Jewish population and the Brits who were in charge. About 500 Jews, 250 British servicemen and at least 5-8,000 Arabs died; of whom at least 1,500 fell at the hands of fellow Arabs.

In the wake of the violence, Britain's 1937 "Peel Commission" proposed partitioning the mandate into Jewish and Arab states, while placing major limits on Jewish immigration. Most Zionists, led by David Ben-Gurion and Chaim Weizmann, felt forced to accept the proposal because of the Nazi danger.

Mohammed Amin al-Husseini, grand mufti of Jerusalem and de facto leader of the Palestinian community, rejected the idea and called for jihad. He later went to Nazi Germany. The Palestinians emerged from the revolt weakened politically, economically and militarily. Since then more than 120-200,000 lives have been lost.

However, they did accomplish their goal of substantially slowing the growth of the Jewish populations. If the Palestinians had accepted Britain's 1937 "Peel Commission" proposal partitioning the mandate into Jewish and Arab states, hundreds of thousands of European Jews could have been rescued, and brought to the Jewish state in the years preceding the Nazi's Final Solution.

And the failure of the revolt set the stage for what the Palestinians call the Nakba (catastrophe) when they lost the next anti-Zionist war in 1948.

So are the Palestinian Arabs victims of a "settler colonial project," or their own failed leadership? Can two peoples share the land, by dividing it? The idea that things could have indeed gone differently, and that they weren't fated for endless conflict, suggests maybe they still can go differently in the future, unless they want to fight for another 89 years.

But Ra'am leader Mansour Abbas announced early in the new year that his Islamist party would become a broad-based party open to Jewish candidates, in a major shift for the party. "Every citizen of the State of Israel - Jewish and Arab - can join Ra'am and be among its Knesset candidates," said Abbas. I want to expand the ranks of the party within Jewish society."

Asked whether he was already speaking with potential Jewish candidates who could join Ra'am, Abbas said, "There are Jewish Knesset members with whom I see eye to eye, and I would be honored if they joined Ra'am." Ra'am is affiliated with the southern branch of the Islamic Movement, and its candidate lists have historically been exclusively Arab Muslim. However, the party announced last month that it would separate from the religious council to which it is linked and establish its own institutions. That, combined with the latest move to open the Muslim party to Jewish candidates, is aimed at distancing the party from hardline Muslim voters in order to boost its legitimacy among liberal Zionist parties ahead of elections at the end of October 2026.

If all Arabs and Jews can live up to the ideal that 'the descendants of Abraham's sons should never make war against each other' is the will of God; we will help fulfill the 2700 year old vision of Prophet Isaiah: "In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt, and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together. In that day Israel will join a three-party alliance with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing upon the heart. The LORD of Hosts will bless them saying, "Blessed be Egypt My people, Assyria My handiwork, and Israel My inheritance."...(Isaiah 19:23-5)