Real Zionists Govern with Arab Partners

To heal the nation and honor the Declaration of Independence, Israel’s opposition must form a government with Arab partners

Democratic lovers of Israel, do not give up hope. As the final results are tabulated for Israel’s 2026 elections, one thing is clear: to avoid rewarding individuals bearing responsibility for the failures of this current government, the current opposition will have to form a governing coalition with representatives of the non-Jewish, Arab public. Despite the sensationalist, populist claims that this would require a compromise of Zionist values, there is nothing more Zionist than building a government that stewards the Jewish State in partnership with parties that represent citizens who heal our sick, who manage our banks, who lead our universities, and who operate our clinics and logistics hubs and transportation infrastructure.

There is nothing more Zionist than to normalize Jewish Statehood and extend once more the appeal made in our Declaration of Independence to the Arab inhabitants of the State of Israel to “participate in the upbuilding of the State on the basis of full and equal citizenship and due representation in all its provisional and permanent institutions.” There is nothing more Zionist than to build a State where Jew and non-Jew work together to build a Jewish National Home that treats its minorities as Jews would have wished to be treated in the countries of our dispersion.

As the former deputy chair of the World Zionist Organization David Breakstone recently reminded us, commitment to the inclusion of Israel’s non-Jewish population in governance was shared by the founder of the Zionist Right, Ze’ev Jabotinsky, and his protégé (and the first right-wing Prime Minister of Israel) Menachem Begin. You read that right: the hero of Israel’s Likud imagined a constitution for Israel that would ensure that “in every Cabinet where the Prime Minister is a Jew, the vice-premiership shall be offered to an Arab, and vice-versa.”

Those who argue that the rejection of the Arab parties (Raam and the United List) stems from their platforms rather than their Arab identity must explain how it is that nearly every Israeli government since its founding has included non-Zionist (and even anti-Zionist) parties. After all, every government led by Benjamin Netanyahu rested on a non-Zionist and even anti-Zionist foundation: those representing members of the ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) public, who have eloquently stated that they would rather die than enlist, even in light of the longest war in our history as a country. And, after all, it was Benjamin Netanyahu who publicly argued that Arab citizens of Israel are citizens like any other and should naturally have a place in the governing coalition

All objections to their integration dissolve under scrutiny: the objection that the United List would stop the government from ending Hamas’s rule in Gaza dissolves once one remembers that they would have a vote, not a veto, in the government.  The objection that Raam would stop needed reforms restructuring the relationship between religion and state dissolves once one remembers that they will at most represent 10% of the votes in the governing coalition.

It would be an absolute travesty if the leaders of the opposition, politicians who promised to heal Israel from the damage caused over the past four years by Netanyahu and his extremist allies, cannot muster the courage to do what Netanyahu himself said he would do and build a governing coalition that represents all of Israel’s citizens. It would be an absolute travesty for the leaders of the opposition – Gadi Eisenkot, Naftali Bennett, and Avigdor Lieberman – to seek out the support of Shas as opposed to the support of Raam, for example, given that the former encourages a growing subgroup of citizens to avoid service and employment while the latter has proposed a new national service commitment for all Israelis and greater integration of all citizens in the workplace.

And I know the leaders of our opposition know this. Yair Golan and the Democratim have been remarkably consistent on this matter. The leadership of the United List has come out and said that they’re ready to join the effort to build a government that represents all of Israel’s citizens. Bennett reminded Reem Sherman on his podcast that he sees all of Israel’s citizens as his constituents, and Eisenkot has repeatedly prepared the public for a minority government, one that could include Raam and work with the United List on the outside. Which leads me to believe that the only one holding Israel back from opening a new chapter in the Zionist march to normalization is Avigdor Lieberman, who needs to be convinced to compromise.

Which is why we, who have fought for four years to defend Israel first from executive overreach and then from its avowed enemies, must work to change the narrative to enable our representatives to form a government that embodies the values of the Declaration of Independence. We need to remind Israelis that real Zionists would not hesitate to form a government with the support of both Raam and the United List, recognizing that we share more in common than the ideological commitments that divide us. Now is not the time to sit back and wait for negotiations between politicians. They need our help and need our voices to give them courage. Now is the time to call, to write, to push, to cajole. Now is the time to call on those who received our votes to remember the values that guided us as we formed our State and to demand our representatives use those same values to form our next government.