The Liberal Camp Should Embrace The Arab Parties

Israel’s liberal, centrist politicians have been playing politics by Netanyahu’s rules – and losing because of it.

They are talking about saving Israeli democracy while refusing to share power with 20 percent of its citizens. They’ve pledged not to sit with Arab parties, not to rely on their votes, nor to legitimize their voices – and in doing so, they’ve condemned themselves to irrelevance while Netanyahu tightens his grip.

This isn’t just a moral failure to exclude a fifth of a country’s citizens; it’s political suicide. Every time the center and left exclude Arab representatives, they weaken themselves and strengthen the very forces they claim to oppose.

The math is simple: Without partnership, there’s no path back to power.

Now, with a fragile ceasefire in place and the guns momentarily silent, Israel has a real chance to choose a different path – to stop playing by Netanyahu’s rules, beat the far-right, and start building a coalition that can grab hold of President Trump’s plan, which, after long last, finally offers Israel a path to lasting peace.

Before the first round of the 2019 elections, which marked the beginning of the paralysis that gripped the political system, Benny Gantz, the chairman of “Blue and White,” the largest party at the time, announced that he would not engage in political dialogue with the Arab parties.

His then-partner, Yair Lapid, also pledged that “we will not form a government with the Arab parties.” The bloc that opposed Netanyahu ended up winning 65 seats, but the veto on cooperation with the Arab parties led to another round of elections, which ended in the failed “alternate government” of Netanyahu and Gantz.

The “Government of Change” was formed after the veto on Arab parties was lifted and a coalition agreement with Ra’am was signed.

Indeed, Arab parties are perhaps more natural allies of the center than extremists on the right, certainly in matters of democracy, equality, and peace, which are values from our Declaration of Independence.

Far from being a threat to Israel’s security, as Netanyahu claims, joining forces with Arab parties now will help in efforts to lock in regional peace agreements, stabilize Gaza, dismantle Hamas, and restore Israel’s international standing.

The liberal camp must unite, but today’s opposition leaders refuse to learn from experience, repeating the worn-out, fundamentally racist mantra that they will not form a government with the Arab parties.

Naftali Bennett emphasizes that “Israel needs a Zionist coalition without Arab parties”; Avigdor Lieberman adds that “there is no place for non-Zionist elements in the next government – neither for Arab parties nor for Haredi parties”; Lapid states that “it is impossible to be in a government that relies on Ra’am”; Gantz declares that “only a Zionist consensus government can support the fighters,” and even Gadi Eizenkot sets a somewhat utopian goal of “62 mandates without the Arab parties.”

Netanyahu must be laughing all the way to the polls.

While Bibi is a failed leader by any measure, he remains a ruthless political strategist. Perhaps this is one of his greatest victories, managing to make opposition leaders fear the label of “collaborators with Arabs,” thereby ensuring the preservation of his rule. Eisenkot is free to continue dreaming of “62 seats without the Arab parties,” but this is an option with a low to zero probability of success.

Instead of preparing now for the day after the elections, most opposition leaders, except for Yair Golan, are choosing to hamstring themselves into permanent opposition, placing their hopes on imaginary “rebels” from Likud, whom they have been waiting for in the center and left for years. Opposition leaders fear that the primal fear instilled in large segments of the Jewish public by the poison machine’s spin about a government supported by Arab parties will alienate voters. But leaders have a responsibility to lead and persuade – over the mathematical certainty of losing without 20% of the population.

Contrary to the famous claim otherwise, the experiment of a government with Arab parties actually did succeed. The government of change was the best government we’ve had here in the last decade and a half: a government that worked for all citizens of the country – Jews and Arabs, religious, secular, and ultra-Orthodox. It had many drawbacks, primarily the cultivation of a conflict management concept, but of course, this was not the fault of the Arab parties, but rather the Zionist parties in the government.

The Israeli public has proven that it is capable of changing its attitudes according to changing reality. Instead of fearing the labels that Netanyahu and his partners are cleverly and ruthlessly trying to attach to them, the task of the opposition leaders should be to convince voters to see the formation of a coalition with the Arab parties as a desirable, essential, and correct move for Israeli society as a whole and to emphasize that the political partnership with Abbas not only did not harm Israel but was advantageous and right in every aspect.

Opposition leaders must stop fearing the extreme right, work to change the rules of the game, and address the unjustified fear of many Israelis regarding Jewish-Arab political cooperation.

It is a top social goal to make Arabs feel they belong, are part of the country, and deserve to sit at the table like any other citizen.

We urgently need a coalition that can begin to repair the destruction sown here by the far-right government, one that will work for the citizens and not for itself. This will only happen if the opposition pulls itself together and stops dancing to Bibi’s tune.