With the major blocs in Israel stalemated below the magic number of 61 votes needed to form a government, a previously unthinkable solution has emerged. Netanyahu’s Likud won 27 seats in the Knesset, and his coalition has 57, with no open pathway to 61. The Opposition bloc headed by former IDF chief Gadi Eisenkot has a total of 48 seats, with 21 of these Eisenkot’s Yesha Party. A new factor in the election was the very high turnout of the vote of the slightly more than 1.1 million Arab citizens. More than 80% voted, giving the three major Arab parties 19 seats in the Knesset.
The large turnout was attributed to the desire to get rid of the racist, fanatic Greater Israel Netanyahu government, to end the genocide. One of the Arab leaders said that Ben-Gvir and Smotrich—both open supporters of genocide—were responsible for the increased turnout among Arab citizens of Israel. Under no circumstances would Netanyahu agree to opening his coalition to Arab MKs, as he has accused the Arabs of vote fraud and rigging the vote, with no evidence to offer. Until now, the Opposition coalition has rejected the idea of bringing Arab MKs into the coalition.
On Friday, Yair Golan, the leader of one of the Opposition parties, met with Ahmad Tibi, the leader of the Arab Ta’al Party, to discuss what had been previously unthinkable—would Arab MKs join with the Opposition MKs to put the Opposition Bloc over the 61 votes needed to elect a Prime Minister?
This had been floated by influential Haaretz columnist Gideon Levy in an Oct. 29 column, “Israel’s Future Depends on its Arab Citizens—It’s Bibi or Tibi.” He begins: “Eighty years after the Nakba and the establishment of the Jewish state, Israel’s Palestinians may determine its fate. Is there greater historical justice than that?”
Palestinian lawmaker Ahmad Tibi has urged Israeli opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot to show political courage and work with Arab parties to end Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s rule. In an interview with Middle East Eye on Friday, Tibi called on Eisenkot to summon “the courage of [former prime minister] Yitzhak Rabin.”
In 1993, Rabin’s minority government of 56 seats relied on Palestinian led parties for parliamentary support, amid the push to advance the Oslo Accords. Tibi, founder and leader of the Ta’al party (Arab Movement for Renewal), said there was no democratic justification for ruling out cooperation with Palestinian representatives in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, this time around.
“I hope Eisenkot will be courageous enough to go forward and form a minority government, which will end this government of Netanyahu immediately,” Tibi said.
