For years, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used Arab political participation as a warning to voters, famously campaigning with the slogan “Bibi or Tibi”. Now, the very lawmakers he once portrayed as a threat to his political future could hold the key to ending his rule, as Arab-led parties offer to back a Jewish-led opposition government following Israel’s fractured election.
The Joint List secured 11 seats and another Arab-led party, Ra’am, won eight. Together, the two Arab-led parties hold 19 seats, potentially taking the opposition’s strength to 67, above the 61 seats required to form a government.
“We want to do things that we did not do in the past in order to remove this criminal government,” Tibi told AP. He said his bloc was prepared to support an opposition government without necessarily joining its governing coalition. Eisenkot has set four conditions for parties seeking to join his government, including recognising Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, accepting the values of its Declaration of Independence, supporting mandatory service for all citizens and recognising Hamas as a terrorist organisation that must be dismantled, according to The Times of Israel.
The numbers have placed Arab lawmakers in a potentially decisive position in Israel’s government formation process. Such an arrangement could allow Jewish-led opposition parties to form a government while relying on Arab lawmakers during crucial parliamentary votes.
Ahmad Tibi, a senior lawmaker from the Arab-led Joint List, has offered to cooperate with opposition parties led by former military chief Gadi Eisenkot to remove Netanyahu from power, according to a report by The Associated Press (AP). The Joint List could extend parliamentary support to an opposition-led administration without taking ministerial positions or formally entering the coalition.