Israel’s New Election Is an Opportunity for Its Arabs

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Wednesday in Israel’s Knesset was raucous. Ever since his Likud party’s narrow victory in April’s election, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had struggled to cobble together a coalition of at least 60 votes — half of the parliament. But Netanyahu, ordinarily a master strategist and a deal-maker who has held his post for 10 consecutive years, could not get it done.

On the surface, Netanyahu’s problem was a battle between the ultra-Orthodox Haredim, who insisted that they would not join the right-leaning coalition unless they were assured that Haredi men would continue to be largely exempt from military service, and Avigdor Lieberman, the arch-secularist but hawkish powerbroker who insisted that his party would not join the coalition unless Netanyahu rejected the Haredi demands. Lieberman, hoping to garner the future support of Israel’s secular majority, announced that he would not serve in a “Torah-law government.”

Netanyahu needed both parties, so the impasse left him with two unappealing alternatives. The first was to let President Reuven Rivlin offer another member of the Knesset the opportunity to try to form a coalition. If successful, that would mean Netanyahu would not be prime minister. His main challenger in April’s vote, former army chief of staff Benny Gantz and his centrist Blue and White party, also had 35 seats to start with. The second option was to have the newly installed Knesset vote to dissolve itself, which would lead to new elections. Netanyahu might then (but also might not) fare better than he did last time. Both options were terrible for him.

Therefore, until the very last minute, Netanyahu sought a deal with everyone imaginable. He even reached out to the left-leaning Labor Party, a shadow of its former self, whose handful of votes could still make all the difference. According to reports, Netanyahu offered to back off his demands for a law that would grant him immunity from any future prosecution in a variety of looming corruption cases, as well as from a law that would severely curtail the Supreme Court’s right to judicial review. Avi Gabbay, Labor’s limping chief, apparently considered the deal but declined.

In the midst of this circus, Ayman Odeh, an Arab MK and head of the Hadash-Ta’al party, addressed the Knesset. He said Netanyahu had approached him, too, begging him to join the coalition. In the video, which Odeh himself posted on Twitter, one can hear MKs laughing. Odeh reported that the prime minister had offered to exit the occupied territories, annul the Nation-State Law, implement full civic equality for Arabs and recognize the “Nakba,” to “right the wrongs of history.”

What made for the humor was that everyone understood even a desperate Netanyahu would never reach out to the Arabs. No governing coalition has ever included the Arab parties, and the mere idea is still toxic to most Jewish Israelis. In fact, as the Blue and White party conducted its campaign this spring, its members said repeatedly that they would work with any party from the “Zionist left to the responsible right.” “Responsible right” was code for excluding Netanyahu — they would not join him, they said, because of the corruption allegations against him and his intention to pass laws to protect himself at the expense of the nation. “Zionist left,” on the other hand, was code for excluding Israel’s Arabs. So even the leading centrist party pledged not to include Arabs in the coalition.

To foreign eyes and ears, that looks and sounds like blatant racism. But to get a sense of how much more complex the story is, look back a few weeks to the ceremony at which the new Knesset (now ending) was sworn in. All the Arab MKs from the Hadash-Ta’al and Ra’am-Balad parties, though elected in the region’s only functioning democracy, walked out of the ceremony as Israel’s national anthem was sung. Two of Hadash-Ta’al’s newly elected MKs skipped the ceremony altogether. As a recording of David Ben-Gurion declaring Israel’s independence in 1948 was played, two more Arab MKs walked out. Arab members had earlier informed President Rivlin that they would not recommend that anyone to be given a crack at making a coalition. Time and again, Israel’s Arabs portrayed themselves as opposed not to Israel’s ruling government, but to its essence.

There is, of course, a segment of Israelis that has no interest in seeing Arabs more integrated into civil society. A much larger group, however, understands that their inclusion is critical to Israel’s democracy and hopes for progress. Yet Israel defines itself as a Jewish state, and as long as Israel’s Arabs continue to reject that, understandable though that instinct might be, centrist Israelis will raise no eyebrows when centrist parties refuse to do business with them.

Former army chief of staff, Moshe Ya’alon, who ran as co-leader of Blue and White just weeks ago, has a record of being sensitive to the complex position of Israel’s Arabs. When Supreme Court Justice Salim Joubran, a Christian Arab, did not sing the national anthem at the 2012 swearing-in of Justice Asher Grunis, Ya’alon defended him. He noted that Joubran could not be expected to sing an anthem that focused on Jewish yearning to return to a homeland, and had stood very respectfully as it was sung. Many Jewish Israelis agreed.

Many Israelis are also keenly aware that the government that Netanyahu might have formed was likely to chisel away at Israel’s democratic institutions. A new election is an opportunity to have a long-overdue conversation about democracy and Arabs’ role. Were Odeh to assure Israel’s Jewish majority that the Arab minority will insist on its rights but also embrace citizenship in a Jewish and democratic state, he would likely find many sympathetic ears. But if Arabs leaders continue to reject Israel’s Jewishness at every turn, walking out on national ceremonies, those same rank and file Israelis will decide, again, that Israel’s Arabs are a problem to be contained, not potential partners. And including them in a coalition will sadly remain unthinkable.

Many Israeli Arabs are far more moderate than their leaders. Across civil society and in education, Israeli Arabs are studying with Jewish Israelis, engaging in social entrepreneurship, and forming significant social bonds. But that is not what makes headlines. What makes the news is the antagonistic attitude of Israel’s Arab politicians, who are ultimately undermining their constituency’s prospects.

With Israelis of all stripes now bracing for far-reaching and potentially painful conversations about the fragility of Israel’s democratic institutions, this would be a perfect time for Jewish Israelis to hear a different voice from their Arab fellow-Israelis. For the sake of both Israel’s Arabs as well as Israel’s democracy, one can only hope that someone will assume that mantle and engender a conversation both among and about Israel’s Arabs that has long been absent, but that could be more important now than it has ever been before.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stacey Shick at sshick@bloomberg.net

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Daniel Gordis is senior vice president and Koret distinguished fellow at Shalem College in Jerusalem. Author of 11 books, his latest is "Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn."

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