Israel’s Arab parties recalculate as Gantz joins Netanyahu
Ayman Odeh with Ahmed Tibi of the Arab Joint List, 2 March 2020
writes in Al-Monitor:
“These are not ordinary days and they require extraordinary decisions. Thus, as I have said, I intend to examine the formation of a national emergency government,” declared Blue and White leader Benny Gantz March 26 upon his election as speaker of the Knesset, with the support of the right/ultra-Orthodox bloc.
The move led to the breakup of Blue and White and paved the way for Gantz and his party, Hosen L’Israel or Israel Resilience, into a government headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Who remembers now that on the day after the general election Gantz declared, “I won’t serve in a government led by a man under indictment?”
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The news of the Blue and White split and Gantz joining Netanyahu’s government shocked the Arab public and members of the Joint List. After all, the Joint List achieved a record voter turnout, winning 15 seats in the last election; it enjoyed an impressive voting rate among the Arab public, its highest in the past two decades at 64.8%. The Arab public hung great hopes on Gantz and on the opportunity to form a center-left government that would send Netanyahu home. Thus, the Joint List unanimously recommended to President Reuven Rivlin that Gantz be charged with forming a government.
Gantz’ decision to join the next Netanyahu government greatly disappointed the Arab community, where people once again argue that Israeli politics is Jewish politics, as if there were no Arabs in the country and no significance to the number of mandates gained by the Joint List.