Polls apart: Israeli exclusion of Arab parties has become a compulsive disorder

Opposition leaders, Yair Lapid, Avigdor Lieberman, Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot conferring in the Knesset during a vote in June 2025

Iris Leal writes in Haaretz on 23 November 2025:

A new civil initiative aims to change the visual presentation of bloc distribution in voter surveys, so that the Arab parties are considered part of the opposition. The organizers say the current method distorts reality in a manner that could, likely intentionally, affect voters’ decisions.

The claim, which cannot be dismissed, is that showing the Arab parties as a separate bloc, neither the government nor the opposition, serves Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who for a few election campaigns has labored mightily to turn these into pariah and to actively discourage Arab citizens from voting.

The Israeli obsession with appearance has become a compulsive disorder in the last two years. When images of starving children or bombed hospitals in Gaza are made public, the opposition to the acts that created them is about “the optics.” When Jewish terrorists burn and murder in the West Bank, the concern of most Israelis is how to explain to the world pogroms committed by Jews with sidelocks. The Israeli public still devotes most of its energies to dismissing reality.

The same is true for infographics. Contrary to the claims of opponents of the government, this is not deception, manipulation, or deliberate interference in favor of Netanyahu. It’s the truth. You heard right: The polls showing the Arab parties in a separate bloc depict reality. It is not the news outlets that are excluding them from the political game. The opposition is doing this, consistently, with racism, malice and unparalleled political stupidity.

Opposition leaders Avigdor Lieberman, Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid joined forces to try to oust Ayman Odeh from the Knesset. Lieberman and Lapid, who fight the coalition’s anti-democratic legislation, have promised to pass a law to abolish a basic civil right and harm 20 percent of Israelis by denying voting rights to those who do not serve in the military.

Opposition parties did not invite their erstwhile partner, Mansour Abbas, to the annual commemoration of Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination. Last week, Odeh demanded the establishment of a parliamentary commission to examine the rise in crime in Arab communities. Two opposition MKs voted in favor – Naor Shiri and Gilad Kariv, for whom no words would suffice to describe his activity against settler violence and in support of Palestinians and Israeli Arab citizens.

At a large rally for the establishment of a state commission of inquiry into October 7, opposition sit ceremoniously in the front row – Gantz, Lapid, Lieberman, Gadi Eisenkot, Naftali Bennett and Yair Golan. Missing are Odeh, Ahmad Tibi and Mansour Abbas.

“We need to decide, equality or Jewish supremacy,” Odeh told me. He and his colleagues are also not invited to the monthly meetings of opposition party heads. Golan updates him, a nice gesture of respect, but mainly one indicating an understanding of reality. Golan believes that “The future lies in a partnership with the country’s Arab citizens,” but he won’t come out against his partners in the opposition. If it were up to him, it’s safe to assume the heads of the Arab parties would be part of the opposition.

But it’s not, hence their absence from a place of honor at a demonstration whose purpose they share and that is meant to highlight the fact that, contrary to the prime minister’s remarks, the majority of Israelis want a state commission of inquiry. But this is about the Jewish people. One-fifth of the population is disregarded.

How can a person (who is not a supporter of the proud racist Lieberman) who is considering voting for one of the opposition parties and hopes to replace Netanyahu tolerate the exclusion of the elected representatives of the Arab public from participating in the life of this country? How can the “change bloc” look at itself in the mirror when it complains about Kahanists but, in fact, thinks as they do?

One thing is certain: If we don’t change direction sharply, we will have to learn the lesson the hard way. Anyone who disdains the leaders of the Arab parties will wake up again to a “fully right-wing” government, and then we will truly be able to say Kaddish over the grave of the state.

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