Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has spent much of his long career casting Israel\u2019s Arab minority as a potential fifth column led by terrorist sympathizers, is now openly courting their support as he seeks reelection in the country\u2019s fourth vote in less than two years.<\/p>\n
Few Arabs are likely to heed his call, underscoring the desperation of Netanyahu\u2019s political somersault. But the relative absence of incitement against the community in this campaign and the potential breakup of an Arab party alliance could dampen turnout \u2014 to Netanyahu\u2019s advantage. He might even pick up just enough votes to swing a tight election.<\/p>\n
Either way, Netanyahu\u2019s overtures have shaken up the Arab community. The Joint List, an alliance of Arab parties that secured a record 15 seats in the 120-member Knesset last March, is riven by a dispute over whether it should work with Netanyahu\u2019s right-wing Likud at a time when less objectionable center-left parties are in disarray.<\/p>\n
Its demise would leave the community with even less representation as it confronts a terrifying crime wave, coronavirus-fueled unemployment and persistent inequality. But given the complexities of Israel\u2019s coalition system, a breakaway Arab party could gain outsized influence if it is willing to work with Netanyahu or other traditionally hostile leaders.<\/p>\n
The struggle was on vivid display last week when Netanyahu traveled to Nazareth, the largest Arab-majority city in Israel, his third visit to an Arab district in less than two weeks. Outside the venue, dozens of people, including a number of Arab members of parliament, protested his visit and scuffled with police, even as the city\u2019s mayor welcomed and praised him.<\/p>\n
\u201cNetanyahu came like a thief to try to scrape together votes from the Arab street,\u201d said Aida Touma-Suleiman, a prominent lawmaker from the Joint List. \u201cYour attempt to dismantle our community from within won\u2019t succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arabs make up around 20% of Israel\u2019s population. They have full citizenship, including the right to vote, and have a large and growing presence in universities, the health care sector and other professions. But they face widespread discrimination and\u00a0blame lax Israeli law enforcement for a rising wave of violent crime in their communities.<\/a><\/p>\n They have close familial ties to Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, and largely identify with their cause. That has led many Jews to view them as sympathetic to Israel\u2019s enemies, sentiments fanned by Netanyahu and other right-wing politicians.<\/p>\n The post Netanyahu courts Arab voters in election-year turnabout<\/a> appeared first on Al-Shabaka<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n This post was originally published on Al-Shabaka<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has spent much of his long career casting Israel\u2019s Arab minority as a potential fifth column led by terrorist sympathizers, is now openly courting their support as he seeks reelection in the country\u2019s fourth vote in less than two years.<\/p>\n The post Netanyahu courts Arab voters in election-year turnabout<\/a> appeared first on Al-Shabaka<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1344,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17147"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1344"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17147"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17148,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17147\/revisions\/17148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}