The real earthquake in Israeli politics

Anthony David’s opinion

The new Israeli government that was sworn in on Sunday is a diverse coalition of political parties with no common ideology other than to topple Benjamin Netanyahu and end his 12-year rule. Skeptics rightly question how a government that includes an avid supporter of West Bank settlers such as new Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Mansour Abbas, a man once described by Bennett as a “supporter of terrorism” and now called a “gentleman” — might survive.

But 47-year-old Abbas, a dentist and leader of the United Arab List (the List), a small Islamist party, was the kingmaker whose support for the new government allowed it to form and gain a majority in the Knesset. One of the biggest ironies of these strange comrades is that the Tagammu Party – the first Arab party to enter the ruling coalition – may turn Bennett’s government into a transformative one. If Abbas’ gamble – among other guarantees, the $16 billion he secured to invest in the Arab sector during coalition agreements will certainly help – he may be the first of many Arab power brokers in a radically more democratic Jewish state.

I lived in Israel for 20 years as a graduate student and academic between 1995 and 2015, experiencing several election cycles and each time I was elated by the dynamism of Israel’s democracy – of Israeli Jews. Among the Arab friends, all of whom were Israeli university graduates, I was frustrated, as if nothing would ever change, no matter who they voted for or what their party platform said. Higher levels of unemployment than Jewish Israelis, a high crime rate in Arab Israeli towns, a housing crisis and discriminatory government spending in vital areas such as education seemed to be constant like the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Many of my friends stopped voting, and others left the country altogether.

Fighting inequality is difficult in all democracies; It may seem impossible in Israel because the Jewish parties refused to invite the Arab parties to join their coalition governments. In the Israeli coalition system, small ultra-Orthodox parties, by contrast, have repeatedly joined coalitions in order to secure government spending on education, housing, and social welfare. Not surprisingly, the vote among the ultra-Orthodox is the highest in the country.

I got my first glimpse of how this unwritten rule of law perpetuates inequality when I wrote a book with Ami Ayalon, the former head of Israel’s internal security service, the Shin Bet. Ayalon, a retired admiral with his background in the Special Forces and the Navy, was brought in to lead the Shin Bet after Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated in 1995.

Ayalon’s memo was to fight the wave of Islamic terrorism that plagued Israeli cities, and to do so he had to make sure that the Arab citizens of Israel were not cooperating with terrorist organizations in the West Bank and Gaza. This means infiltrating Arab social parties and organizations. It also asks him to learn about Arab society and culture to understand their complex identities.

He remembers how, during his meetings with Arab leaders, he was quick to realize how Israeli policies, not ideology, are driving Arabs into the arms of Israel’s enemies. Prior to his murder, Rabin’s coalition did not include Arab parties, but relied on the votes of Arab MKs. For this reason, he treated Arabs as full citizens and greatly increased spending in the Arab sector.

Once Netanyahu came to power in 1996, he turned off the tap, and Arabs once again felt widespread systemic discrimination that robbed them of hope of being accepted as equals. Their alienation threatens not only Israeli democracy, but its security as well. Something had to be changed.

During cabinet meetings in 1996 and 1997, then-Prime Minister Ayalon warned Netanyahu of the danger of extremism and indicated that the government had not yet discussed the sense of inequality felt by Arabs. Ayalon said the prime minister nodded but did nothing.

In 1996, in the months leading up to the 50th anniversary of the massacre in the Arab village of Kafr Qasim, Ayalon suggested to Netanyahu that he begin the process of creating faith in Israeli democracy by attending a commemoration of the event in and apologizing for the Israeli police shooting 48 villagers, including 23 children. , for violating a military curfew. Netanyahu has said he cannot apologize for the massacre, and Ayalon says he has moved on to the next item on the daily agenda.

Polling data reflects Arab Israelis’ growing disillusionment with the democracy that should have helped them. Between 1996 and 2006, Arab participation in national elections declined from 79% to 56%. They have been deprived of power and influence during the Netanyahu years. Their faith in Israeli democracy continued to erode. In the last elections this year, only 45% of Arabs voted.

I no longer live in Israel, so I have not personally experienced how pent-up frustration translated into the explosion of riots and violence in mixed cities between Arabs and Jews during the recent war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. Successive Israeli governments chose a narrow, ethnic definition of democracy – only Jewish votes mattered – over inclusive democracy that would bring Arab parties into government, and the predictions made by Ayalon during the days of the Shin Bet have come true.

The reason for excluding Arabs from power was also clear: at about 21% of the population, Arabs who voted at the same rate as the ultra-Orthodox – about 13% of the population – would be one of the country’s most powerful electoral blocs. The country is able to determine which Zionist party has power.

This is why Abbas is revolutionary. If the coalition survives Netanyahu’s relentless attacks – he has vowed to bring down the “rogue government” – it will inject billions of dollars into the Arab community. If past investments in the ultra-Orthodox community are any guide, such a massive influx of money could lead to higher employment rates and better education, housing, and health care.

By the next election cycle, this means that Arabs are likely to respond in exactly the same way that the ultra-Orthodox has always responded – by voting. The higher the voter turnout, the more members of the Arab parties will be in the Knesset. The more representation in the Knesset, the more indispensable it will be to future coalition governments. What Abbas has started may turn the Arabs of Israel into permanent kingmakers of Israeli democracy.

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