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The Joint List, an alliance of Arab parties has recommend Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s rival, Benny Gantz as the next Israeli prime minister.
It is only the second time in Israel’s history that Arab parties have given such a recommendation after an election, normally they do not signal a preference. The only other time they did so was in 1992, when they offered backing for Yitzhak Rabin, who had promised to pursue peace with the Palestinians if elected.
Israel’s leading Arab politician Ayman Odeh said it was possibly the most difficult decision of his life. The Arab parties stayed out of the coalition Rabin formed, but offered their support in key votes in Parliament. This time, too, the Joint List said its support for Gantz would not extend to joining him in government. Instead, it would back Gantz to stop the country’s longest-serving Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, from retaking office. Writing in the New York Times, Odeh laid out his position.
“On behalf of the Joint List, I am recommending that Israel’s president choose Benny Gantz, the leader of the centrist Blue and White party, to be the next prime minister. This will be the most significant step toward helping create the majority needed to prevent another term for Netanyahu. And it should be the end of his political career. My colleagues and I have made this decision not as an endorsement of Gantz and his policy proposals for the country. We are aware that Gantz has refused to commit to our legitimate political demands for a shared future, and because of that we will not join his government,” he wrote.
The reaction was swift and, in many cases, predictable. Netanyahu’s Likud Party, which came second to Blue and White in last week’s election, reprised its message from the campaign trail.
“As we warned, the Arab parties that oppose Israel as a Jewish and democratic state and glorify terrorists recommended Gantz for prime minister,” Likud said in a statement. “Likud will make every effort to establish a stable and strong government committed to maintaining Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. We can’t have a government that relies on Arab parties that oppose the State of Israel.”
Gantz himself has shown little if any interest in forming a government with the Joint List. His party said Sunday it was calling on “all Zionist parties, including Likud, to join us in establishing a broad government.” Unsaid in that statement, but understood nevertheless, is Blue and White’s clear wish that Likud dispense with Netanyahu as its leader before any unity government be agreed.
