Israel's third round of elections in a year took place only a week ago, on March 2, and already at major intersections one sees huge billboards bearing the faces of Blue and White Chairman Benny Gantz and the leaders of the Arab Joint List, Ayman Odeh and Ahmad Tibi, along with the caption, “Yes to a Jewish and democratic state, no to supporters of terror.” The billboards, courtesy the Likud, remind you that elections in Israel are never really over. Thus the party headed by transitional Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues its campaign against the formation of a minority government that Gantz is trying to establish with the support of the Joint List.
Since the election, Foreign Minister Israel Katz has called members of the Joint List “terrorists in suits,” while Netanyahu did him one better and declared that Arab Knesset members are not part of the left bloc, since “Arabs are not part of the equation, and this is the will of the people.” Still, it seems that the incitement issuing from the ruling party’s workshop has actually benefitted the Joint List, whose support grew by two Knesset seats after the September elections, to a high of 15.
