Mohammed Zeidan, from the Arab community of Kafr Manda in northern Israel, is the only Arab in Israel who has been able to get the ultranationalist Education Minister Naftali Bennett and Arab Knesset member Ahmad Tibi from the Joint List to exchange warm greetings. Zeidan, 19, scored an 800 on Israeli's Psychometric Entrance Test, the highest possible score. Tibi praised his achievement on Twitter, and Bennett was quick to retweet Tibi’s greeting, leading the two political foes to exchange kind words.

When I told him about Tibi and Bennett's exchange, Zeidan smiled broadly. But that’s not the only reason he is on cloud nine. According to the National Institute for Testing and Evaluation, which conducts the exam, Zeidan’s achievement is overwhelming. To explain:

In 2014, the most recent time that the National Institute released such comprehensive data, 65,000 students were examined at a spread of five testing dates. Generally, the best results are attributed the 800 score, and these results then constitute the maximum score level. The other results are calculated according to this maximum level. Another interesting data point concerns the percentage of students taking the test in Arabic, a figure that's usually higher than the percentage of Arabs in the Israeli population. In 2014, for instance, more than 20,000 students took the test in Arabic, compared with some 40,000 taking it in Hebrew. (The other 5,000 took the test in other languages.) Arab-Israelis make up about a fifth of the Israeli population.

The reason behind this impressive figure is the pressure exerted by family and social circles over Arab-Israeli youths to acquire higher education, the only means for them to integrate into the Israeli work market. In the last five years, only two examinees in Arabic reached the highest score — both from the same school where Zeidan is currently studying.