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.

The irony of fate is that the formation of the Joint List arose from the initiative by Yisrael Beitenu Chairman Avigdor Liberman to raise the vote threshold in 2014 in an attempt to push the small Arab parties out of the Knesset. In addition, in the run-up to the March elections, a number of actions inflamed the mood among the Arab public, playing a significant role in the Joint List’s successful and spot-on campaign. Notable among them were the passage in 2018 of the controversial Nationality Law, declaring the Jewish nature of the state of Israel, the “Bibi or Tibi” campaign (i.e., either Netanyahu or a government ruled by the Joint List), and the crowning glory, the possibility of transferring the Arab cities in north-central Israel's Triangle region to Palestinian control as set out in President Donald Trump’s peace plan. 

Will the Likud and the right’s callous and poisonous campaign, whose messages are escalating, lead to more extreme attitudes toward the Arab community and its Knesset representatives? It seems the answer is affirmative.