Arab legislator charts new course in Israeli politics

Mansour Abbas, head of the United Arab List (Ra’am Party), has taken Israeli politics in new directions. No Arab politician has had anything like the impact he has on Israeli politics. And  because of his star turn as a power broker and deal maker, and his willingness to speak out, he’s now in the spotlight.

His ascent began when Abbas stepped into Israeli coalition politics, a first for an Arab legislator. He instantly became a player, given the narrow margins in Israel’s parliament. Israel’s Arab citizens make up more than 20 percent, or about 1.9 million, of Israel’s 9 million citizens. Nevertheless, their role in Israeli politics had been mostly on the sidelines. That suited Israel’s right-wing and centrist parties, which pretty much ignored the Arab Joint List, which had a near-monopoly on the Arab vote.

Abbas realized that Arab citizens and legislators had an opening. And it was, bizarrely, former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who showed the way for the first time this year by courting the Arab vote in Nazareth and other Arab cities and towns, sporting the moniker “Abu Yair” (“father of Yair” in Arabic).