The murderous rampage in one of Israel’s major cities March 22 not only left four Israelis dead in just eight minutes, but also delivered a devastating blow to the ruling coalition. It was the worst terrorist attack in Israel in years, made even worse by the perpetrator being an Israeli citizen, a Bedouin from the village of Hura. He was reportedly also a supporter of the Islamic State who had spent time in Israeli prison for security offenses.

The incident happened while an Arab party is part of the governing coalition for the first time in Israel’s history. Members of Ra'am hold important positions in Knesset committees and the party has obtained unprecedented funding on behalf of the Arab sector.

Terrorist attacks and security issues in general have been the vulnerable underbelly of every Israeli government, but especially those on the left. The second intifada, which broke out in 2000, led to the fall of Prime Minister Ehud Barak while he was in the middle of a historic diplomatic process with the Palestinians. Just a few years earlier, in 1996, the government of Prime Minister Shimon Peres fell as a result of several horrific terrorist attacks in Israel. They occurred while Peres was trying to fulfill the Oslo Accords and save the legacy of his predecessor Yitzhak Rabin, who was assassinated just a few months earlier.

If more such attacks occur, the political challenges facing this government will be just as harsh. People will connect the attacks with the Islamist Arab party that is an integral part of the coalition. Ra’am chair Mansour Abbas was quick to denounce the attack in the strongest terms. He clearly knows that this worst possible scenario has the potential to destroy a very delicate political coexistence.