Every day that goes by with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisting that a unity government with the rival Blue and White party must include his “natural allies,” — i.e., the right-wing Yamina (Rightward) and ultra-Orthodox Shas and Yahadut HaTorah parties — brings the country closer to a third election within the span of less than one year. Netanyahu has at least two good reasons to trample Israel’s democracy and increase the budget shortfall by tens of millions of shekels. First of all, another election will buy him a few more months in the prime minister’s office as leader of a caretaker government, during which he could try several evasive tactics to avoid his expected criminal indictments on charges of corruption. Second, and not necessarily in that order, the next elections will provide him with an opportunity to hone his incitement skills against the community largely responsible for his failure to obtain a 61-seat Knesset majority in the Sept. 17 elections — the Arab minority. Alternatively, Netanyahu may be able to find a scapegoat elsewhere.
According to the final tally of the Central Elections Committee for the 22nd Knesset, voter turnout in Arab and Druze towns and villages rose 10% from the April 2019 elections to 59.2% on Sept. 17 (compared with a 1.4% increase in the general turnout). As a result, Arab citizens increased their Knesset representation from 10 to 13 seats in the 120-member legislature, making the Arab Joint List the third-largest parliamentary faction, after Blue and White and the Likud. Three of the four parties constituting this alliance, which account for 10 of its 13 lawmakers, have recommended to President Reuven Rivlin that he task Blue and White leader Benny Gantz with forming Israel’s next government.
