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Netanyahu draws careful line between Arab Israelis, Arab parties

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has obviously changed tactics: Instead of attacking directly Israeli-Arab citizens, he is targeting the Knesset members of the Joint List.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the swearing-in ceremony of the 22nd Knesset, the Israeli parliament, in Jerusalem October 3, 2019. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun - RC17D5CCC6B0
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the swearing-in ceremony of the 22nd Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, in Jerusalem, Oct. 3, 2019. — REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

The Likud Party held a Nov. 17 “emergency session” designed to forestall the formation of a minority government led by Blue and White leader Benny Gantz with the support of Arab parties. Addressing the assembled party members, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared, “Such a government is an existential threat to the State of Israel. If a minority government like this is formed, they will celebrate in Tehran, Ramallah and Gaza the way they celebrate after every terror attack. This would be a historic national terror attack on the State of Israel.” A day earlier, he tweeted that any government dependent on the support of the Arab parties “is an immediate existential threat to Israel’s security.”

It's unbelievable that Netanyahu chose to label a government that would have ended his rule by fair democratic means and led to his ouster from the prime minister's residence a “historic national terror attack” and “an immediate existential threat to Israel’s security.” He has waxed poetic before about the sentiments he and his family harbor for the house, telling residents of the illegal West Bank outpost of Amona on the eve of their court-ordered eviction in 2016, “I understand what it means to lose a home.” Recounting his travails after losing the 1999 election to Labor leader Ehud Barak, Netanyahu added, “We were kicked out of the official residence and forced to move into the Sheraton Plaza.” 

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