Knesset member Ahmad Tibi of the Arab Joint List party made no effort to conceal his glee at the distress of his Jewish colleagues who had a hard time digesting the population data reported by Israeli officials on March 26 indicating the loss of a Jewish majority in the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean. “The vision of an Arab prime minister that now appears a far-fetched idea is drawing nearer,” the veteran lawmaker declared, promising that when that happens, Israel would be “equal and democratic, not Jewish and democratic.”
But the realization of Tibi’s vision is an unlikely prospect. The prospect of a Jewish minority governing an Arab majority — in other words, apartheid — appears far more realistic than one in which an Arab majority with full civil rights rules a Jewish minority. Of the over 6 million Arabs residing between Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea, only 800,000 Israeli Arabs are eligible to vote and be elected to the Knesset.
