Will Israeli Jews support Arab Knesset candidate?
Ahead of April 9 elections, Jewish voters on the left have surprisingly come out in support of Taal, headed by Israeli Arab Knesset member Ahmad Tibi.
Will Knesset member Ahmad Tibi, chairman of Taal, succeed in breaking the longstanding taboo of “anyone but Arabs in the coalition”? While it is still too early to tell, the possibility is already keeping Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu awake at night.
On the evening of the 2015 elections, Netanyahu had warned, “Arab voters are heading to the polling stations in droves,” managing to drum up more votes for himself. On Feb. 9, he posted a video on his Facebook page attacking Benny Gantz, head of Israel Resilience, and insinuating that Arab votes are illegitimate. The target of his intimidation campaign was Tibi: “You vote for Gantz; you get Tibi,” is the title of the clip, which claims, among other things, “The Oslo Accords passed because of the Arabs’ votes. … Former Chief of Staff Gantz will do it again.”
According to the latest polls, Taal is likely to win five to seven seats in the next Knesset. In the battle between the two major blocs over every single vote, seven seats could tip the scales in favor of the center-left.
Tibi recently decided to withdraw from the predominantly Arab Joint List after failing to convince his partners — the other three parties constituting the Joint List — to give his party greater representation. He has not ruled out building a new bloc with parties from the center-left, which could prevent the right from forming a coalition and allow Gantz to form the next government.
