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What really matters to Israeli Arab voters

The problem that most concerns Israel's Palestinian citizens is personal safety, an issue on which the Blue and White could make significant positive contributions and in doing so attract Arab voters, potentially breaking the prevailing electoral deadlock with the right.
An Arab Israeli woman casts her vote during Israel's parliamentary elections on April 9, 2019 at a polling station in the northern Israeli town of Taiyiba. - Israelis voted today in a high-stakes election that will decide whether to extend Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's long right-wing tenure despite corruption allegations or to replace him with an ex-military chief new to politics. (Photo by Ahmad GHARABLI / AFP)        (Photo credit should read AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP/Getty Images)
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In the past as Israeli elections approached, television news programs would begin with the anchors promising to share new poll results during the broadcast. The audience would anxiously wait for the predictions, generally until the latter half of the broadcast. Viewers had no choice but to sit through all sorts of other, usually less interesting stories. The hearts of politicians would skip a beat during each sampling, and viewers could feel tensions rising as election day approached. This campaign season, however, with elections for the 22nd Knesset rapidly approaching, it is hard to find anything more boring than the polls.

Survey results these days are consistently similar, even when compared to those from weeks and months earlier. The right and center-left blocs each poll at 54 to 56 seats, and Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beitenu polls at 10 seats. It seems highly unlikely that any of the major parties will fail to pass the electoral threshold. If anything is happening, it is taking place within the blocs.

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