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Israeli-Arab voters succeed in forcing their will on party

What Israeli-Arab voters really want is integration into Israeli politics and for their representatives to participate in governing and decision-making.
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With the fall holidays now over, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Oct. 21 that he would be returning his mandate to form a new government to President Reuven Rivlin. Two days later, the president gave the mandate to the chairman of the Blue and White party, Knesset member Benny Gantz. He now has 28 days to form a government to replace Netanyahu. It will not be easy — not now. It now looks like he will be unable to cobble together a majority to support a new government under him. He will probably not even be able to pull together a minority government, given the declaration of Knesset member Mtanes Shehadeh from the Arab Joint List. On Oct. 22, Shehadeh said that his Balad faction will not vote to support the formation of a minority government. If that is really the case, Gantz will likely find himself returning the mandate to the president a month from now. In that case, Knesset members will have 21 days to decide on one of their own to form a government. If that doesn’t help, and there is no way to resolve this crisis, Israel will have its third round of elections in less than a year.

If these elections do take place, it is quite possible that Netanyahu will no longer head the Likud party. On Oct. 10, the Likud Central Committee convened, to declare Netanyahu the party’s only candidate in this Knesset to form a government. But given the low turnout at the meeting, it is quite possible that even the Likud is beginning to come to terms with the idea that Netanyahu may no longer be the best candidate to ensure the party’s hold on power, even if he was once their ideal candidate. The possibility of this pressure bubbling up from below should not be discounted. It may even result in party members demanding that Netanyahu be replaced. It should not be taken for granted that these Knesset members will hand over the benefits of governance so willingly, especially after a decade in power. They may not be so keen to accept moving to the opposition benches.

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