If the main hero of the fifth act is Itamar Ben Gabir, the anti-heroes are the Arab MKs. Until two days ago, everyone was talking about the lack of motivation to vote in Arab society, which stems from disappointment and a feeling that it doesn’t matter anyway. But let’s look for a moment at the Arab representatives who are supposedly so do not affect the state.
The government of change was made possible thanks to the first-of-its-kind courage of an Arab leader, who chose to stop differentiating himself in order to deal with the daily hardships of his voters – Mansur Abbas. But the first government in which an Arab party made history and took part in it fell thanks to the great efforts of another Arab member of the Knesset, Jida Rinawi Zoevi from Meretz. She rebelled against coalition discipline and refused to vote contrary to her party’s commitment. Which pushed the members of the right side of the broken government to the edge, and thus actually thwarted the joint experimental enterprise that arose here for the first time.
If that’s not enough, then came Balad’s refusal to run with the joint list, and even to make a surplus agreement with it. Balad had no chance of passing the blocking percentage in the first place, and all commentators agree that this is the main reason why the election campaign did not end again in a tie. The Arab public actually stood up in the end and voted at a fairly good rate compared to expectations, but its representatives in the Knesset made sure to burn as many votes as possible.
In a wonderful identification with the Palestinians, the “non-influential” Arab members of the Knesset did not miss an opportunity to miss any opportunity.
Action Plan
It is true that the Arab Knesset members did everything to return Netanyahu to power, apparently it is not important because all Jews are the same. But the confrontational behavior of some of them also works against them. What brought the Arab voters to the polls at the last moment was not the extreme rhetoric of Sami Abu Shahada or the identification of Aida Toma Suleiman with the martyrs, but the fear of the strengthening of Itamar Ben Gabir. And what caused the strengthening of Ben Gvir? The unprecedented wave of nationalism in the cities involved during Operation Wall Guard. The strengthening of Ben Gvir is the post-traumatic reaction of many Israelis who did not receive any response to their fear from the other parties.
The chairman of the Likud ignored the incident, because if he had addressed it, he would have had to admit that these disturbances happened during his shift. On the left side of the map, they were busy comparing the Jewish violence to the Arab violence, and the center parties did not present a proposal for an action plan either. The only one who commented was Ben Gabir .
Speaking of an action plan – there just wasn’t one in the change camp. There was no counter strategy to Netanyahu’s 61, but “vote for us, we will reach election day and it will be fine”. No one took the issue of the cost of living that came up in all the polls seriously. Between the nonsense of Hadar Mokhtar and the coverless swans of Yaron Zelicha and Abir Kara, only Shas spoke to those who suffer the most from the cost of living – the weak strata. That’s how Shas got to where it did.
waste of energy
The knives from the center-left that were drawn towards Yair Lapid from Ma’lot Kebs. Didn’t they learn anything there? It is true that Lapid made mistakes, and it is true that he failed to capture the group around him, but it is not all his fault. Cohesion of a camp around a leader depends on the leader, but also on the camp. Do the center-left know how to do this?
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Before an election, a camp needs to coalesce around a leader who is not perfect. The rivalry for the leadership of the camp should take place before the elections, as part of a major party’s primaries. The historic dissolution of Blue and White gave birth to a rivalry that is not resolved within a party framework before the elections, and causes energy to be dissipated.
You can throw all the blame on Lapid and hang his head, but it is better to learn from mistakes. Benny Gantz did not express confidence in him, the Arabs as mentioned were on their own, and Marev Michaeli fancied a ruling party with four mandates. You need to know how to lead, but you also need to know how to be led. When the bloc looks like this, don’t complain that there is no leadership.
without Arab nationalism
We go through difficult, but also interesting trials. A Jewish-Arab partnership is a beautiful idea, but there is no possibility of such a partnership with Arab nationalism. We have clearly seen that when Israel is pushed to the edge and asked to choose between Jewishness and democracy, she chooses Jewishness. So the time has come to get to know the State of Israel for its complexity and uniqueness, and to do some self-reflection.
It does distance us from Scandinavian-style liberalism, but it is not necessarily bad. After all, complete equality even in the rights of nationality will eventually lead to an Arab majority, which will lead to the fact that there will be no democracy. There is no doubt that the combination of Jewish and democratic is the right one for us, it just doesn’t seem like we got it this time.
We received a full right-religious-Orthodox government, with a host of promises that half the country could not live with (not to mention the democratic administration in the US). This is said – the burden of proof is on them, and there is nothing to be jealous of Netanyahu. In English they say Be careful what you wish for. Here he got everything he supposedly dreamed of. There will be no excuses or throwing the blame on someone else. There is a whole bunch of natural partners, from the boys of the hills to giving up on core studies.
It may be better than Arab extremists, but propaganda is separate and life itself is separate. God knows how Netanyahu will handle a wild Jewish force that has enormous power in the coalition. No sarcasm – I hope he succeeds.
relocation
With the publication of the samples, an image of ballot papers connecting together the word “relocation” was circulated in the WhatsApp groups of center-left voters. There is nothing like humor to deal with discouragement, but the joke also reflects reality. In the neighborhood where I live, between Lapid and Gantz, on the day of the elections, an announcement was made announcing low turnout at eight o’clock in the evening, and calling on the residents to go to the polls.
This was not a fake to increase voter turnout, but a real message. There were just too many people who were sick of the never-ending election loop, or felt that election number five wasn’t a good enough reason to move some important trip. In retrospect, we know that those who had something more urgent abroad and were not here on November 1, broke the balance with many religious people who filled planes in the opposite direction, and came to the Holy Land specifically to vote. A matter of priorities.
So relocation? Don’t beat yourself up, center-left voters. We have no other country, and the name of the game is commitment. If we do not persist in the war on her image, and if she is not important enough, someone else will.