JERUSALEM — Ten Knesset Members of the United Arab List advised the President to select Beny Gantz as the next Prime Minister.
Three other MKs of that list refused to select anyone as the next Prime Minister.
What we’re seeing is another element of the Israelization of the Arab citizens of Israel.
And the approach of many other Arabs to support some kind of accommodation with Israel.
Egypt and Jordan have formal diplomatic relations with Israel. Saudi Arabia and Gulf Emirates, including Qatar deal with Israel, allow Israeli business people to travel there, make arrangements, and their government cooperate with Israel on matters of national defense.
The threat from Iran is a commonality in the rapport between Israel and Arab countries, but it is not the only issue. Many of their governments seem to have tired of Palestinian rejectionism and efforts to turn back history.
But they are living with several decades of supporting the Palestinian cause, and cannot simply reject it.
They may have Israeli officials living there and dealing with joint issues, but have held off on firming up more open relations until there is a settlement of the Palestinian issue.
That’s not likely to happen anytime soon, and we’re all living with the anomaly.
Most Palestinians of the West Bank do not support the incumbent President, but he travels the world and is accepted as something.
Countries of the world indicate that they support a two-state solution, but the timing isn’t right.
Arabs of Israel, who are citizens, and those of Jerusalem who are Israeli residents but haven’t chosen citizenship, live in our neighborhood and other parts of Israel. We pass on the street, often not aware of one another’s ethnic affiliation.
Polls indicate that a majority of Jerusalem’s non-citizen Arabs prefer living under Israeli rule, rather than joining Palestine.
More than 100,000 West Bank Palestinians work in Israel, along with perhaps 5,000 Gazans.
And there are terrorists. Occasionally there are attacks, usually with knives, and usually the attackers are dealt with–either killed, wounded, and/or arrested.
And the President of Palestine continues to boast that he’s paying the families of the killers a monthly pension.
There is also several times the incidence of violence, including killings, within the Arab population of Israel, compared to the Jews.
There are lots of illegal weapons there, and occasional efforts of the police to seize them.
Tensions exist between the police and Israel’s Arab population. They call for more policing of crime within their community, and often do not cooperate with police efforts. All this despite an incidence of Arabs in the police force, including among its leading officers.
Bibi expressed overt racism in his campaign, indicating that the Arabs were voting strongly, and urging Jews to defend the idea of a Zionist State by voting Likud. He also supported the idea of Likudniks posting cameras in Arab voting polls, perhaps to deter Arab voting.
That was a repeat of Bibi’s campaign toward the end of the 2015 election, in which he claimed that buses were taking Arabs to the polls, and Likudniks must vote in order to overcome them.
Also Avigdor Liberman speaks against coalescing with Arabs, as well as with left of center prominently Jewish political parties.
So we have reminders of violence, and those who see Arabs as a threat to Israel as a Jewish state.
Along with indications that many, perhaps most Arabs have approached the Jews of Israel, and are willing to accommodate themselves to the Jewish state.
Signs of minority disadvantages are not hard to see.
We know that Arabs generally are poorer, and their cities, towns, and neighborhoods are likely to be less attractive than those of the Jews.
The same could be said about ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods, cities, and towns.
More or less so than minority neighborhoods of the US and Western Europe?
It’s hard to say.
There are also continuing signs of problems with Gaza. And 14 or so years ago there was a major uprising in the West Bank that killed more than 1,100 Israelis, as well as several times as many West Bank Arabs.
The Iranians are not Arabs, but are linked to Hezbollah via their common Shi’ite affiliation. And a leading Iranian has recently indicated that the destruction of Israel is a real possibility.
The support given Gantz by most of the United Arab List is the first time since Yitzhak Rabin that there has been such an accommodation. It comes now in opposition to what is seen as the racist incitement of Netanyahu.
The reality is that we’re living, mostly, all right along with one another.
And the history of Jews is that we’ve always lived alongside others. Usually at peace, but sometimes not.
Should we see the present as a sign of the future? As something we should exploit with rapport in order not to make things worse?
Or as something that we must reject as false and temporary?
I’ll indicate support for the second of those options, and hope for the best.
Meanwhile, the President has given Bibi the chance to form a government. So far, he’s sticking with his block of right wing parties, and trying to get Blue and White to deal with him.
As long as the block remain, there’s no chance of that.
And perhaps no chance unless Bibi pulls himself out of Likud and as a contender for office.
After a while, Bibi may give his mandate back to the President.
Then it may be Gantz’s turn. And he might try to win some Likudniks away from their party..
Will Gantz approach the Arab parties with some kind of deal?
It’s not over.
שנה טובה Shana tova. Have a good year.
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Sharkansky is professor emeritus of political science at Hebrew University. He may be contacted via ira.sharkansky@sdjewishworld.com