Israel Elections: The Arab vote's short-term, long-term significance
Israeli Arabs have been shut out of key political positions of influence not only because of a discriminatory policy, but also because of their own political choices.
By JPOST EDITORIALAn Israeli-Arab father casts a ballot together with his children, as Israelis vote in a parliamentary election, at a polling station in Umm al-Fahm, Israel April 9, 2019(photo credit: AMMAR AWAD / REUTERS)
Overlooking the protest that accompanied Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit on Wednesday to Nazareth – where three Joint List MKs were dragged away by police even though they enjoy parliamentary immunity – there was something both promising and troubling about his appearance in that Arab city.Let’s start with the troubling.Why must it take a close election campaign, where every Knesset seat is critical, to finally move Netanyahu to put the Arab sector on his daily schedule?Netanyahu has been prime minister now for almost 15 years, the last 12 of them consecutively, and his visits to Israeli Arab cities and towns have been very few and far between. Yet just this month alone he has visited Tira, Umm el-Fahm, and now Nazareth.Why now? Because Netanyahu is fishing for Arab votes.Don’t misunderstand, we are all in favor of the prime minister visiting Arab communities – just as he does Jewish ones – and speaking with the mayor to address problems facing the residents. That’s great. It’s what a prime minister with empathy for his country’s citizens – all of his country’s citizens – does.Just don’t do it only during a campaign, because when it is done only before an election, it smacks of crass political cynicism.There are those who find it troubling that Netanyahu – who in 2015 infamously warned that Arabs were being bused to voting booths in droves – is now appealing for their vote.Netanyahu has both apologized and explained his words, and even if one doubts his sincerity, he can’t be castigated for trying to tamp down Arab voter turnout on the one hand, and then be criticized for actually campaigning to get Arabs to vote. Granted, he is trying to get them to vote for him, but to do that they need to participate in the democratic process – something he is now encouraging.Another troubling element to the visit was the reaction of the Joint List, which organized a protest against it. If the Arab party would wage a battle for the needs of this country’s Arab residents with the same passion with which some of their MKs blast Israel or fight for the Palestinian cause, then there probably wouldn’t be as many Arab voters out there today looking for other parties to vote for, including the Likud.
Netanyahu recognized inroads could be made among Arab voters when the Joint List inexplicably voted against the Abraham Accords in the Knesset, even though a large majority of Arab Israelis support those accords because of the economic benefit from which they stand to gain.The Joint List’s stranglehold on the Arab vote has ill-served their constituents. Since the party includes extreme left-wing members for whom the Jewish state is an abomination, the country’s Zionist parties are mostly unwilling to cooperate with it.And that has prevented Arab politicians from moving into the government and real positions of power and influence, from where they could benefit their communities.Which leads to the promising elements in Netanyahu’s visit. Netanyahu went to Nazareth on Wednesday because he recognizes that Israeli Arabs are a potent political force.If he needs them this time, he will need them next time, and the time after that as well. As such, he will need to take their concerns and considerations into account.The Likud, and every other party in the country, should be concerned about the country’s Arab citizens whether they vote for them or not. That is in an ideal world.In the real world, that concern will probably be greater if there are votes to be won or lost.Israeli Arabs have been shut out of key political positions of influence not only because of a discriminatory policy, though some of that certainly exists, but also because of their own political choices.If that begins to change – if Arabs vote for parties that are not viewed as beyond the pale because of their ideology – it would spur greater integration, something that would be a blessing both for Israeli Arabs and for the country as a whole.
