Israel’s election: The Arab vote and Netanyahu’s politics of exclusion

Mansour Abbas is offering Israel a practical demonstration that Arabs and Jews can share responsibility for their country. Benjamin Netanyahu presents that possibility as a threat. Too many of his opponents still behave as though he is right. That contradiction could determine whether Israel’s election on 27 October produces a change of government. At a recent Economist conference in Thessaloniki, where I was also a speaker, former Israeli foreign minister Shlomo Ben-Ami highlighted the dilemma: Netanyahu’s opponents may need Arab parliamentary support to govern, yet remain reluctant to accept that partnership. Netanyahu does not necessarily need his opponents to lose. He needs them to remain unable to govern together. The New York Times’ 16 October profile describes Abbas’s partnership with […]