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Opinion | What in the World Is Happening in Israel?


It has a model of an Israeli politician with whom Mr. Netanyahu is quite familiar. Of all the interviews I did on this trip, the one that stuck with me the most was with Mansour Abbas, who represented the Arab Islamic Party of Israel, the first Israeli Arab party to become a member of the Arab Islamic Party. official partner in a Jewish-led government in Israel. ruling coalition, the government of national unity was formed in June 2021, led by Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett, which Netanyahu recently ousted.

Mansour Abbas went public declare“The State of Israel was born as a Jewish state, and it will remain one.

Before Lapid and Bennett formed their government, Netanyahu tried to get Abbas to support his coalition, but his ultra-nationalist partners said they would not serve the same Muslim Arab Israel in the same cabinet. So in the most recent election, Netanyahu reversed course and used Abbas’s presence in the Bennett-Lapid cabinet to stoke anti-Arab sentiment among Israel’s Jews, which has help him win at the ballot box.

Abbas told me: “I asked Bibi, ‘Why are you accusing me that I am a Muslim Brotherhood and a terrorist? He said Netanyahu told him it was political. He needs to get votes.

Abbas is a keen observer of the Israeli scene. He explained that he grew up as part of a Muslim minority in a predominantly Arab Christian village, where he learned early on that in Israel, “diversity exists.” not only between Arabs and Jews, but also within the Arab region and the Jewish region. .”

As a result, he says, he believes that “we all have multiple identities — religious and national. We can live together with our identities, if we try. I call it the ‘civilian approach’ based on values. … I studied political science at Haifa University. I learned the term ‘how to manage conflict.’ But there is another term – ‘how to manage a partnership.’ I prefer conflict inside the partnership than outside of it.”

So he added, “I cooperate – and hopefully then there will be change.”

I cannot think of a more fitting way to end a paragraph about the true complexity of the situation in Israel than to quote a Palestinian Muslim Israeli speaking to Israeli Jews about the spirit of cooperation needed. necessary to protect Israel as a Jewish homeland and a democracy for all its citizens – whether it is in two states or one.

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