Who could have written this script?
The most condemned nation on earth, the one accused of a genocide against an Arab population, holds a national election and its own Arab population can now determine who will lead the country.
Let that sink in. The country accused of apartheid against Arabs empowers Arabs to directly influence its most consequential election.
It doesn’t matter if you’re right or left, religious or secular, Jewish or non-Jewish. Or if you follow the news, or if you live in Israel or the diaspora.
I live in Los Angeles, and here, we live for stories.
I can’t recall a more unlikely story to hit Israel.
While Jews have been obsessing over Jewish stories in the Jewish state—Haredi Jews refusing to serve in the military, Jewish military leaders fighting wars, Jewish settlers fighting in Judea and Samaria, Jewish members of parliament fighting other Jewish members, Jewish candidates fighting other Jewish candidates, Jewish demonstrators protesting Jewish leaders—suddenly, out of the corner of our eye, a whole other group rises up on Election Day and votes in record numbers.
Israeli Arabs.
It turns out that claim about Israel being a democracy wasn’t just propaganda. The two million Arabs who live in the world’s only Jewish state really do have the power to vote. So many of them voted yesterday that they stopped Jewish blocs from having a majority.
In Israeli elections, blocs are everything. A block needs a majority of 61 seats to form a government. Right now, the two Jewish blocs—Netanyahu and Eisenkot—have 53 and 48 seats, respectively.
Did I mention there’s an Arab bloc that gained a record 19 seats? This Arab bloc now has the power to take one of the Jewish blocs over the top. Whether it happens or not, it’s worth repeating: A country accused of genocide against Arabs has empowered Arabs to significantly influence its governance.
If you’re into PR for Israel, that’s an unbeatable story.
In recent years, the pro-Israel community has invested enormous resources to counter the genocide libel. It has barely made a dent.
But that’s the problem with arguments, even the most compelling ones. They’re still only arguments.
Arabs voting in the Jewish state is not an argument. It’s a story. A factual, unequivocal story. The most antisemitic media outlet on the planet has no choice but to tell that story, even if it makes Israel look good.
We don’t know yet where that story will go.
It’s common in Israel to talk about a “Zionist coalition,” a polite way of saying “Arab parties not welcome.” In truth, the presence of Israeli citizens who are against the notion of a Jewish state has always been one of Israel’s most vexing issues. Excluding Arab parties from a governing coalition has simply been the norm.
As Tomer Persico writes on X, “Most Zionist parties refuse to see Arab parties as legitimate partners, and most Arab parties refuse to bear responsibility for the governance of a state that is also the nation-state of the Jewish people.” That’s the reality. Hardly anyone thinks Israel can have a stable government that includes Arab parties.
At the same time, there’s a huge appetite right now for victory among the two Jewish blocs.
Will these Jewish blocs be tempted to reach out to Arab parties? Will they hold firm and keep Arabs out? Will they fight among themselves to get a Zionist majority? If all that fails, will we see another election?
These are the burning questions that will hold our attention over the next few days and weeks.
In the meantime, I wouldn’t be surprised if somewhere in Hollywood, a writer is pondering a script about a wild and improbable story coming out of a tiny Jewish country.
It wouldn’t be the first time.
