Israel’s Coalition Politics Are More Complicated Than Identity

The idea that Israel’s Jewish opposition parties can join forces with Arab parties to remove Netanyahu overlooks fundamental disagreements that make such a coalition difficult to form, let alone sustain. The obstacles are more complicated than accusations of racial exclusion suggest.

Opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot’s conditions for joining his coalition include universal military or civilian service as well as recognizing Hamas as a terrorist organization whose capabilities must be dismantled. These demands apply to the Arab parties (Joint List and Ra’am) and the ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties alike, who also reject his service requirement.

The Joint List rejects compulsory service, and its leaders have declined to call Hamas a terrorist organization. It also refuses to join Eisenkot’s government, offering only support from outside the coalition. Ra’am is different. Its leader, Mansour Abbas, joined Naftali Bennett’s coalition in 2021 and wants to govern again. He even placed a Jewish Zionist, Yoav Segalovitz, on his electoral ticket. Yet Abbas, despite condemning Oct. 7, has resisted labeling Hamas a terrorist organization.

The disagreements between these parties are fundamental, touching on national security and the obligations of citizenship, not simply the ethnic makeup of their members. Even Arab parties disagree among themselves on these issues. Reducing these disputes to racism and prejudice overlooks the realities of coalition-making in Israeli politics.

Ahmad Sharawi is a senior research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a nonprofit research institute focusing on foreign policy and national security.