By excluding Arab citizens, Netanyahu's rivals may hand him another term - opinion

Tova Herzl argues that by excluding Arab citizens from coalition-building, opposition leaders Gadi Eisenkot, Naftali Bennett, Yair Lapid, and Avigdor Liberman may inadvertently hand Benjamin Netanyahu another term as prime minister. She calls for including Arab Israelis to form a government that can oust Netanyahu.

In an opinion column published November 1, 2026, Tova Herzl argues that opposition leaders who exclude Arab citizens from their coalition-building efforts may inadvertently hand Benjamin Netanyahu another term as prime minister. She compares the current political despair to the aftermath of Yitzhak Rabin's assassination in 1995 and the 1996 election, but insists this situation is different because a path to change exists. Herzl asserts that Netanyahu's bloc has not won a clear victory and that the opposition leaders—Gadi Eisenkot, Naftali Bennett, Yair Lapid, and Avigdor Liberman—have a choice: continue excluding Arab Israelis, or acknowledge their equality and form a government that can save Israel from Netanyahu's leadership. The column criticizes what it calls racist exclusion of one-fifth of the population and calls for common sense and political logic.