Even if the Arabs sing 'Nefesh Yehudi Homiyah', it won't be enough

Yaron Dekel warns in an opinion column that the political exclusion of Arab parties could become exclusion from the Knesset itself. He says Netanyahu has turned anti-Arab sentiment into a campaign engine, and the change bloc has been dragged along. Dekel quotes Ahmad Tibi and asserts that the path from disqualifying partnership in a coalition to disqualifying representation in the Knesset is a dangerous slope.

Yaron Dekel warns in an opinion column on ynet that the impressive electoral achievement of the Arab parties could become a pyrrhic victory if the Jewish majority ignores it and pushes them back into opposition. He notes that the integration of Arab citizens into Israeli society is impressive—in universities, pharmacies, and hospitals—but Israeli politics has regressed since the October massacre. Dekel argues that Netanyahu has turned anti-Arab sentiment into a central campaign engine, and that the change bloc parties, except for the Democrats, have been dragged along. He quotes MK Ahmad Tibi, who said that even after condemnations of the Hamas massacre, Jews set new demands. Dekel states that the great danger is that the exclusion of Israeli Arabs from the coalition will become exclusion from the Knesset itself, and that the shift from the claim that Arab parties are unfit to be in government to the claim that they are unfit to run for the Knesset is a dangerous slope.