Netanyahu's speech at the opening of the Knesset reflects the depth of his political crisis

Netanyahu's incitement speech against Arab society and its parties at the opening of the Knesset reveals the depth of his political crisis after his camp failed to secure the elections, and reflects his insistence on excluding Arab citizens from influencing the identity of the government, amid eroding American support for his policies. Netanyahu used this amount of hatred, lies, and racist incitement to delegitimize the vote of Arab society and its representation in the Knesset, and to thwart the possibility of forming a government led by Gadi Eisenkot, based on the support of the United Arab List and the abstention of the Joint List from voting on confidence. The sharpness of the speech reflects Netanyahu's and the far-right's realization that the vote of Arab citizens, which came in response to government policies, deprived his camp of the majority needed to form a new government and foiled his attempt to resolve the political conflict within Israeli society in favor of the far-right project. The speech reveals the hierarchy of citizenship in Netanyahu's vision; citizenship that grants its holders the right to participate in resolving the political conflict and determining the identity of the government is, in his view, the citizenship of Jews alone, while Arab citizenship remains formal and fragile, and their vote and representation are questioned when they have a decisive impact on forming the government.