Tomer Fleg: The Change Camp – Don't Miss a Historic Opportunity for Jewish-Arab Partnership

Tomer Fleg analyzes the results of the 26th Knesset elections and calls on the Change Camp not to miss a historic opportunity for Jewish-Arab partnership. According to him, the Netanyahu bloc dropped from 64 to 53 seats, the Arab parties surged to 18-19 seats, and a coalition should be formed with Ra'am and United Torah Judaism.

Tomer Fleg, a columnist for Zman Yisrael, analyzes the results of the 26th Knesset elections and seeks to dispel the gloomy atmosphere in the Change Camp. According to him, the Netanyahu bloc fell from 64 seats in the 2022 elections to about 53 seats in the 2026 elections – a drop of 11 seats. The Haredi parties plummeted from 18 to 14 seats, and Shas dropped from 11 to 7. Ben Gvir and Otzma Yehudit, who expected a double-digit number, are settling at 7 seats. In contrast, the Yashar party, led by Gadi Eisenkot, ran for the first time and received 21 seats. Naftali Bennett's HaBeyit HaYehudi stands at 12 seats, and the Democrats at 8. The key figure in his eyes is the surge of the Arab parties to 18-19 seats, compared to 10 in the 2022 elections. Fleg calls for forming a coalition with Ra'am and United Torah Judaism, and warns that rejecting the outstretched hand of the Arab public will be 'a crying for generations.' The article is written from a political-interpretive perspective and does not hide his support for the Change Camp.