Israel's Arab-led parties gain influence

At a meeting with the Israeli president, the leader of the Joint List paid tribute to Israel's Arab electorate, following an election that secured his party 11 seats in the Knesset. I will open with a reference to a historical achievement. I start by mentioning our historic achievement of October 27, unprecedented voter turnout in the Arab community, about 80 percent. In Arabic. 2.1 million Israelis are considered Arab, most descendants of Palestinians who were already within modern Israel's borders when the state was created in 1948. Many of them have historically boycotted Israeli elections on the basis that the Israeli state marginalizes their communities. But the joint list now holds 11 seats in the Knesset and Ra'am eight. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah wa barakatuh. The joint list is a secular coalition, including an Arab-Jewish socialist party, a secular Arab party and a Palestinian nationalist party, calling for greater equality for the Arabs of Israel. And Ra'am was, until recently, a Muslim-only party with socially conservative values. In 2026, though, they fielded their first ever Jewish candidate. Both groups advocate for a two-state solution and condemn Israeli policy in Gaza and the West Bank, although Ra'am have tried to improve their palatability to Zionist Israelis by focusing more on domestic issues, with some success, as shown by supporters rallying outside the home of Gadi Eizenkot. Certainly not rule out the Arab parties. Ra'am has made it very clear that they support the state as it is and they want to be part of it. And the others are willing to support from the outside because they understand how terrible Netanyahu has been and how important it is to get rid of him. The desire to finish with the Netanyahu years looks, at least on the surface, like a politically unifying force. The deadline for forming a government is 6 December, extendable by two weeks.