Sneak Peek: Tal Becker on the challenge of forming a coalition with Arabs parties

**Dan Senor** (0:00)
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**Tal Becker** (0:46)
You are listening to an Ark Media Podcast.

**Dan Senor** (0:58)
Welcome to Inside Call Me Back, our members-only edition where we open the door and let you shape the conversation. Today in the hot seat, addressing your questions and personal dilemmas, is Ark Media contributor Tal Becker. Tal, welcome back to The Inside.

**Tal Becker** (1:12)
Hey, Dan, good to be here.

**Dan Senor** (1:13)
Noah from San Francisco, California. Tal writes, what makes the participation of an Arab party in a governing coalition so intolerable to the median Israeli Jewish voter?
Ram, which is an Arab Muslim party, participated in the Bennett-Lapid coalition, meaning that he's referring to the last Israeli government. Did that reinforce specific concerns about Arab parties holding governing power or did the arrangement function relatively normally despite the surrounding political controversy?

**Tal Becker** (1:43)
Well, okay, well, there's a lot to say here, and I think maybe we'll start by saying that the attitude towards Arab party participation in Israeli government coalition has actually fluctuated quite a bit over time. And I think before October 7th and when there was negotiations about Ram joining, and even the Netanyahu government is reported to have explored that option, I think there was more support. And after October 7th, a lot less support. But the numbers have shifted, so it's not consistent is the first thing I would say. The second thing is the question spoke about Ram, but also about Arab parties. It's worth saying that traditionally and historically, most Arab parties have, first of all, ideologically not wanted to be part of an Israeli coalition. So the opposition hasn't come in one direction only. And second, they have traditionally been non-Zionist or anti-Zionist in their posture, which has made it really hard to imagine joining of them in the coalition. With respect to Ram, in particular, and Mansour Abbas, I mean, this is a contentious issue, but Mansour Abbas, I think, has demonstrated in the view of many Israelis quite a lot of courage in the way he has been willing to talk about Israel as a Jewish state, and Israel's Palestinian Arab citizens as deserving of things, but not undoing that structure.
But still, it's an Islamist party, and there are questions that are raised around their agenda. The core issue, if I had to describe it, I think beyond whether they're actually committed to the project of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, which is kind of hovered over this historically, and made Raam the actual first party in Israeli history to be part of a coalition. The broader issue is Israel's security challenges, I think.
Israel is, in fact, in a conflict with, obviously, a lot around the region.
And to be able to make really difficult security decisions when potentially a party that could break the coalition is there with real concerns about this conflict at all has been a real issue. And after October 7th, I think a very significant number of Israeli Jews basically feel at the moment like it's an untenable kind of proposition. Because if you need to take serious military action, whether in Gaza, in Judea, in Sumeria, or in the Arab world, but you need, in order to do that, the consent of an Arab party whose constituents, maybe its family members and so on, are really implicated in a very different way, that's going to be a really, really difficult thing to do. And the question spoke about the Bennett Lapid Coalition. To some extent, I mean, it was a story of success and a real effort to have diversity. But I think we also saw two things there. The first was how difficult it was to hold a coalition together with this broad spectrum of views. And it led to real political tension and defections. And it was a key factor, I think, in the Bennett Lapid government not surviving. And there were obviously a lot of issues about Bennett's actual decision to include them with Lapid.