Palestinian Arab party becomes surprise kingmaker after Israel vote
SMA NEWS – Al-Quds
Israel’s election brought a surprise when a conservative Palestinian Arab party crossed the threshold to enter parliament and its leader emerged Wednesday as a possible kingmaker.
Mansour Abbas and his Ra’am party — unlike other Arab political groups before it — have not ruled out joining an Israeli government.
“We are prepared to engage” with either Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s camp or his rivals, Abbas told Israeli radio while stressing that “I’m not in anyone’s pocket.”
On Wednesday the party was on track to win five seats in Israel’s 120-member Knesset, with roughly 90 percent of the vote counted.
Israel’s latest inconclusive election left no clear path for Netanyahu or his rivals to form a government, setting the stage for protracted coalition talks.
When Israel last voted a year ago, Ra’am had been part of the mainly Arab Joint List. But that alliance fractured earlier this year amid ideological divisions between Abbas and his former partners.
The conservative Abbas long had frictions with other Arab Israeli factions, including those with communist roots.