At a Glance

• A senior Arab lawmaker in Israel says his bloc is ready to back an anti-Netanyahu government.

• The offer would break with decades of precedent.

• It poses a political dilemma for both Arab and Jewish-led parties.

A veteran Arab lawmaker in Israel says his bloc is willing to join forces with Jewish-led parties in a shared bid to end Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's long rule, after Arab-led parties won a record share of seats in parliament.

Key Statements and Focus Area

• Tibi on Breaking Precedent: "We want to do things that we did not do in the past in order to remove this criminal government." — Ahmad Tibi, senior member of the Arab Joint List, to The Associated Press.

• Tibi on the Election Result: "When he said 'Bibi or Tibi,' he incited against Arabs. Now, it's 'Tibi,' because Arab voters went in a very massive way to take part in the elections." — Ahmad Tibi.

• Focus Area: The Joint List's willingness to support an anti-Netanyahu government and the dilemma this creates for both sides.

Tibi said the Joint List would back such a government without joining it, either by voting for it or abstaining to lower the threshold needed for a majority.

This could reassure Jewish-led factions that view the bloc with suspicion, satisfy its own voters and still give it major influence. Joining, he noted, would put its lawmakers inside a government waging wars in Gaza and Lebanon that they oppose.

He said he was under no illusions that such a partnership would end the wars or bring a Palestinian state, but argued a "repair government" could improve life for Palestinian citizens, including by tackling violent crime in Arab communities.

If Jewish-led parties reject the idea, he said, it would prove Israel is "an ethnocracy, not an absolute democracy for all citizens."

The numbers make the Arab parties crucial. Former general Gadi Eisenkot's bloc won 48 seats in the 120-member Knesset against 53 for Netanyahu's coalition, while the Joint List took 11 and Ra'am 8.

Ra'am, far more conciliatory, is willing to join an anti-Netanyahu government as a partner, though any arrangement would still need Joint List support.

The idea divides Eisenkot's camp. Some allies welcome Arab backing, while others point to past statements by Joint List leaders they say deny Israel's legitimacy or support its enemies.

Eisenkot has said Arab-led parties must meet conditions, including calling Hamas a terrorist group that must be destroyed. Tibi says these do not apply to parties offering outside support.

The Joint List and Ra'am condemned the October 7, 2023 attack and violence against civilians but refuse to brand Hamas a terrorist group, arguing that would justify Israel's military campaign in Gaza.

Netanyahu has stoked distrust by making unproven fraud accusations against Arab-led parties and portraying them as a security threat.

FYI

Only one Arab party has ever served in an Israeli government, Ra'am in 2021. Arab citizens, descendants of those who remained after the 1948 war, make up about 20% of Israel's population. The Joint List is a coalition of three left-wing and nationalist parties that rejects Israel's identity as a Jewish state and calls for equal rights for all citizens. In 2019, Netanyahu campaigned on the slogan "Bibi or Tibi?" to warn voters that opposing him meant relying on Arab-led parties.

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