An election campaign is not a good time in the State of Israel. It is a period of division in which politicians focus on the most minuscule differences to stand out, take over the agenda, and earn a few more votes. The reality in Israel is lightyears away from what takes place during an election campaign.
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The rights of the Haredi community never occupy the minds of the ultra-Orthodox as much as they do in an election. On the other hand, secular Jews usually spend more of their time focusing on their families and livelihoods and less on their desire to put the Haredim in a wheelbarrow and dump them in a landfill.
Two things usually happen the day after the election. Some of the promises are broken, and to a great extent, the radical public discourse fades away.
This time around, though, something has changed. This last election campaign was a turning point in Israel's ties with its Arab citizens.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's engagement with the Arab community could very well have been a turning point in Israeli history. True, there was a clear political background to the move. Some would say this was cold, yet the results may still have a dramatic effect on Arab-Jewish ties in the State of Israel.
The fact that Mansour Abbas and his Ra'am party passed the electoral threshold is big news. For years, the Arab political parties focused on the Palestinian issue. They were more worried about the "occupation" than they were about members of their own community here in Israel.
Abbas sought to put these issues aside and focus on the ability of young Arabs to integrate into the State of Israel, and honestly, why wouldn't he? It looked bad at first. Abbas was slandered and attacked, but the elections proved that hundreds of thousands of Arabs want to change course and see how they can become a part of the Israeli story.
Israelis who managed to visit Dubai felt as if they were in a dream: a Muslim Arab country that gladly hosted Israelis while providing them with the sense of personal security you would be hard-pressed to in some of Israel's Arab communities. Every single Israeli visitor in the United Arab Emirates asked themselves, "Why can't it be the same here?" Indeed, it can. The cynical journey that began with this most recent election campaign can serve as the start of a new and enchanting era in Jewish-Arab ties right here in the State of Israel.
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