Evers since the law to increase the electoral threshold passed with the support of the Right, which caused considerable injustice to nearly 2 million Arab Israeli citizens in Israel, the four parties comprising the Joint Arab List have been more focused on their seats and distributing political power than on the important issues of the day and keeping election promises.
It's not surprising there are at least two initiatives currently in the works to establish two new parties: The first is an Arab-Jewish list with an equal distribution of seats, and the second is a new independent Arab party. Whether they succeed or not, both initiatives are an expression of the despair, exhaustion and anger within the Arab public toward the Joint Arab List. Behind both initiatives are good people, opinion leaders, social activists, educators and business people who want to prioritize the civil agenda over the Palestinian narrative and the history of the conflict – even though it's hard to detach this issue from Israel's Arab's citizens.
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Recent polls indicate an infrastructure and potential for such a political party, and if those behind the initiatives manage to raise funds for public relations and fieldwork, they will double their chances of success. In the era of social media, it's possible to talk directly to the people, even from a distance.
Since the 2013 election, Arab voters have had just one, exclusive "option." The Zionist left is weakened to the point of irrelevance, and the right-wing parties don't see the electoral potential in the Arab public. Just the opposite, the Right has used the Arab public in a negative way in numerous election campaigns. With no other choice, the Arab voter shifts his gaze to those who speak to him directly and promises to represent him dutifully; this is none other than the "Joint List," whose slogan, incidentally, was "The Will of the People."
The Joint List, while increasing its mandates, also decreased its influence. The public and private squabbles among its members, its image as a peace rejectionist, turning the primaries into a type of "members-only club" – all these have eroded the public's trust in the faction and essentially expedite its collapse. If it stays "united," it's only out of fear that the parties comprising it would not be able to pass the electoral threshold on their own.
At present, tremendous efforts are being made to recruit opinion leaders to support and promote a new party, which, as stated, will represent an alternative civil agenda. It probably won't be an ideological party in the classical sense; more likely it will incorporate independent individuals rather than party activists in the vein of other "fashionable" centrist parties.
But even if it does reach the Knesset, its success isn't assured as long as the Jewish-Zionist parties don't change their approach and recognize the fact that the Arabs are an inseparable part of the political and parliamentary game in Israel. For an alternative to the Joint Arab List to be realistic, the large parties, which purport to lead the country, must declare in advance their willingness to engage in talks with an Arab party with a civil agenda, and accept it as part of a coalition. The political initiatives in the Arab public expect a response from the Jewish parties.
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