Activists from Zionist organization Im Tirtzu on Monday filed a complaint with the Israeli police against left-wing lawmakers and organizations who expressed sympathy for the six Palestinian NGOs recently classified as terrorist organizations by the Israeli government.

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The targets of the complaint include organizations such as B'Tselem, Rabbis for Human Rights and Physicians for Human Rights.

Individuals include Lior Amihai, executive director of Yesh Din; and MK Gaby Lasky from the left-wing Meretz party as well as Environment Protection Minister Tamar Zandberg, who previously served as leader of Meretz.

The basis for the complaint lies in Israel's Counter-Terrorism Law, which states that anyone who assists the activities of a terrorist organization could face imprisonment of up to five years and anyone who displays sympathy toward a terrorist group is liable to three years behind bars.

Defense Minister Benny Gantz on Friday announced that he signed an executive order outlawing six Palestinian organizations linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorist group in Judea and Samaria.

The Palestinian NGOs that Israel stamped with the terrorist designation include Addameer, Al Haq, Bisan Center, DCI-P, Samidoun and UAWC.

The move by Israel turned into a public spat between Washington and Jerusalem over whether notice was given to US officials before the announcement was made.

Meanwhile, MKs from the Joint Arab List faction on Tuesday evening met in Ramallah with representatives of the six Palestinian NGOs, expressing support for their work and promising to continue helping them in their fight to overturn Gantz's decision.

They also lambasted Meretz and the Arab Ra'am party as culpable for Gantz's decision, as they are both members of the ruling coalition.

"In the backward world in which the government of occupation calls itself a government of 'change,' the defense minister has the gall to declare human rights organizations with international reputations as terrorist organizations. Meretz and Ra'am need to decide which side they are on – the side of the occupation, annexation, and apartheid, or the side of peace, equality and democracy. This is a precedential and dangerous decision and we will fight it on all levels, including international," the Joint Arab List said in a statement.

MK Sami Abu Shehadeh from the Balad party said: "We met in Ramallah with the six human rights organizations that Gantz claims are terrorist organizations. These are ethical people who have been working for many years on behalf of human rights and justice and against the occupation and its crimes. Will Gantz have the courage to appear at the [International Criminal Court at] The Hague?"

Earlier Tuesday, officials from the Office of the European Union Representative also met with members of the six Palestinian NGOs

Posting through its special "EU and Palestinians" Twitter handle after the meeting, the EU representative's office said it took the matter seriously and asked Israel for an explanation as to why it decided to outlaw the groups..

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Joint Arab List member Aida Touma-Suleiman garnered harsh criticism Sunday for publicly expressing support for the newly released Khalida Jarrar who had been arrested for involvement in terrorist activity.

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Jarrar is a Palestinian lawmaker and a senior official at the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorist organization, whose members carried out an attack in Samaria in 2018, killing 17-year-old Rina Shnerb and seriously wounding her father and sibling.

Jarrar was released on Sunday after a two-year sentence she received as part of a plea bargain with the Military Prosecution.

Touma-Suleiman posted a congratulatory message on Facebook that included a photo with her and Jarrar embracing. In the background, one can see Ahmad Sa'adat, secretary-general of the Popular Front, who orchestrated the failed assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze'evi.

Maor Tzemach, chairman of the Lach, Yerushalayim ("For You, Jerusalem") group, condemned Touma-Suleiman, saying, "It is a disgrace that Israel's parliament includes representatives of the Popular Front terrorist organization, such as MK Suleiman. Time has come to condemn all Knesset members who support terrorism."

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The Israeli government is raising taxes in order to give Ra'am leader MK Mansour Abbas 50 billion shekels, Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday afternoon after the cabinet approved the 2021-2022 state budget.

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Speaking at the Besheva Conference, Netanyahu said, "In the past few weeks I've managed to sleep well at night without being woken up by the red phone, but I'm worried today because the current government is heading down a path that is dangerous for Israel. It is projecting weakness and confusion. In six weeks, they have racked up failures on every main issue – the fight against COVID, the fight against Iran, in economics and in diplomacy. We are once again learning how easy it is to ruin what we built through years of hard work."

Netanyahu warned that Iran was making progress to nuclearization and said the new government "wasn't doing anything about it."

"Iran is an existential threat and faced with an existential threat, you fight back by any means possible. This government agreed to a policy of 'no surprises' [for the Biden administration], and thus have tied our hands. What, have we become a satellite state? If we don't have total independence to act against Iran, we have no independence at all. If it weren't for our actions, both operationally and in diplomacy and outreach, Iran would long since have amassed an arsenal of nuclear weapons [to use] against us," Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu also said that the Bennett-Lapid government was "failing" when it came to the economy.

"We handed them an economy that was in almost the best shape in the world, and what is the government doing, after promising not to raise taxes? It levies taxes on the citizens of Israel – raising the price of electricity at bread, taxing online purchases from outside Israel, raising the price of doctor's visits, raising the price of public transportation, and more," he said.

"They're doing this to fund the 50 billion shekels [$15.5 billion] they promised to Ra'am leader Mansour Abbas. Instead of raising taxes, the government should lower taxes and leave more money in the people's pockets," Netanyahu concluded.

Meanwhile, the Joint Arab List also had harsh criticism of Abbas and his fellow party members' positions on the budget.

After Abbas commented that the newly-passed budget accounted for "all the needs" of the Arab sector, chairman of the Joint Arab List MK Ahmad Tibi told Army Radio that "we are not happy with the budget. It's not the change we wanted for Arab society."

"When you're part of the coalition and forced time and time again to vote against your conscience, you get a few billion more from the coalition to keep swallowing those toads," Tibi said, referring to Abbas. "In practice, what happens is that a third of the budget for the 922 plan [for economic development in the Arab sector] passed, and unfortunately, all the obstacles to it that existed previously remain in place under this government," he added.

As of Monday, despite the Joint Arab List's criticism of the coalition and Ra'am, the list did not intend to vote against or abstain from the vote to pass the budget.

A senior official in the Joint Arab List told Israel Hayom that "As an opposition party, our job is to topple this bad government, but the alternative is to allow a government under Netanyahu to be formed in its place – and from our perspective, that is a worse option. We have understandings and agreements in principle with the coalition leaders and it looks like we'll support the budget they want to pass."

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A member of the new center-left government informed Ahmad Tibi the coalition would need his party's help, the Ta'al party chairman said Monday.

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In an interview with Arabic-language Nas Radio, Tibi noted that "the result at the swearing-in was 59 to 60." He said.

"Yesterday, a senior member of the new coalition told me such a situation is hell and that they need us," he said, noting: "We made it clear any vote by our party would have a political and parliamentarian price."

Despite reports in recent weeks Ta'al lawmakers Tibi and Osama Saadi were contemplated voting in favor of the so-called "pro-change" coalition, both Ta'al members, along with the entire Joint Arab List faction of which Ta'al is a member, voted against the center-left government of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Prime Minister-designate and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid.

According to the Joint Arab List official, it would have been "totally realistic" for those Ta'al members to vote in favor of the coalition because he said Tibi and Saadi are both pragmatists who have already spoken of the need for the Joint Arab List "to take an active and central part in the political field."

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In a final flurry of activity on Monday, the Joint Arab List worked to secure every possible vote from its "base" in the Arab sector ahead of Tuesday's election.

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Joint Arab List Chairman MK Ayman Odeh, faction chairman MK Ahmad Tibi, and the list's remaining candidates met with many supporters in their homes up until the last moment.

The message they sought to convey to the supporters is that a low voter turnout rate in the Arab sector would likely benefit Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and severely impact the faction's electoral and political influence.

The fact that JAL is competing head-to-head with former faction partner the Ra'am party, headed by MK Mansour Abbas, is a source of considerable stress for JAL and its campaign managers. According to a senior JAL campaign official, the most recent polls indicated that Ra'am was gaining strength among Arab voters.

The latest polls have also indicated positive momentum for Netanyahu's Likud party, while JAL has been polling at around seven-eight mandates.

"It's possible the campaign strategy of focusing on the Arab voter base didn't work," said the senior JAL campaign official. "We lost many votes in the Arab sector, and also among left-wing voters who aren't Arabs who voted for us previously."

The Ra'am party, for its part, was exuding cautious optimism and hope in the wake of the latest polls, which predicted the party would pass the electoral threshold.

A senior official at the party's election headquarters said that more detailed polling conducted by Ra'am officials in recent days even pointed to more mandates than JAL at its expense.

"The decision to go head-to-head with the Joint List for Arab votes was a brilliant strategy, which is thus far proving itself," the official said. "We focused on our voter base, and the Arab public understood the message that while the Joint List is busy with the Israeli left, the LGBTQ community and other diplomatic issues that don't interest the sector, Ra'am is working on behalf of Arab society and investing all its energy in the Arab public."

With that, the official said Ra'am leaders were concerned about voter apathy. "We must stress to our voting public how important it is this time to go out and vote because every vote is crucial, especially for a sectorial party such as Ra'am," he said.

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With just 15 days till Israel's next election, former Joint Arab List MK and current Balad party chairman Jamal Zahalka joined host Jacob Bardugo for another installment of Israel Hayom's new political podcast.

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"The polls show the Likud receiving two Knesset seats. People are lying to the polls out of anger. People told me they're voting for Abu Yair [Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu], and that is out of protest. Let's meet up after the elections, and I will show you that half a Knesset seat will vote for Likud," he told Bardugo.

Asked whether Arab Israeli lawmakers would recommend Yesh Atid party leader Yair Lapid for prime minister, Zahalka said, "No, we haven't decided any such thing. We don't see him as a serious candidate for the premiership. If there will be a serious nominee, we'll discuss it. Right now, we in Balad are against it."

As for New Hope leader Gideon Sa'ar, Zahalka said, "From a political perspective, he's a very radical person, more radical than Netanyahu. He is for a Greater Israel, and an alliance cannot be made with him."

Asked whether the Joint Arab List may wind up without a candidate to recommend for the role of prime minister and as a result recommend no one, Zahalka said, "That could very well be," noting there was a 95% chance that would be the case.

As for the mass protests in the northern town of Umm al-Fahm over the Israel Police's treatment of crime within the community, Friday, Zahalha said, "There have always been protests against violence. A year ago, there were really big protests in Majd al-Krum, and then the government came out with promises, but the Arab public has had enough of talk. They aren't reading the map. The government helped crime organizations in the Arab sector by taking out their competitors in the Jewish sector."

According to Zahalka, "The ones who sell drugs in Jewish communities are Arab crime organizations. They opened up the market to them. Why are they doing that? It's very simple: It's part of their usual discrimination policy."

The Balad chairman said, "The time has come for there also to be demonstrations and calls to rein in crime organizations in Jewish communities. This is not just the Arabs' problem. What happens when, for example, a Jewish person is murdered by these crime organizations? The government catches the murderers within a number of days."

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Joint Arab List leader Ayman Odeh has allegedly received payments from a senior Palestinian official, Channel 20, Israeli cable television's right-wing heritage channel, reported on Sunday.

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The incident in question reportedly took place when Odeh visited Paris, France, in March 2018, to attend a conference organized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. 

While in the French capital, Odeh – then head of the Hadash party – took a meeting Ramzi Khuri, a senior Palestinian Authority official and the former bureau chief from late PLO chairman Yasser Arafat. He currently serves as the PA's senior treasurer. 

The report said that the two met at a luxury Parisian restaurant, alleging that during the meeting, Khuri gave Odeh a cash envelope believed to contain about $20,000.

Khuri later told associates that the funds were a "campaign donation" for Hadash. 

A source privy to the meeting in Paris told Channel 20 that "Khuri funds various expenses MK Odeh has as the head of an Arab party. … The funds were given to Odeh with the knowledge and approval of Abu Mazen," the source added, using the name by which Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas commonly goes in Arab circles. 

"Abu Mazen saw Odeh as having the power to change the political map. The funds are meant to cover Odeh's personal expenses ahead of the elections in Israel."

Officials in Ramallah and Hadash were unfazed by the report, telling the channel that it was "standard practice" for the PA to make donations to political parties and organizations.

"This is just like when political parties and Jewish organizations receive donations from the US or other countries abroad," a Palestinian official said. "As long as we're talking about a legitimate organization – and the Palestine Liberation Organization is a legitimate organization – this action is legal in Israel and the United States." 

Odeh declined to comment on the report. 

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The Jewish people lost an invaluable asset with the passing of Sheldon Adelson this week. When you follow the path of donations he generously scattered for years, it seems there is only one thing they have in common: the good of the Jewish people. It is as if the entire financial empire he built with his own two hands was directed first and foremost at serving this end.

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Someone who saw this from up close is Dani Dayan, who served first as the head of the Yesha Council, the umbrella organization of municipal councils of Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria, and later as Israel's consul in New York.

"He was wholeheartedly involved in every issue for the benefit of the people of Israel and the land of Israel," Danon said. "Sheldon didn't shy away from donations to small organizations as long as they served the same purpose.

Danon called Adelson's donation to the Ariel University's school of medicine "a strategic donation for the development of Samaria. The place is creating an entirely different reality, he is fortifying the status of Ariel and all of Samaria and bolstering it more than ever. I was in attendance when he announced the $70 million donation to Taglit-Birthright, which is aimed at the continuation of Jewish existence in the US and Israel's connection with the younger generation that faces assimilation and alienation. He carried this project almost entirely on his own shoulders, the same with the donations to Yad Vashem [Holocaust memorial and museum in Jerusalem]. It wasn't just the political issue that was important to him, but the continued existence of the Jewish people and ensuring the connection to the State of Israel would not be severed.

"I've always lamented that US Jews don't put the treatment of Israel at the top of their priorities when they vote for the representatives in the elections, but Adelson did. When he would meet potential presidential or senatorial candidates, the only thing that interested him was their attitude toward Israel. That action should have made him an example to US Jewry, and I continue to hope it does."

Moving past the 'voting in droves' gaffe

With Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu under ongoing attack for daring to ask the Arab public for its support in the upcoming election, we must remember his comments were not racist. Even his poorly worded "flagship" remark that the Arabs were voting in droves was not said in a racist context. All Netanyahu meant to say was that the Joint Arab List would grow due to an increase in voting in the sector. That's not racist, it's political. Then why was this statement such a failure? It was said in an offensive and generalizing way that provided a tailwind to those who do hate Arabs. Sometimes it doesn't matter what someone says, it only matters what their listeners hear. This is all the more true when the speaker is a leader.

Over the last year, there has been an attempt by leftists in the political system to blur the divide between attacks on Arabs that have even an iota of racism, but sometimes more, and legitimate criticism of the opinions of Arab lawmakers, which is something else entirely. The positions of the Arab lawmakers are indeed dangerous to those who believe Israel is the home of the Jewish people and not the home of various peoples. To say this opinion is a racist one is lie saying the Law of Return is racist.

Ever since the Arab lawmakers entered the Knesset on separate lists, they have raised the banner of opposition to Israel as the Jewish state. They have always seen Zionism as a foreign entity that has no right to exist in the Middle East and maybe anywhere else for that matter. All the Arab lawmakers from all the Arab parties, without exception, adhere to this belief.

That is why no one in any Israeli government ever considered including an Arab party in the coalition. Last year, when the successors of the Left's mythological leaders' only agenda was to bring down Netanyahu, this principle that a state cannot include those who are against its very existence in the government was trampled upon and turned into a plaything. But there is no connection between this and the civil rights of Arab Israelis who are state citizens. Every government has seen a need to look out for the welfare of the Arabs in their communities and villages. In fact, Netanyahu was one of the leaders to invest more in their sector, whether through budgets, his five-year plan for the economic development of the sector, or expanding aid in the fields of security and government services. That is why, in contrast to the assertions of Meretz's Nitzan Horowitz and Yair Golan and Joint Arab List head Ayman Odeh, Netanyahu's visit to the Arab-majority city of Nazareth wasn't entirely disconnected from the moves he has made behind the scenes. That's not to say there were no political motivations. There most certainly were. But it wasn't a hypocritical move.

Netanyahu came to understand the sector's power in the last election when he increased Ethiopian support for the Likud by convincing Gadi Yevarkan to leave Blue and White for the Likud. In these upcoming fourth elections, the focus will be on the Arab population. The potential is not that great, amounting to maybe one Knesset seat. Suspicions among members of the sector remain high. However, the damage this does to the Joint Arab List, an automatic member of the anti-Netanyahu bloc, could be major and possibly decisive.

Netanyahu has seen certain polls that predict he could do even better and point to a rift between the Arab community and the Joint Arab List. Many are furious that Arab lawmakers opposed the Abraham Accords that normalized ties between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain. Netanyahu's general vaccination campaign also has their attention. According to the data, the premier is seen as something of a savior there, too. According to the data, support for Likud could result in up to three Knesset seats from the community. The familiar faces now coming out in support of Netanyahu, Nazareth Mayor Ali Salam and Ra'am party head Mansour Abbaas before him, are helping to advance this slow process.

After the last election, all of the lines were crossed when the Zionist party heads from the "anyone but Bibi"camp planned to ally with the Joint Arab List in an effort to oust Netanyahu. Even Yisrael Beytenu party head Avigdor Lieberman, who promised to revoke the citizenship of Joint Arab List lawmakers Odeh and Ahmad Tibi, greenlighted the planned effort. It was only thanks to Gesher head Orly Levy-Abekasis, followed by Derech Eretz's Yoaz Hendel and Zvi Hauser, we were spared this exacerbation. In the next Knesset, they may not be able to find three righteous figures, let alone one. Netanyahu's actions are now fuel to the flames of those planning such a move. If Netanyahu can do it, they will argue, so can we.

Yet there is a difference between a government relying on lawmakers that negate the state's existence and believe justice lies with its enemies on matters of diplomacy and security and transferring funds and protecting basic civilian rights. That is why efforts to blur the lines are at their peak and will continue to grow in the coming two and a half months. The Israelis party head Ron Huldai has already announced this week he has no issues with any of the Arab parties outside of Balad. When the time comes, he'll likely accept that party too.

In every election campaign, Netanyahu has explained to right-wing voters that the key to the bloc's success is to have as many people vote for Likud as possible. Up until now, right-wing parties have had no way to fight back against a prime minister that sucks all of their votes dry. The Yamina party believes it has found the solution. In the coming weeks, party members will try to explain by every means possible that the only way to ensure a right-wing government is to vote for them.

According to this logic, the Likud could once again be left without a government, and the state could once again be dragged into another round of elections. In order to ensure the establishment of some kind of right-wing government, whether with or without Netanyahu, a large Yamina is needed. It is the deciding factor between a classic Netanyahu-right-wing-Haredi government and a government headed by either Yamina head Naftali Bennet or New Hope head Gideon Sa'ar.

So what's the difference between Bennett and Sa'ar? After all, Sa'ar is also on the Right, and this week even added former Yesha Council head Dani Dayan to his list. The thing is, Sa'ar doesn't have the first option. He has promised not to join a Netanyahu-led government. Bennett's obligation is first and foremost to the forming of a right-wing government, or at least that's what he says.

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Among Yamina members, the belief is that National Union head Bezalel Smotrich's decision to break ties with their party was planned in advance and that he never planned to negotiate seriously in the first place. They say his talks with Bennett were aimed at distracting voters' attention and place the purported blame on the one who supposedly gave up on values and ideology, something that should have bolstered support for those who remained to maintain them.

They think Smotrich, a principled and religious man, has grown vain, that a few promising polls shook him up. Yamina members believe they are the ones who gave Smotrich legitimacy, taking him from a marginal, radical member to the mainstream over the last year, and now he is embarking on a new path without them.

They think the timing of the talks is proof this was all planned in advance. Last Tuesday, a meeting was held between Smotrich and Bennett. According to Yamina members, the national religious leader didn't discuss any principled issues but focused on the party list. Bennett refused Smotrich's request, and the two went their separate ways. According to his fellow Yamina head Ayelet Shaked, the parties had agreed not to attack each other in public until the party lists were officially submitted. On Saturday night, however, Smotrich blasted Bennett in a TV interview, but Bennett let it slide, and on Sunday, made his final offer. Smotrich turned it down and gave another forceful interview critical of Bennett. At this point, Yamina members say they realized Smotrich wasn't engaged in genuine negotiations and returned fire.

Smotrich tells a different version of the story. From the get-go, he said, the dispute was purely ideological. As the leader of the religious Zionists, he explained, he can't take the public he holds dear on an adventure. Bennett has rid himself of values and announced he was taking a break from ideological issues, and who knows what government he'll prefer to join, even when a Netanyahu-led government is on the table.

Next week, Habayit Hayehudi will hold primaries for party leadership. The assessment is that powers beyond the political system are involved behind the scenes, making this an event to follow. Bennett would like to see Nir Orbach elected leader, making the party ripe for the picking. Smotrich and Netanyahu would like to see Hagit Moshe win.

Orbach was Bennett's right-hand man when he led Habayit Hayehudi and a partner to all his political moves in the party's institutions before he left to establish Yamina. The two have maintained warm ties.

Moshe, who is deputy mayor of Jerusalem, is an entirely different story.

"My objective is to make Habayit Hayehudi a significant party and our ideology a political force." She said she wanted to see a return to the Mafdal party, not in a nostalgic sense, but in its authentic representation of the national-religious public.

"There are kippah wearers in every party, but they aren't necessarily bolstering political power and obligated to the national-religious public. An alliance with Yamina is not an alliance. Bennett has announced his is not a religious party. He has neglected the religious Zionists, headed Habayit Hayehudi, and abandoned it. He wants Habayit Hayehudi as a lifeline to grab onto in case he doesn't garner enough Knesset seats and once he fails to pass the electoral threshold."

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Members of the Joint Arab List are up in arms after Ra'am party head Mansour Abbas,' along with three of his fellow party members, skipped a vote to disperse the Knesset, Wednesday.

Faction officials went so far as to accuse Abbas of coordinating the move with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in advance, with one specifically alluding to a meeting the Ra'am party held with senior officials from the Prime Minister's Office over several hours last Thursday.

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Abbas confirmed to Israel Hayom he held a few meetings with PMO officials on Thursday but insisted it "had nothing whatsoever to do with the vote to disperse the Knesset."

The meeting was aimed at "promoting the government plan to benefit the Arab sector. This is a plan that is spread out across five years and costs some 500 million shekels ($152 million) a year. That is what matters right now to the Arab public, not petty politics," he said.

While Abbas said he was not brushing off criticism from within the faction, he emphasized that "the reason we established the Joint Arab List was to worry about the Arab sector and not to please the Zionist Left. The Arab public supports me, and it's a fact that there are no complaints about me from the public. The allegations are only from Arab politicians, not the voters, and I serve the Arab public that voted for me, no one else. Not Gantz, not Netanyahu, not [Yamina party head Naftali] Bennett, and not [Yesh Atid party head Yair] Lapid."

He added, "I respect my fellow party members' decision to support the legislation to disperse the Knesset, but with all due respect, I do not have to obey it [the list]."

In a statement, Joint Arab List head Ayman Odeh said, "Just as we promised the public, we are continuing to fight for equal rights and mark achievements – without groveling and while defending our ideology and our values."

Odeh said he was pleased with "the significant progress" being made with Justice Minister Avi Nissenkorn on reforms he said would be published in full "on the more painful issues in Arab society – the many years of discrimination in the field of planning and construction and the authorities' closing their eyes to the waves of crime and violence.

"The Joint Arab List will continue to work for the public that sent it to represent it with honor," he said.

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Ra'am party leader MK Mansour Abbas was the target of outrage within his own Joint Arab List faction after telling Channel 20 in an interview on Tuesday that "the Arab parties are not in the pocket of the Left."

Mansour's faction mate, Balad Chairman MK Mtanes Shihadeh, responded to the comments by calling for Mansour's dismissal.

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"He proved he is not worthy of leadership," Shihadeh said.

Abbas was speaking with Channel 20 about the crisis in Arab society and its relationship with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"He's the prime minister, he is responsible and he is supposed to provide the solutions and decisions," said Abbas. "I addressed him in a speech that was publicized, there's nothing under the table; everything is above board. I made a few requests, mainly regarding cardinal problems in Arab society. [Netanyahu] heard it, and we are moving forward."

He added: "We crossed a certain line that has always pushed the Arab parties into a corner – specifically they are in the pocket of someone, particularly the side of the Left. I said enough of this approach, we are not left or right – we are representatives of the Arab public that is undergoing a severe crisis, a crisis of crime and violence that is spilling over in Arab society. It stands to reason that an Arab or non-Arab elected official would tend first and foremost to his constituency, and therefore I placed Ra'am in a more convenient position for contending with the range of opinions, parties and views across the political spectrum in Israel."

According to Abbas, left and right-wing theories cannot be applied to Arab society.

"On social issues and matters of religion and state, I am on the Right, for example. Therefore the correct position is that we are committed to serving the public that elected us. The political system was elected by Israeli society, and we accept that, just as we demand that society and the political system accept us in return as elected by our constituents," he said.

In response, Shihadeh told Israel Hayom: "It's not surprising that MK [Abbas]chose a mouthpiece for Netanyahu and the far-Right (Channel 20) to announce his resignation from the Joint Arab List. This is an authentic way to serve [Netanyahu]. MK Abbas is not worthy of leadership. We will take continue from here."

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