By Amir Avivi, JNS
Any coalition that depends on support from Ra’am and the Joint Arab List endangers the country’s national security.
It appears that the Muslim Brotherhood has become the kingmaker in the Jewish state. Yamina Party leader Naftali Bennett and Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid seem to have forged a coalition deal that would mainstream the United Arab List (Ra’am).
Any Israeli government that relies on this kind of support endangers the country’s national security. Israel’s enemies are watching very closely, ready to pounce as Israeli politicians appear to have sold their souls to the devil. Only a strong stable Zionist government, irrespective of its politics, can provide the level of military readiness and deterrence that Israel needs to survive.
For millennia, the Jewish people yearned to return to their ancient homeland. They dreamed of a new era of Jewish self-determination, when Jews could decide their own destiny.
Zionist values across the political spectrum have always revolved around the notion of a Jewish majority. Minorities are celebrated with full rights under the law, but Israel must protect itself from subversive threats from within. Now it looks as though Zionism has been put on the chopping block in the name of personal political egos and interests.
Ra’am is a part of the global Islamist Muslim Brotherhood. Like any chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood, it seeks to slowly overthrow the current state apparatus by exerting influence from within the political system, until it can be dismantled and replaced by an Islamist theocracy.
Ra’am has close working relationships with the leadership of Hamas and the Palestine Liberation Organization, which see it as their representative in Israel’s Knesset.
The potential danger of Ra’am and the Joint Arab List cannot be overstated. Members of these parties are sitting in Israeli jails for aiding and abetting Hamas. The former founder of the Balad party fled the country after being accused of spying for Hezbollah. A few speeches about unity and coexistence don’t change this reality.
For months, Habithonistim-ISDF, a group of 2,000 former Israeli generals, officers and servicemen have warned that legitimization of this party or others like it would lead to violence. The recent spate of deadly intercommunal riots across Israel and the military operation in Gaza that followed can be directly attributed to the courting of these parties as viable partners in the formation of an Israeli government.
After the ceasefire was announced, the leaders of Hamas emerged from their bunkers and congratulated what they perceived as the Palestinian uprising within Israel, boasting that they have 10,000 would-be suicide bombers with Israeli citizenship awaiting orders from Gaza.
This is not about race or religion. Every major political party boasts support from Muslims, Christians and Druze. Every major political party proudly has non-Jewish Israelis on its parliamentary list. However, Ra’am and the Joint Arab List seek to destroy the country through the ballot or the bullet.
This is all slowly unfolding in broad daylight. The Ra’am leadership pulled out of coalition negotiations during the recent Gaza operation because it opposed action against Hamas. They it demanded that charges be dropped against Muslim Israelis who burned down synagogues and attacked Jews.
An Israeli government that relies on this party to function will simply not be able to function. The very action of empowering these forces within Israeli politics has already led to bloodshed.
For the sake of Israel’s security, a government must be built that reflects the will of people and not the dreams of our enemies.
IDF Brig. Gen. (Ret.) Amir Avivi is the founder and CEO of Habithonistim–Protectors of Israel.
Caption: Ra'am Party leader Mansour Abbas and party members at their headquarters in Tamra on election night, March 23, 2021.
Photo by Flash90.
