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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Ra’am open to cooperate with Netanyahu as cracks deepen in outgoing coalition |
| 2022-11-17 |
| [IsraelTimes] Islamist party’s chief Abbas says wants to work with any coalition that is formed; National Unity, Yesh Atid squabble over Lapid’s leadership of expected opposition in new Knesset. Ra’am chief Mansour Abbas on Wednesday indicated his Islamist party could cooperate with the right-religious coalition that Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu is working to assemble, as other factions in the outgoing coalition publicly feuded. At a conference hosted by the Anti-Defamation League, Abbas was asked about the prospects of his party working with the prospective new government, which along with Netanyahu’s Likud party includes ultra-Orthodox and far-right factions. "We want to work with any government that is formed so we can complete the plans we started with," he said, referring to Ra’am’s efforts on behalf of Arab Israelis in the last government. Abbas also stressed his party’s "willingness to accept the other" and work with a diverse range of factions, after the interviewer noted to him that members of Netanyahu’s bloc regularly denounced Ra’am as "terror supporters" over the past year, though it has repeatedly condemned terror. "We don’t have to agree on everything. We, as citizens of the State of Israel, need to work with the elected Israeli government," he added. The remarks suggested Abbas was softening his opposition to Netanyahu, after pledging in September not to back the Likud leader’s bid to put together a coalition after the election. However, by candlelight every wench is handsome... it seems unlikely that any cooperation between Ra’am and Netanyahu’s presumptive coalition would be extensive, due to Likud’s partnership with the far-right Religious Zionism, whose leader Bezalel Smotrich has ruled out allying with, or even seeking support from, the Islamist party. Israel’s 25th Knesset was sworn in Tuesday, but the outgoing ministers will continue to serve in their roles until a new coalition is established. Netanyahu has been pressing to form a government as quickly as possible, and originally had hoped to swear in Israel’s 37th government alongside the Knesset. |
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