Why Netanyahu's rivals have a unity problem – and a big Arab party problem

The most recent attempt at a show of unity by the Jewish Zionist parties opposed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was only partially successful.

With the election less than a month away, their leaders may have agreed not to campaign against each other and save their fire for Netanyahu – but they failed to explicitly commit to backing whichever party leader garners the most votes to head the bloc, said Haaretz correspondent Judy Maltz, speaking on the Haaretz Election Podcast.

"For most of the people who support the parties in the opposition bloc, it was a big disappointment that they couldn't say what seems so obvious to most people," Maltz said of the meeting between the four major parties opposed to Netanyahu.

"There was a lot of hope that they would emerge ... and say, 'We have a leader. It will be Eisenkot against Netanyahu,' but they could not reach an agreement on that."

Maltz was joined on the podcast by fellow Haaretz journalist Linda Dayan and host Allison Kaplan Sommer to discuss the fallout of the Central Elections Committee's decision to disqualify Arab parties along with individual members of the party, and the controversial decision by left-wing Democrats leader Yair Golan to support barring Balad party head Sami Abu Shehadah, who made comments following October 7 that were interpreted as supporting the Hamas attack.

"What he wrote is disgusting," Dayan said. "The question is whether it's actually illegal, and there are a lot of figures saying that it isn't," and noted that such votes to disqualify candidates is an "Israeli election tradition."

Maltz, who has been traveling across the country over the past months, reporting on the mood of Israeli voters, spoke on the podcast about her visit to Kibbutz Be'eri, where 132 people were massacred and 35 taken hostage on October 7, to find out how that trauma has affected their politics.

"Overall, most of them have moved to the right. But they will not vote for any parties in the current coalition, because much as they hate Hamas, they hate the current Israeli government even more, and blame them for October 7."

Read more: 

Opposition Leaders Agree to Decide Who Will Lead Next Government Only After Elections

Banned Arab Party Leader to Challenge Knesset Disqualification in Court Despite Internal Opposition

Israel's AG Urges Court to Disqualify Arab Party Leader Over Post-Oct. 7 Remarks

Eisenkot Says No Arab Party Meets Demands to Join Government Led by Him

'Not Once Did You Use the Word Peace': In English, Yair Golan Strikes a Centrist Tone

Did Kibbutz Be'eri Lose Faith in the Left?

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