Following a report in Israel Hayom on Friday morning, that Likud officials were pressuring Religious Zionist Party leader Bezalel Smotrich to agree to the establishment of a right-wing government that relies on outside support from the Islamist Ra'am party, Smotrich ruled out the possibility in a post to Twitter.
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"If the Likud fails to form a nationalist government that will be because it is wasting precious days in which it has the mandate on dangerous and hopeless directions. I will not lend a hand to the suicide of the Right and the State of Israel in the establishment due to the short-term vision of a reckless government that would be dependent on the support of anti-Zionist terror supporters and makes all of us their hostages," he tweeted.
The only foreseeable way to establish a right-wing government is if the RZP head agrees to accept outside support from the Islamist Ra'am party, something he adamantly opposes. Nevertheless, Ra'am party members have relayed key ideas they would like to see promoted to Likud officials.
Likud officials insist Smotrich has no reason to oppose such cooperation with Ra'am as they believe the Islamist party's demands if implemented, would also serve that of the RZP.
It should be noted the Ra'am party did not include any request concerning the controversial nation-state law or the Kaminitz Law [believed by some to target illegal Arab construction] in the demands it relayed to Likud members in recent days.
Likud officials called Ra'am's demands "reasonable, logical, correct, good for the Arab sector, and good for the Israeli public."
"Despite his radical positions, these are not things Smotrich should oppose. All they're asking for is a budget, to be managed by them, for the good of the Arab sector, mainly to improve infrastructure, for education and the war on crime," one party official said.
Ra'am has also asked to legalize large Arab communities in the Negev and allow for the authorization of large-scale construction in Arab communities in the future.
According to the Likud official, "Everyone who lives in the State of Israel should support this. It would be good for them to take care of infrastructure, education, crime in the Arab sector. When big issues like the nation-state law and the Kaminitz Law aren't on the table, there's no reason for Smotrich to oppose relying on them from the outside."
They said, "There are a few communities in the Negev where there's no longer any choice; we need to legalize and regulate them - large communities where tens of thousands of people live - and we can't ignore them. We need to provide them with infrastructure and normal lives. The legalization of a few Arab communities won't kill Smotrich. Moreover, allowing them future construction in the territories where they live is in Smotrich's interest. Would he prefer Arab society build in [the Arab-majority cities of] Kfar Qasim and Umm al-Fahm, or due to space issues, expand into urban areas inside Israeli cities?"
The RZP leader raised hopes in the Likud that something in his position had changed in a conciliatory post in response to yet another shocking murder in the Arabs sector, this time of 39-year-old mother of three Suha Mansour inside her beauty salon in the Arab city of Tira.
In a post to social media, Tuesday, Smotrich wrote that "Arab society is in genuine distress. As a country and a society, we have a moral and civil responsibility to stand with and assist it."
Following the launch of a rocket from the Gaza Strip to Israel, Thursday, however, Smotrich took to Twitter to ask his followers: "Do you really want the State of Israel to be the hostage of the Islamic Movement and for its government to be dependent on it to respond to Hamas (Gaza's Islamic movement) fire from Gaza?!"
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