Ra'am party leader MK Mansour Abbas recently experienced something familiar to former MK and current radio broadcaster Yigal Guetta of the Shas party. Both are honest and fair people who couldn't live in peace with their respective party's political platform. We can assume Abbas will be expelled from the Islamic Movement in Israel, which has no room for compromise and flexibility.
The movement that was created by individuals such as Raed Salah Mahajneh, Abd al-Malik Dahamsheh and Sheikh Tawfiq Khatib, adherents of the Muslim Brotherhood doctrine, is no longer right for him. The leaders of the Islamic Movement in Israel view the world strictly through the prism of "Islam is the solution." In other words, they aspire to an Islamic world without political borders, in which Islamic law (Shariah) is instituted and observed. According to the worldview of the Muslim Brotherhood, Christians, Jews and the followers of other religions are infidels who will either be exiled from the land or will live "as in the golden age of Islam" as second-class subjects required to pay a yearly "head tax" (jizya) to their Muslim rulers.
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MK Mansour Abbas, the deputy speaker of the Knesset, made a difficult decision stating the Islamic Movement can act as a moderate and conciliatory body that highlights the good values in Islam. Islam can conceal its principles of jihad (holy war) and shahadah (martyrdom) and accentuate equality, love of fellow man and hospitality. According to Abbas, "90% of Arab society" leans toward leniency and tolerance.
He calls for rapprochement between Jews and Arabs and for the Joint Arab List to empower women in political life. This is assuredly not the platform of the Islamic Movement, which is part of the Joint List. Rather, these ideals are apparently taken from the Friday sermons delivered by Imams in the United States, who are under the supervision of the FBI.
If Avigdor Lieberman were ever to sit down with Abbas, he'd welcome him to his Israel Beytenu party unconditionally. Firstly, because Abbas, before the last election, called for the establishment of an obstructionist bloc against Netanyahu and, in all seriousness, the man is the first "token Arab" who isn't trying to merge Zionist parties with communist ones. He didn't join Israel Beytenu, rather is a member of the Joint List under Ayman Odeh and Ahmad Tibi – people who Lieberman frequently accuses of acting against the state. For this reason, the views expressed by Abbas are akin to a sharp dagger in the heart of the anti-Israeli public relations machine that has been built and cultivated over the decades by the Arab MKs whose entire political platform has been predicated on incitement.
Abbas is the first sign of a new spring, one that is fundamentally different from the events of the "Arab spring." Following his footsteps will be many more Arab Israelis who want to responsibly partake in the state's affairs. Abbas and many others with him are beginning to realize that a new reality in the region is taking shape before our very eyes. There are two reasons for this realization: The first being the diplomatic breakthroughs with Muslim Gulf states, welcomed naturally and even happily by Israeli society – a response worthy of impersonation. Abbas will want to change the reality of "two states for two peoples," not out of defiance and rejectionism, but out of moderation and compromise.
If he continues on this path and isn't stopped by his faction mates, he'll likely be a cabinet minister one day. The second reason is the coronavirus, which has brought the Arab population into contact with senior Israeli leaders, IDF generals, the police and the Home Front Command – this time as allies facing a common threat. The shared struggle against the pandemic has shown both sides that Arabs don't have tails and Jews aren't descendants of monkeys and pigs, as claimed by the fanatics. I wouldn't't be surprised if in a few more weeks Netanyahu calls Joe Biden in Washington and tells him: "Joe, I've persuaded Abbas… Mansour Abbas. What's going on with Mahmoud Abbas? Even the Emiratis said he'd call when anything has changed."
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