The tense and difficult weekend Israel just experienced took us back one year in time to the clashes that broke out in Jerusalem and spread like wildfire to Judea and Samaria and Arab communities in Israel. Tensions were no less inflamed when the clashes moved from Jerusalem to Umm al-Fahm Saturday night.
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The itinerary of events seemed to be known in advance, and although fairly similar to other incidents and clashes, was on a far smaller scale. The events and clashes broke out in the wee hours of the night, at a time when not many worshippers were around, and to a great extent, involved youths from east Jerusalem who have been there all night, every night of the Ramadan holiday. The Israel Police pushed them out after they began to throw stones and the officers were forced to enter the mosque to carry out arrests.
But this time, in contrast to the assessments that rushed to announce the end of the coalition with the outbreak of riots on the Temple Mount, it was perfectly clear that the government would not in fact dissolve.
This is largely due to the stability and security Ra'am party leader Mansour Abbas provides to Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister and Prime Minister-designate Yair Lapid. Although Abbas is the most slandered Arab politician and is exposed to serious criticism from the Arab public, he enjoys something of a tailwind due to the Arab public's lack of interest in toppling the current government.
The fear of many in the Arab sector stems from concerns the government's dissolution would serve the Likud party and restore it to power, this time with senior positions for two lawmakers from the Religious Zionism Party: Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir.
This concern has led to quite a bit of pressure on Joint Arab List members not to bring about the government's downfall. Indeed, despite its members' statements asserting this government is the most radical in Israel's history, the Joint Arab List is not expected to rush to take down the government or dissolve the Knesset.
They prefer the coalition's willingness "to pay" Joint Arab List lawmakers for their parliamentary cooperation. A threat to the coalition from home could arise should cooperation with the Joint Arab List not pass through Abbas. The Ra'am leader is not about to help the Joint Arab List record any achievements from the opposition while he is made to pay a difficult price for sitting with the coalition.
As evidence of this difficulty, one need only look at the piercing criticism voiced toward Abbas on Arab social media Friday, some of which for the first time came from his voter base, a substantial portion of which resides in the Negev Region.
Two prominent leaders in his movement, former lawmaker from the Islamist Movement Masud Ghnaim and Abbas' predecessor in the role, Ibrahim Sarsur, expressed public criticism of the Ra'am leader. Sarsur even called for him to leave the coalition immediately. Nevertheless, these two senior officials appear to have only been paying lip service, as neither has yet to even convene the party's institutions to discuss the issue.
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