The June 30 decision by the Knesset to dissolve itself forces all parties anew to take sides ahead of the Nov. 1 elections. This is particularly true for the Arab Muslim Ra’am party, which is currently part of the coalition.  

As a reminder, two years ago when then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was with his back against the wall, he started establishing ties with Ra’am and its leader, Mansour Abbas. Paradoxically, these new ties opened the way for Ra’am to enter the Bennett-Lapid coalition. Still, the way things look now, the political willingness of opposition leader Netanyahu to re-engage with Ra’am is long gone.

In fact, Netanyahu used his June 29 Knesset speech to announce that “unlike [Prime Minister] Yair Lapid, we will not form a government that relies on the Muslim Brotherhood and supporters of terrorism.” The response from Ra’am to that speech was quick in coming. Abbas shouted out, “You negotiated with us last time!” This resulted in a raucous barrage of calls from the Likud benches: “Sit down, you liar!”

But that was not the end of the heated discussion prior to the decision to dissolve Israel’s parliament. An angry clash broke out between Abbas and Knesset member Ahmad Tibi of the Arab Joint List. Tibi accused his rival from Ra’am of fawning over Netanyahu and the Likud, and he did it using very “unparliamentary” language. Tibi shouted, “You kissed [Netanyahu’s] ass to be in a coalition with him, and you’re willing to kiss his feet too.” Abbas responded, “Oh, the shame. I sent [Netanyahu] home. You are bringing him back!”