Gideon Levy spells out just how screwed up the situation in the wretched place is

(3) Einat Temkin - Gideon Levy spells out just how screwed up the... | Facebook

Einat Temkin

s͏p͏t͏e͏n͏d͏S͏o͏o͏r͏h͏8͏0͏l͏u͏t͏m͏5͏4͏f͏6͏5͏l͏g͏u͏m͏8͏0͏4͏2͏c͏f͏1͏7͏1͏0͏6͏3͏8͏9͏7͏0͏3͏u͏m͏t͏c͏l͏9͏l͏1͏6͏i͏h͏h͏1͏4͏c͏4͏1͏ ·


Gideon Levy spells out just how screwed up the situation in the wretched place is, much better than any attempt I can make to try to explain the impossible.
Gideon Levy | Haaretz | Opinion | October 29, 2026

“*Now It Really Is Bibi or Tibi*
Now it really is Bibi or Tibi.
It is either Ahmad Tibi, (used generically), or oblivion. 

The future of the State of Israel now depends on its Arab citizens and on how its Jewish citizens treat them.
Some 80 years after the Nakba and the establishment of the Jewish state, Palestinian citizens of Israel may determine its future.
Could there be greater historical justice? That is no exaggeration.

The election results have left Israelis with a choice between a government led by Benjamin Netanyahu or one that includes the Arab parties.
No other possibility exists.
Voters in the ‘change camp’, including its racists, and there are plenty of them, must ask themselves: Who has done more damage to Israel, Bibi or Tibi?
And who will do more damage in the future, Yousef Jabareen or Itamar Ben-Gvir?
Bezalel Smotrich or Mansour Abbas?

But this is about more than the next government.
What became clear two days ago is that there is no longer any alternative to right-wing rule in Israel without bringing the Arabs into the change camp.
Like it or not, without the Arabs, there will be no change here.
Israel has hurtled to the right, and this is the price, if it can even be called a price.
In that respect, the election results are actually cause for celebration: they have confronted Israel with two stark choices.

 
There will be no center-left government without the Arab parties, without a genuine, lasting alliance, like the “historic alliance” with the ultra-Orthodox, which endured for decades and secured Mapai’s hold on power.
Two days ago, for the first time in their history, Arab citizens became part of the State of Israel, an inseparable part of the change camp.
Now we shall see whether that camp is capable of overcoming its deeply ingrained racism and accepting them.
Not through gritted teeth, not under the table, not through “outside” support, and not with expressions of disgust.
In broad daylight, as full partners, with joy and pride.

If the opposition leaders say “no” to the Arabs, it will be clear that they are Bibi supporters.
It will convey that they would rather have the devil himself, Netanyahu, as their leader, than overcome their own racism.

If they squander this moment, everyone will know that racism is the supreme value in the State of Israel, cutting across political camps and outweighing every other value.
How good it is that we have reached this moment, and the facade is finally over.
Are there really two camps here, the sons of light and the sons of darkness?
Or are they all sons of darkness?
Another four years of Netanyahu, as has been said time and again, would be an almost existential catastrophe.

Could bringing the Arabs into government possibly be more dangerous than that?
There is no threat here, only tremendous promise.
After 80 years of discrimination and exclusion, during which hardly any new Arab communities have been established, speaking Arabic in public is treated as an offense, and “Judaization” remains a Zionist value, this is the only chance.
The Arabs can now extend a hand to Gadi Eisenkot and his associates and offer a partnership.
Not just with the ‘token Arab’, Abbas, but with all of them.
Such a partnership will come at a price, of course, as it should. It will also transform Jewish society.
Perhaps it will save us from a genocide or two.
Pogroms and murders in the Arab community would certainly be prevented, and we would undoubtedly become better people.
The world would go nuts for it, too.
It would cost less than the payoffs to the ultra-Orthodox, pose less of a threat to the country’s future than the enormous sums lavished on the settlers, and, given a fair offer, even Balad might join.
Amit Segal has already warned that the change camp includes six relatives of [Gaza] hostages, and that there is no chance they would agree to sit in a government with Arabs.
It is doubtful they authorized him to speak on their behalf.
In any case, why wouldn’t they?
Did Jabareen murder anyone? Did Sami Abu Shehadeh rape anyone?
‘Don't look back, let go of those who have departed’ as advised by Shir LaShalom [Song for Peace].
It is so good it is that the change camp has no ‘Zionist majority’.”
- - -
Translation by ChatGPT with my significant revisions, additions and commentary for accuracy and clarity.
Links to the Hebrew and English versions of the opinion piece in the first comment below.

Only people who follow this profile for more than 24 hours and friends can comment.

Einat Temkin

 ·

 ·

Author

 ·

Free links to the Hebrew and English below because I do not like paywalls.

Patrick Mittmann

 ·

 ·

by author

Gideon Levy is a beacon of hope in these dark times.

Ian Joseph

 ·

Including the Arabs is a giant leap away from a Jewish state towards a state of all its citizens. Palestinian Israelis explicitly recognize that they and their brethren in Gaza and the West Bank are part and parcel of the same ethnic group and nation.

Including them in government is explicit recognition that this is a binational state.