Israeli Arabs may be the last defence against Netanyahu’s return to power | Lloyd Green

If too many abstain in the election on 1 November, the way could be clear for a coalition featuring Jewish supremacists

On 1 November, Israel votes in a general election for the fifth time since spring 2019. Recent polls show that the country's former prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his rightwing coalition are just shy of clinching victory. Sixty-one seats in the Knesset, the 120-seat parliament, is the magic number. As fate would have it, Israeli Arab voters may determine the outcome.

In 2021, Israeli Arabs were instrumental in ousting Netanyahu from office. This time, however, they may give him a boost by simply sitting on their hands: if they stay at home, the odds of Netanyahu and his allies returning to power markedly improve. Reports are already pointing to an expected low turnout.

Lloyd Green is a New York attorney, and served in the US Department of Justice from 1990 to 1992