Ra'am chairman Mansour Abbas declared that opposition leaders Naftali Bennett, Gadi Eisenkot, and Avigdor Liberman are all qualified to serve as prime minister, signaling his party's willingness to negotiate with any of them for a future governing coalition—even as all three have publicly rejected working with his Arab-majority Islamist party.
Speaking to the press ahead of a faction meeting, Abbas stated, "I think they are all worthy and have the experience to lead the next government," while deliberately declining to endorse any specific candidate. He emphasized the relationships he has built across the political spectrum, saying, "I worked with the leaders of the opposition parties. They are responsible and statesmanlike and know how to work together," and predicted that "in the end, we will reach agreements."
His optimism stands in sharp contrast to the public positions of the three opposition figures, who have each distanced themselves from potential cooperation with Ra'am. Bennett and Liberman have explicitly ruled out sitting with the party, while Eisenkot has similarly indicated that Ra'am does not represent a viable coalition partner in his calculations.
The Coalition Math Problem
Yet polling data consistently demonstrates a structural political reality: the Zionist opposition bloc—comprising Bennett and Opposition Leader Yair Lapid's Together slate, Liberman's Yisrael Beytenu, and Eisenkot's Yashar party—would likely struggle to form a governing coalition without Ra'am's participation. This mathematical constraint underscores the tension between opposition leaders' public rhetoric and the practical arithmetic of Israeli coalition-building.
Abbas pointed to his party's 2021 entry into the Bennett-Lapid government as a precedent worth building upon. At that time, Ra'am became the first Arab-majority party in decades to join a governing coalition—a historic development that Abbas characterized as "a model that can be developed, improved, and upgraded."
Fragmented Arab Political Representation
Meanwhile, efforts to unite Israel's fractured Arab political representation remain stalled. The Islamist Ra'am, communist-majority Hadash, secularist Ta'al, and nationalist Balad signed an agreement in January to explore running together as a unified slate, responding to public pressure to strengthen the collective influence of Arab-majority parties in the Knesset.
However, more than four months after that agreement, Abbas acknowledged that little tangible progress has materialized. He identified the core disagreement: Ra'am insists that any joint slate function only as a technical alliance that would dissolve immediately after the election, preserving the party's independence to negotiate separately with potential coalition partners.
"We want to bring practical solutions to Arab citizens, and therefore we cannot commit to a policy of excluding ourselves from [sitting with] Zionist parties," Abbas explained, articulating his party's strategic position that maintaining flexibility serves the interests of the Arab community it represents.
The negotiations between the four Arab-majority parties have encountered "a variety of issues on which we have no agreement," Abbas said, indicating that the disagreement extends beyond the technical alliance question to substantive policy and strategic differences.
Why This Matters:
The dynamics at play reveal persistent structural challenges in Israeli coalition politics and Arab political representation. Arab-majority parties have historically been excluded from governing coalitions, limiting their ability to directly influence policy affecting their communities. Ra'am's 2021 entry into government represented a potential shift in this pattern, allowing Arab citizens greater direct representation in executive decision-making. The current negotiations—both Abbas's outreach to opposition leaders and the stalled talks among Arab parties—will significantly shape whether Arab communities can consolidate political power to advance their interests. The mathematical reality that opposition blocs may require Ra'am's participation creates both leverage and risk for the party: leverage to negotiate for policy concessions, but risk of isolation if opposition leaders successfully form alternatives. The fragmentation of Arab political representation, meanwhile, dilutes the collective influence that a unified bloc might otherwise exercise in coalition negotiations.