Ra’am chairman MK Mansour Abbas has signaled his party's continued integration into the existing state apparatus, praising past participation in a governing coalition as a "model" and expressing confidence in future agreements with opposition leaders from established "Zionist parties." Abbas stated that opposition leaders Naftali Bennett, Gadi Eisenkot, and Avigdor Liberman are "all worthy and have the experience to lead the next government," indicating a willingness to align with factions that uphold the current economic and political order.
Abbas's comments came despite all three opposition figures publicly distancing themselves from cooperation with his Arab-majority Islamist party. Bennett and Liberman have ruled out sitting with Ra’am, and Eisenkot has also indicated he does not view the faction as a viable coalition partner. However, opinion polls consistently show that the Zionist opposition bloc—including Bennett and Opposition Leader Yair Lapid’s Together slate, Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu, and Eisenkot’s Yashar party—would likely struggle to form a coalition without Ra’am. This political maneuvering highlights the transactional nature of bourgeois politics, where the necessity of maintaining power often overrides stated ideological positions.
Managing the Contradictions
Ra’am became the first Arab-majority party in decades to join a governing coalition when it entered the Bennett-Lapid government in 2021. Abbas praised this move as "a model that can be developed, improved, and upgraded," framing participation within the existing state structure as a path to "practical solutions to Arab citizens." This approach prioritizes managing the contradictions of the current system rather than challenging its foundational structures, which concentrate wealth and systematically underpay labor. Abbas stated, "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," explicitly linking his party's strategy to cooperation with parties that primarily serve to protect accumulated wealth and suppress organized challenges to the existing distribution of power.
Fragmenting the Opposition
Addressing ongoing efforts to unite the four Arab-majority parties ahead of the next election, Abbas acknowledged that negotiations are continuing but stated there are still "a variety of issues on which we have no agreement." The Islamist Ra’am, communist-majority Hadash, secularist Ta’al, and nationalist Balad signed an agreement in January to explore running together, amid public pressure to reunite the fractured Arab political bloc and strengthen its influence. More than four months later, little tangible progress has been made. The main sticking point, according to Abbas, remains his insistence that any joint slate function only as a technical alliance that would dissolve after the election, preserving Ra’am’s ability to independently join a future coalition. This strategy of prioritizing independent maneuverability over a unified front risks fragmenting the collective power of working-class and dispossessed communities, potentially weakening their ability to demand structural change. The inclusion of the communist-majority Hadash in these unity talks underscores the divergence in approaches to political power and systemic change within the Arab political spectrum.
Abbas's confidence in reaching agreements with opposition leaders, whom he described as "responsible and statesmanlike," further solidifies his party's trajectory towards integration into the existing state apparatus. This integration, while framed as beneficial for "Arab citizens," ultimately serves to extend the life of a system designed to concentrate wealth upward, rather than addressing the root causes of economic dispossession and inequality. The state, through its laws and institutions, functions to protect the interests of accumulated capital, and participation within its framework, even with stated intentions of reform, often reinforces its foundations.