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<\/a><\/p>\nYoav Segalovitz speaks to an Israeli Arab crowd during an election campaign meeting in the Arab town of Shefa-‘Amr in Israel. (Ahmad Gharbli HARABLI\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
It\u2019s a decision that could reshape Israel\u2019s political landscape and determine whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will lose the October 27 election. <\/p>\n
That\u2019s because Segalovitz, 67, who formerly headed the Israel Police\u2019s Investigations and Intelligence Division, is planning to join Ra\u2019am, an Arab party that was the kingmaker in the 2021 elections, pollster Yousef Makladeh told Jewish Telegraphic Agency, describing his conversation with Segalovitz prior to leaving the party. Makladeh added that the move had been under discussion for months. <\/p>\n
In an official statement last week, Ra\u2019am\u2019s chairman Mansour Abbas and Segalovitz said they had met and held a \u201ccordial and positive\u201d discussion about the possibility of Segalovitz joining Ra\u2019am\u2019s slate in the upcoming Knesset elections. The two agreed to continue direct talks in an effort to advance the matter. <\/p>\n
If that indeed happens, it would send a seismic shock though the Israeli political system on two fronts: Segalovitz would be the first lawmaker in decades to leave a Zionist party for an Arab-led party; and that party would be in a position to join other opposition groups to pry control of the next Israeli government away from Netanyahu.<\/p>\n
The willingness of Ra\u2019am and two Zionist slates \u2014 Yair Lapid\u2019s Yesh Atid party and Naftali Bennett\u2019s New Right party \u2014 to join a coalition in 2021 led by Bennett and Lapid provided the needed seats to push Netanyahu out of power after 12 consecutive years as prime minister. The first coalition in Israeli history to take office with the support of an Arab party was unprecedented \u2013and viewed by many as a historic breakthrough in Jewish-Arab political cooperation.<\/p>\n
The question in 2026 is: Could it happen again?<\/p>\n
This time around, the prospect of an Arab party in the coalition prompts more wariness among many Israelis, and Bennett and Lapid have both ruled out forming a coalition with one.<\/p>\n
Israeli polls have consistently shown that neither Netanyahu\u2019s coalition nor the bloc of opposition Jewish parties led by his chief rival, former IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, is on track to secure the 61 seats needed to form a government. The opposition\u2019s Jewish parties have consistently polled at approximately 58 to 60 seats, while Netanyahu\u2019s bloc trails with roughly 50.<\/p>\n
That deadlock has thrust Ra\u2019am, led by MK Mansour Abbas, back into the spotlight. Most recent polls give the party between five and seven seats, potentially making it the kingmaker once again. <\/p>\n
Founded in 1996, Ra\u2019am, whose name is an Arabic acronym meaning United Arab List, has roots in the Southern Branch of the Islamic Movement and had until recently been a religious Arab party. It had been part of the traditional bloc of Arab parties in the Knesset until Abbas split away, as part of his strategy to shift the party\u2019s focus from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to practical achievements for Israel\u2019s Arab society.<\/p>\n
Makladeh, who has conducted surveys for Channel 13 and political parties across Israel\u2019s political spectrum, describes Ra\u2019am as \u201cthe missing piece of the puzzle\u201d that could lift the opposition bloc \u201cto 62 or 63 seats.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2021, however, there was a shedding of some of the longstanding reluctance to consider an Arab party in the coalition, for those who saw the political necessity of doing so in order to remove Netanyahu from office. Netanyahu himself had reportedly spoken with Abbas about some form of a political partnership. This time around, the prospect of an Arab party in the coalition prompts more wariness among many Israelis, particularly this early in the election cycle when it is unclear if it will be absolutely necessary to do so. <\/p>\n
Political commentator Nadav Perry, host of one of Israel\u2019s most influential political podcasts, says that the party\u2019s ties to conservative Muslim religious leadership, together with the rapid collapse of the 2021 government and the trauma of Oct. 7, 2023, had effectively pushed the idea of Ra\u2019am joining another coalition with Jewish parties back to \u201csquare one.\u201d<\/p>\n
The addition of Segalovitz to Ra\u2019am could change that by making the party more palatable to the Israeli public and could expand its voting base. <\/p>\n
Ameer Bisharat, the former director-general of the National Committee of Arab Local Council Heads, added that Arab Israelis are \u201chungry for change.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cChange can come through political power, and Abbas understands that very well. He is trying to create that political power,\u201d Bisharat said<\/p>\n
JTA reached out to both Ra\u2019am and Segalovitz for comment. Segalovitz\u2019s spokesperson declined to comment, while Ra\u2019am did not respond to a request for comment. <\/p>\n
Segalovitz has been a member of the Lapid-led Yesh Atid party, a centrist bloc which emphasizes secular rights and opposition to draft exemptions for haredi Orthodox yeshiva students, since 2016. He later served as Deputy Minister of Internal Security in the Bennett-Lapid government. In that role, Segalovitz was the public face of the government\u2019s efforts to combat violent crime in Israel\u2019s Arab communities. During his tenure, the number of murders in Arab communities declined sharply before rising dramatically again after the government fell.<\/p>\n
Bisharat, who worked with Segalovitz and now advises the public policy department at the Accord Institute on Arab voting patterns, said the Bennett-Lapid government was \u201csuccessful\u201d for Arab society. It helped build trust between the government and Arab citizens and it presided during a decline in violent crime in the Arab communities in Israel. <\/p>\n
Under Segalovitz\u2019s leadership, a special plan was developed to combat crime in Arab communities, focusing on the main drivers of crime, improving case clearance rates and strengthening cooperation among the various authorities, which was not continued under far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. In Segalovitz\u2019s only full year in government, the number of Arab citizens killed in crimes fell from 126 to 116, according to data from the Abraham Initiatives, a nonprofit that tracks violence and crime in Arab communities. The figure surged to 244 the following year, after he was replaced.<\/p>\n
\u201cSegalovitz was the point person in the previous government on crime in the Arab community,\u201d said Perry, the political commentator. \u201cHe worked on it, and he delivered results. That made him a very popular figure on the Arab street. Not because he was pro-Palestinian, not because he was against the IDF, but because he reduced crime among Arab citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n
Former Yesh Atid MK Inbar Bezek, who served alongside Segalovitz in both the party and the coalition that relied on Ra\u2019am, told JTA: \u201cI saw with my own eyes that Yoav is an extremely respected and well-liked figure throughout Arab society, especially among local government leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n
Segalovitz\u2019s possible move is far more than symbolic.<\/p>\n
Bezek believes Segalovitz could both increase Arab voter turnout and attract Jewish left-wing voters to Ra\u2019am. \u201cI truly think he\u2019s someone who brings voters to the ballot box,\u201d she said. But she emphasized that the addition of Jewish voters would not change the overall balance between the opposing blocs, because those voters would otherwise support the Democrats, the most left-wing Zionist party.<\/p>\n
That assessment appears to be supported by a recent Channel 13 poll, which was conducted in part by Makladeh. The survey found that Ra\u2019am would rise to seven seats if Segalovitz joined the party, compared with five seats in most recent polls. Makladeh said six of those seats would come from Arab voters, while one would come from Jewish voters. <\/p>\n
The move\u2019s real significance, argued Perry, lies not in winning additional votes before Election Day but in what happens afterward. He says that bringing Segalovitz into the party is intended \u201cto create renewed legitimacy for Ra\u2019am\u2019s participation in a governing coalition.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think this would dramatically reshape the electoral map,\u201d Perry said. \u201cBut it could dramatically reshape the question of legitimacy. It could complete Mansour Abbas\u2019 metamorphosis from the leader of a non-Zionist Islamist party into the leader of a Jewish-Arab party that puts the integration of Israel\u2019s Arab citizens first, while setting aside issues related to the Palestinian national struggle.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perry\u2019s comments come as leaders of the opposition bloc send mixed and sometimes contradictory signals about whether they would govern with Ra\u2019am.<\/p>\n
Eisenkot has said he \u201cdoesn\u2019t rule out\u201d a coalition partnership with Abbas. Another strong contender for the premiership, Bennett, whose Together (Beyachad) party is polling second within the opposing bloc, said in February that \u201cafter October 7, there is no mandate in Israel for a government that relies on Arab parties.\u201d Bennett recently declined to answer directly when asked whether he would rely on Abbas to form a government. Speculation is high, however, that he would agree to sit with Ra\u2019am, given his past record of including the party in the coalition after running a campaign in which he promised not to do so. <\/p>\n
Opposition Leader Lapid joined forces in this election cycle with Bennett after his own party struggled in the polls and the two now run together on the same slate. Lapid has also ruled out forming a government that relies on Arab parties \u2014 a notable position given that Lapid was the architect of the move to bring Ra\u2019am into the coalition in 2021. Another opposition leader, Avigdor Liberman who heads Yisrael Beiteinu, sat with Ra\u2019am in the 2021-2022 government. Last week, however, he said that \u201cRa\u2019am cannot be a coalition partner.\u201d<\/p>\n
Segalovitz\u2019s membership in Ra\u2019am could soften that resistance.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will be very difficult to delegitimize a party whose number two is a Zionist and a former Israel Police major general,\u201d Makladeh said. He believes that Segalovitz\u2019s addition could effectively \u201clegitimize\u201d Ra\u2019am\u2019s votes in the eyes of the Israeli public, making it easier for opposition leaders to cooperate with the party after the election.<\/p>\n
The hesitation among opposition leaders also reflects Netanyahu\u2019s campaign strategy, which identifies the bloc\u2019s dependence on Arab support as its main political vulnerability.<\/p>\n
In a video posted this month on X, Netanyahu juxtaposed his political rivals with Abbas under the slogan, \u201cIt\u2019s them or us.\u201d <\/p>\n
Segalovitz\u2019s potential move has also drawn backlash from the right. Ben-Gvir called Segalovitz\u2019s departure from Yesh Atid \u201ca joint conspiracy by the left to pave the way for a future government with the Muslim Brotherhood.\u201d Coalition lawmaker Tally Gotliv of the Likud called Segalovitz Abbas\u2019 \u201cpet Jew\u201d and warned that his move could lead to \u201cthe imposition of Sharia law on Israel.\u201d <\/p>\n
Perry said, \u201cAlmost the only political asset Netanyahu has left to take into the election is negative campaigning, because it\u2019s very difficult to build a positive campaign around the last term.\u201d He argued that Netanyahu has relatively few lines of attack against Eisenkot beyond the possibility that he could form a government with Arab parties. \u201cThat\u2019s basically the Likud\u2019s one-trick pony in 2026,\u201d Perry added. \u201cAnd it\u2019s a message that has political effectiveness.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is why the addition of Segalovitz who comes from the Israeli center and not the far left is significant, Perry explained. The political commentator added: \u201cIf Ra\u2019am enters the realm of legitimacy \u2014 because it is no longer Ra\u2019am, it is no longer Islamist, and it is no longer only Abbas but Abbas and Segalovitz \u2014 then that could create a more realistic possibility of removing Netanyahu after the election.\u201d<\/p>\n
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