The Economist 29Feb2020

The EconomistFebruary 29th 2020 Middle East & Africa 39

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He failed even to convince the right-wing-

ers in his own party to serve in a minority

government with outside support from the

Joint List. Their antipathy to Arab-Israeli

politicians, who are eager to play a bigger

role (see next story), apparently outweighs

their animus against Mr Netanyahu.

On other issues, Mr Netanyahu and Mr

Gantz are not so far apart. Both candidates

say they will implement Donald Trump’s

peace plan for Israel and the Palestinians,

which was prepared in close co-ordination

with the prime minister’s advisers and al-

lows Israel to annex West Bank settlements

and the Jordan Valley. Mr Netanyahu has al-

ready met American officials to draw up

new maps. Once that task is completed, he

will “immediately” apply sovereignty over

the land in question. Mr Gantz says he

would move forward “in co-ordination

with the international community”. But

annexation may be put on hold if the elec-

tion produces another stalemate.

Israel’s election commission is already

preparing for a possible fourth vote, in Sep-

tember. That might suit Mr Netanyahu,

who would like to show up in court as a sit-

ting prime minister. But most Israelis, in-

cluding many of Mr Netanyahu’s allies,

want to avoid another election. Though

things have been running smoothly under

the interim government, it cannot pass a

budget or make big decisions. The monthly

outlays for government ministries have

automatically reverted to those in the 2019

budget, making it harder to build new in-

frastructure, fund social programmes or

raise taxes to shrink a deficit that reached

3.7% of gdplast year. The lack of a budget

“will not only affect government offices,

but also the entire economy”, warned the

accountant-general in November.

If they cannot form a government on

their own, Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gantz will

come under pressure to team up. A unity

government featuring Likud and Blue and

White was discussed after the last election.

Mr Netanyahu agreed to split the prime

minister’s term with his rival, but insisted

on going first. Mr Gantz has ruled out serv-

ing under Mr Netanyahu while he is facing

criminal charges. The prime minister’s al-

lies could force him to the sidelines—

though it is just as likely that the indomit-

able Mr Netanyahu will defy the odds, and

hang on to his office. 7

T

he audienceinKfarSaba,a Jewish

city near Tel Aviv, came from as far

away as the Golan Heights in the north

and Beersheva in the south. They crowd-

ed onto the terrace of a packed penthouse

to hear a politician who promised to stop

missiles from Gaza and counter hatred of

Jews. With the crowd’s support, the

politician continued, he could achieve

peace between Israel and the Palestin-

ians via a two-state solution. None of

that would have been unusual, except

that the politician was Ayman Odeh

(pictured), a jovial lawyer who heads the

Joint List, a bloc of Arab-Israeli parties.

After decades representing insular

parties on the periphery of Israeli poli-

tics, Arab politicians have entered the

mainstream. The Joint List is the coun-

try’s third largest bloc. It is courting the

Jewish vote ahead of parliamentary

elections on March 2nd. It has removed

more pugnacious candidates and sees a

place for itself in a centre-left govern-

ment. Balad, the bloc’s most radical

party, has put a Jew (of Iranian origin) on

its list of candidates. The Joint List’s

billboard campaign has an inclusive

message. Posters in Yiddish promise

ultra-orthodox Jews an end to conscrip-

tion. Amharic ones vow to tackle police

brutality against Ethiopians. “Let’s go

together,” read the Hebrew ones.

The outreach seems to be working. In

the election last September the Joint List

increased its support in Jewish areas by

60% compared with the election in April,

albeit from a very low base. Dahlia

Scheindlin, a pollster, predicts it could

increase again, perhaps giving the Joint

List an extra seat (it currently has 13).

Jews attending a packed hustings in Tel

Aviv spoke of abandoning Meretz, a

left-wing Zionist party that has pushed

Arab candidates down its list. Right-wing

fearmongeringagainstthe Arab “enemy

within” is attracting Jewish sympathy. A

settler in a skullcap said he feared he

would be branded a traitor if his neigh-

bours found out he was attending an

event for the Joint List.

Mr Odeh says it is not so hard to imag-

ine an Arab-Israeli prime minister. But

his appeal has its limits. Two-thirds of

Israeli Jews want to bar Arab parties from

government. Over 40% oppose living

next to an Arab, let alone voting for one.

Yuppies flinch at the Joint List’s commu-

nist origins. Left-wing secular Jews are

turned off by its Arab nationalist and

Islamist cheerleaders. And the Joint List

is bad at practising the equality it preach-

es. Just one of its 13 parliamentarians is

Jewish. Still, the interest Mr Odeh is

piquing indicates a growing demand for

a party that truly spans Israel’s Jewish-

Arab divide. Voters will have to wait a bit

longer for that.

In searchofa one-partysolution

Israel

KFAR SABA

A growing number of Jews are voting for Arabs

The unity candidate?

B

ack in 1981, when assassins’ bullets

felled Anwar Sadat at a military parade

and propelled Hosni Mubarak to Egypt’s

highest office, no one dreamed he would

fill it for longer than his two predecessors

put together. As Sadat’s vice-president, the

former air-force commander had kept the

low profile of a stolid, trusted retainer. This

was not by accident. Mr Mubarak was a mil-

itary man to the core. To his dying breath he

held to the code of silent dutifulness that

marks Egypt’s officer class, a praetorian

guard that has run the most populous Arab

state—with a brief interruption—since

seizing power in 1952. In one of his last

speeches as president, a week into the 2011

uprising that would soon end his rule, he

vowed not to flee into exile as Tunisia’s dic-

tator had done weeks earlier. “Egypt and I

shall not be parted until I am buried in her

soil,” he said. And so he shall be. Mr Muba-

rak died in Cairo on February 25th, aged 91.

Like many officers of his generation, Mr

Mubarak owed to the armed forces his es-

cape from the provincial working class,

and shared their grudge against Egypt’s

cosmopolitan elite. He was a squadron

leader in the early 1960s, when Egypt’s then

His three suffocating decades in power

were ended by revolt

The death of Hosni Mubarak

A soldier’s tale