Netanyahu courts votes of Arab Israelis with ‘Abu Yair’ alter ego
Leader attempts to win re-election with tactical shift to woo voters more used to seeing his disdain
In Israel’s 2015 election, Benjamin Netanyahu sent a video message to Right-wing supporters warning that Arab Israelis were “voting in droves”. It was a ruthless – but ultimately successful – manoeuvre to scare wavering voters to keep him in power.
Now, with another crucial election on Tuesday, one of the world’s most shrewd political operators is shamelessly wooing the very people he demonised in the hope of winning one or two crucial extra seats to extend his extraordinary premiership further still.
In the Arab city of Nazareth, a large billboard greets visitors with a photograph of Mr Netanyahu staring mystically into the distance – and a highly unusual slogan.
“We’re all with Abu Yair,” it states, using an intimate Arabic nickname which literally means “the father of Yair”, referring to Mr Netanyahu’s 29-year-old son. It is a significant turning point in Mr Netanyahu’s pugnacious career, in which he has regularly shown disdain for Arabs, even branding them as terrorist sympathisers.
In this election, Israel’s fourth in two years, he has travelled from north to south, promising a crackdown on rising crime in Arab cities and more normalisation treaties with Arab neighbours, such as Saudi Arabia.
He has also added the first Arab Muslim to his Likud party’s candidate list and hopes that his major success on securing Covid vaccines will boost Arab support.
However, in an interview with The Sunday Telegraph on the campaign trail, one leading Arab politician claimed that “Abu Yair” was a cynical alter ego, and that Mr Netanyahu was not to be trusted. “In this election, he is speaking nicely, playing soccer with Arabs, and the purpose is to say, you are not at risk from me,” said Ayman Odeh, the leader of the Joint List, an Arab political alliance.
“Abu Yair drinks coffee with the Arabs, while Netanyahu advances the nation state law,” he added, referring to the divisive law which proclaimed that only Jews have the right to national self-determination in Israel.
He also joked that Mr Netanyahu seemed to be spending more time in
Arab communities than in Jewish areas during the campaign. “He has surprised everybody by courting the Arab vote,” said Tamir Sheafer, a professor of political science at Hebrew University. “The way he presented Arabs throughout his career was sometimes appalling, I would say, and so this was a really big tactical turn.”
However, even if thousands of Arabs forgive Mr Netanyahu for his past comments and back his Likud party, the path to victory is littered with obstacles. Recent polls suggest that Likud will only gain around 30 seats and will need support from ultra-orthodox and rival Right-wing parties to form a 61-seat coalition in the Knesset.
Mr Netanyahu has controversially flirted with the far-Right Kahanist movement, which regards Arabs as enemies of the state. This prompted Yair Lapid, the centrist leader projected to win 20 seats, to warn that Israel was on the brink of electing an “extortionist and extremist” government. The Arab Joint list, meanwhile, is projected to secure around eight seats.
Mr Netanyahu is also facing a new challenger in Gideon Sa’ar, a former Likudnik whose breakaway party New Hope claims to be the only viable Right-wing alternative to Mr Netanyahu. “New Hope has established a political home for the many Israelis on the right of centre who feel that Likud no longer represents their values,” candidate Michal Shir told The Telegraph.
As the polls suggest there will be no clear winner, many tense weeks of coalition talks may well follow. The next prime minister will also need to urgently pass a state budget and rebuild Israel’s economy: unemployment briefly reached a peak of around 20 per cent last year.
And should Mr Netanyahu emerge as the loser, he will be facing a high-profile corruption trial, without the protection of high office, which could see him jailed for a decade.
“He is a big liar,” claimed Ramiz Jaraisy, the former mayor of Nazareth, in a sign that Mr Netanyahu’s frenetic campaigning in Arab towns has not won over everybody.