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This Time, Arab States Are Paying Attention to Israeli Elections

Jacob Wirtschafter

   AMMAN, JORDAN - Traditionally, both informed analysts and the broader
   public in the Arab states have taken an indifferent stance toward the
   outcome of Israel's increasingly frequent elections.

   But with new borders envisioned by U.S. President Donald Trump's Middle
   East peace plan and a heightened profile for the Joint List of Israel's
   Arab-majority political parties -- results from Monday's election are
   being closely watched in Amman and Cairo.

   The Joint List put opposition to the Trump Plan at the top of its
   campaign agenda.

   "Ordinary Egyptians do not care about elections in the world in
   general, and Israel in particular," said Saeed Okasha, in-house Israeli
   affairs analyst for the quasi-governmental Al-Ahram Center for
   Political and Strategic Studies.

   Nightmare scenario

   "But while the political class here may dream of losing [Prime Minister
   Benjamin] Netanyahu because he represents extremism and aggression
   toward Arabs and Palestinians, Egyptian official experience with the
   [Netanyahu's] Likud Party has been positive from the signing of
   thepeace treaty of 1977 until this day," Okasha explained.

   Any prospect that Israel's Palestinian population might summon
   sufficient power to prevent Netanyahu from forming a government is a
   nightmare political and security scenario for Cairo officials.

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