These days
we take for granted the fact that we are a regional gas powerhouse thanks to which our electricity prices are low, the wealth fund fills up and Erdogan speaks to us politely.
But that was not the case in 2015, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu encountered fierce opposition opposition.
Former MK Satyo Shafir, a left-wing, social, revolutionary and especially vocal voice, tried to torpedo the Likud's attempts to gain the support of MKs from the joint list. In a matter like gas.
But Zahalka was less concerned.
His response to Shafir and Biran in the Knesset plenum provided an enlightening moment regarding left-Arab relations.
"Increase to make two MKs from the Labor Party, who deprived us of our land and murdered tens of thousands of Palestinians, far more than the right.
And they are now preaching morality to us, "Zahalka began calmly, then raised his gear:
Don't even say hello to me!
I'm transparent to her.
The Arabs do not exist! "
Zahalka was right and wrong at the same time.
He was right, because the real Zahalka does not exist in terms of large sections of the left.
Neither the actual Mansour Abbas nor Tibi or Odeh and their friends.
But there are Arabs that do exist: the Arabs that exist solely in the imagination of peace-seekers.
The vision of peace will not be harmed even if Arafat stands up to them in his own right and says explicitly that he intends to destroy Israel.
A real Arab is a problem to be dealt with, but an imaginary Arab who is a peace activist, a human rights activist and opposed to the occupation - oh, that's a completely different story.
You can do business with it.
True, imaginary business, but flow.
This week, the Knesset voted against ratifying the temporary-forever emergency regulations in Judea and Samaria, much to the chagrin of government supporters.
Two more MKs from Ra'am did not vote.
The MKs from the joint did not deploy the long-awaited safety net, and voted against as big, which can annoy anyone who loves his Arabs fulfilling the role he wrote for them.
The day after the vote, MK Ahmad Tibi Linon Magal and his submission partner Yariv Oppenheimer, a Geneva initiator and Meretz member, were interviewed. Oppenheimer was not pleased with Tibi's vote, nor was he reluctant to express his feelings. And I have a feeling that in recent years even more.
I tell you that yesterday's vote did not advance, even in a comma, the end of the occupation. "
Many leftists
assume that Tibi and his partners are partners in the struggle for justice, national rights and the division of the country into two nation states.
This assumption is more pleasant to indulge in than the pincushion of the real Tibi's agenda, and it hastened to land a cap of reality: "I am not an Arab who works according to the proportions of drinking espresso in a cafe in Tel Aviv," he replied.
"I am an Arab who acts according to the dictates of his conscience, does not lower his head, I am not interested in Bennett, Netanyahu. I have a conscience, I have a position, I have a platform and I am not willing to vote for regulations that perpetuate apartheid."
Oppenheimer was not convinced: "I expect you as someone who struggled with occupation and fascism to be smart. Why go with your head against the wall?".
He signed his remarks with a haughty compliment, as one who gives glass beads to natives: "You are a wise politician, after all."
The left's insistence on not understanding even a word from the words of Tibi and his friends is commendable, but puzzling.
The Arab parties do not recognize the right of a Jewish state to exist, at any border.
True, Tibi also occasionally speaks of "rights", "occupation", "fascism" and "apartheid", like many Jewish leftists, hence the confusion: Arab far-right parties, and wrapped in blankets of denial.
The Deputy Minister of Economy, Yair Golan from Meretz, participated last week in a demonstration in Umm al-Fahm organized by the northern faction of the Islamic Movement, which was outlawed.
Among the speakers were senior members of the northern faction, and a sea of PLO flags was entertained by the wind. .
I do not think he lied.
He truly believes in the utopia in his mind and not in the sight of his eyes and the meaning of his ears.
In his eagerness to negotiate
with the Arabs he has forfeited, the left ignores the sweeping hostility of Arab MKs toward the entire spectrum of the Zionist, and the not-so-Zionist. In 2016, members of the joint list boycotted Shimon Peres' funeral. Even then they were reprimanded by the left. "The refusal of Ayman Odeh and the representatives of the joint Arab list is not only disappointing but really puzzling," Shimon Peres represented Israel's longing for peace and over the years ensured the security of all Israeli and Arab citizens alike (...) The decision to boycott the funeral ceremony is motivated by considerations of revenge and petty politics and in no way represents the position of the citizens who voted for them. It did not occur to "our way" that perhaps the common voters voted for it precisely because of this.
It should be noted that Zahalka at the time did differentiate between the left and the right, just not for the desired reasons.
"Ever since you were in the Knesset you never spoke to me! You did not say hello to me!", The shocked Shafir shouted, "Racist! The far right at least people! "Those who took the land from us are not those who say death to the Arabs, but those who told us we brought peace to you."
What a forced favor.
Not pretty.
Were we wrong?
Fixed!
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