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Survey: Majority of Blue and White voters ready to form government with Arab help

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Seventy-six percent of Arab citizens are in favor of the Arab Joint List joining the government.

By World Israel News Staff

Fifty-two percent of Blue and White voters support forming a “minority government” that relies on outside support from the Arab Joint List party, according to an Army Radio poll taken on Monday.

The poll also showed that 83 percent of Likud voters were against any cooperation with the Arab Joint List, while seven percent were in favor.

That a majority of Blue and White voters would accept Arab support is surprising, as most Jewish voters in Israel oppose establishing a government that relies on Arab MKs, particularly as the Joint List advocates a program that, if implemented, would likely spell the end of the Jewish State or, at the very least, its Jewish character.

A recent poll taken by the Guttman Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research found that 76 percent of Arab citizens are in favor of the Arab Joint List joining the government, reported Foreign Policy magazine last Monday.

For such a government to be viable, Blue and White would need Israel Beiteinu to join the coalition. Israel Beiteinu leader Avigdor Liberman has been on the record many times, saying that he will not sit in a government with the Arab parties.

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However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu doesn’t believe that this is the case.

“Some time ago, Liberman said that the Israel Beiteinu party would not cooperate with the Joint List in any way. That was six weeks ago,” Netanyahu told his Cabinet on Sunday.

“Apparently this is a show. Avigdor Liberman appears to be in agreement with the Joint List and Blue and White,” he said. “Liberman is striving to form a minority government with the Left.”

Netanyahu’s comments came after Liberman threatened to punish whichever party he believes is responsible for stalling negotiations by joining the other side.

In October, Blue and White members were told by party leaders not to publicly rule out the option of forming a minority government with the support of the Arab Joint List, reported Kan Bet.

On Oct 31., Blue and White leader Benny Gantz met with Arab Joint List leaders Ayman Odeh and Ahmad Tibi. Afterward, the Arab MKs told the press that there was a “positive atmosphere” in the meeting, which dealt with “issues that matter to the Arab community,” reports FP.