A senior member of the predominantly Arab Joint List said Saturday that the political alliance would collaborate with the Zionist bloc opposed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a push to replace the Knesset speaker immediately after the next parliament is sworn in following next month’s election, even if no agreement is reached on a new coalition to replace the premier.

MK Ahmad Tibi, chairman of the Ta’al party and No. 2 on the Joint List — a merger with the Hadash and Balad parties — also said during an interview with Channel 12 that the alliance would be willing to go further than backing a Netanyahu rival for prime minister, without elaborating, amid talk of a potential minority government based on Arab support from the outside.

“There are all kinds of things, a range of steps, immediately after the elections, that could change reality,” Tibi said when asked what would happen if the likely scenario according to opinion polls — a stalemate with no majority for either Netanyahu’s bloc or the Zionist bloc opposing him — materializes after the October 27 vote.

Leading opposition parties have said they won’t sit with Arab parties in a future coalition, and the Joint List or its member parties have never been part of a ruling coalition, unlike the rival Ra’am party. But the Joint List still wants to prevent Netanyahu from forming the next coalition.

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© The Times of Israel