Contacts between MK Mansour Abbas, leader of the Islamist Ra’am party (United Arab List), and MK Yoav Segalovitz of the centrist Yesh Atid party have been quietly simmering for quite some time.

The first public sign of a courtship was seen in January, before the passage of the state budget — a legislative milestone that signaled the ruling coalition would manage to extend its tenure through to the legally mandated election date of October 2026.

Abbas was being interviewed on Radio A-Nas, a prominent Arab Israeli station based in Nazareth, by journalists Shireen Younes and Mohammad Magadli, who questioned him about his proposed blueprint for his party’s Knesset slate. During the interview, Magadli asked: “Why not add Yoav Segalovitz as a candidate on your slate?” Abbas replied that this was indeed an idea under consideration.

Minutes after the interview, the two hosts brought Segalovitz onto the show to tell him what Abbas had said. Segalovitz responded that he was flattered by the idea but emphasized that he was staying with Yesh Atid.

Several weeks later, during a meeting at the Knesset, Abbas told me that he had examined several potential candidate names for the Ra’am election slate, though he declined to elaborate on who was tested or what the inquiries revealed.

The assessment was conducted via an internal party survey — at a time when Ra’am was still subordinate to the Shura Council, the religious leadership council of the Southern Branch of the Islamic Movement — to gauge Arab society’s willingness to accept a Jewish candidate on the slate. On Friday, Younes disclosed the poll’s findings.

Ra’am polled 750 Arab citizens of Israel, asking which Jewish lawmaker was closest to their views and best represented their needs. A staggering 75% selected Segalovitz, while other prominent names — Naama Lazimi (The Democrats), Ram Ben Barak (Yesh Atid), Gilad Kariv (The Democrats), Chili Tropper, and Pnina Tamano-Shata — trailed far behind. The results were decisive.

Over the weekend, veteran columnist Nahum Barnea reported at Yedioth Ahronoth that talks between the two sides were heating up. The Times of Israel reached out on Saturday to several Ra’am representatives as well as to Segalovitz, but received no response.

Should Abbas move forward with placing Segalovitz on the slate, it would mark an innovative, highly sophisticated maneuver reflecting real political courage on both their parts.

Segalovitz has maintained deep ties with Israel’s Arab public........

© The Times of Israel