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By Kobi Erez, ZOA Michigan Executive Director
(FEBRUARY 18, 2022 / JNS) For years, before Naftali Bennett became the prime minister of Israel, he warned that an Israeli government formed in conjunction with an Arab party that supports terrorism would be a strategic threat to Israel. In fact, just a few days before the March 2021 elections, Bennet took to national media claiming that he would never form a coalition with the Arab Ra’am Party. Depending on Ra’am, he claimed, would prevent Israel from taking necessary actions to defend itself from enemy attack for fear of the government falling.
Despite his lofty promises, shortly after the elections, Bennett went against his own policy and formed a coalition in partnership with the Ra’am Party, a group that has historically called for the destruction of Israel and supported Palestinian terrorists.
In May of 2021, during the Israel Defense Forces’ “Operation Guardian of the Walls,” while the Jewish state was busy protecting its citizens from more than 4,000 rockets being fired from Hamas in the Gaza Strip, something new and even more dangerous was happening. Thousands of Israeli Arabs took to the streets chanting “Death to Israel.” These protests soon escalated to violent riots across Israel. Some Arab Israelis shot at anyone who even looked Jewish. They burned and otherwise destroyed synagogues, Jewish businesses and homes. Due to the riots, main roads in Israel became dangerous to the point where it was unsafe to travel through them unless escorted by the Israeli army.
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