A weekend poll highlighting the potential benefits of electoral cooperation is unlikely to overcome the inter-party differences that have historically split Israel’s three main Arab parties. Those parties mainly compete to represent the 20 percent of Israel’s citizens who are Israeli-Arab, and polls show that they would be more successful running as a single list in Israel’s upcoming January 22 election. Personal differences between party leaders, however, make that scenario implausible.

[Photo: Pikiwikisrael / Wikimedia]