Ofer Cassif: The Joint List will recommend Eisenkot for PM - to "kick out Netanyahu"

MK Ofer Cassif of Hadash hinted that the Joint Arab List might recommend Gadi Eisenkot for Prime Minister, with the goal of "kicking out Netanyahu." In an interview with Radio Haifa, Cassif said that if toppling the government depends on them, they are willing to compromise:

"If now the toppling of the government is up to us, and it depends on us to remove Netanyahu and the government of blood, racism, and horrors — and that means we will have to recommend an alternative candidate, for example, Eisenkot — then definitely, it is highly likely we will do it."

Cassif clarified that this is a conscious ideological compromise: "If it means compromising and recommending an alternative whose government guidelines will not be to our liking, but ones we can live with — we will do it, certainly." According to him, "It is completely clear to us that we are facing a junction, a critical crossroads. From our perspective, it is do or die."

Hadash, Ta'al, and Balad recently announced they would run together in the elections, with Yousef Jabareen at the head of the list, followed by Ahmad Tibi (Ta'al) and Sami Abu Shehadeh (Balad); Cassif himself is placed in the sixth spot. Cassif's statement brings back to the table a politically charged pattern: the recommendation by Arab parties of a Zionist candidate for Prime Minister. A prominent precedent occurred in 2019, when the Joint List recommended Benny Gantz to President Rivlin — a recommendation then termed "historic" — but Gantz ultimately preferred a government with Netanyahu. Also earlier, in 1992, Yitzhak Rabin relied on outside support from the Arab parties to form his government. The issue of the "recommendation" itself is controversial within Arab society, and voices have often been raised questioning the benefit of full participation in the Israeli political system.