From +972 Magazine
The Joint List and Ra’am could prove decisive in Israel’s election. But they offer very different answers on how far to bend in pursuit of Jewish support.
On the evening of Oct. 23, the reception hall at the Zionist Organization of America building in central Tel Aviv was packed with several hundred people. Most were Jewish Israelis, Gen Xers and boomers of a liberal persuasion, the kind you would have been likely to see protesting against the government’s judicial overhaul and, later, for a deal to return Israeli captives from Gaza.
They had come to see — and, for the lucky ones, rub shoulders with — two unlikely co-stars of this Israeli election season: Mansour Abbas, the Palestinian Knesset member and leader of the Islamist United Arab List (known in Hebrew as Ra’am), and his newest recruit, former Yesh Atid lawmaker Yoav Segalovitz.
When Segalovitz entered the lobby and began mingling with the crowd, the room came alive. The stocky 67-year-old could barely take a few steps without being stopped for a selfie, a handshake, or a compliment. It was a strange reception for someone who, until recently, was just another face in Israel’s seemingly endless parade of centrist lawmakers.
Segalovitz’s decision to join Ra’am has transformed him, in certain Israeli circles, into a political celebrity. And whatever one makes of his politics, it was a bold move. In Israel in 2026, where politicians are routinely hounded for even vaguely left-wing or insufficiently hawkish statements, joining a Palestinian-led Islamist party that Netanyahu and his allies have smeared as Hamas supporters is hardly a recipe for political success. Segalovitz has almost certainly burned more than a few bridges.
Amos Brison is an editor at +972 Magazine, based in Berlin.
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