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The untranslated video link is blocked in the U.S.

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author

Can you watch the translated one? Because it's not hard to make out the Hebrew/Arabic.

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People who complain about America's two-party political system and support such "reforms" as proportional representation should pay more attention to Israeli politics...

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founding

I cannot fathom how a Palestinian Arab party could come out in support of Netanyahu after the recent settlement expansion, especially after the "promises" made during recent normalization diplomacy...

... well, I could imagine a way or two. Yet, the speech Abbas gave runs counter to typical Islamist talking points, so I can't pretend to know his motivations or what direction he's going to move in. Is this a sign that Israeli Arabs are giving up on halting Israeli settlement expansion? Or has the rest of the Arab world given up on the effort and left the Palestinians to their own devises? Or is Iran a big enough pain in the ass to the region that the Arab countries have been forced to acknowledge that Israel isn't (presently) some sort of existential threat?

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The Right and the Left are not so de facto different when it comes to settlements - though their political presentation is.

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founding

Thank you.

For those interested in more on this, Lawfare released a podcast on this situation this week.

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author

It's a mistake to think Israeli Arabs are entirely focused on Palestinians in the occupied territories or Gaza. Israeli Arabs are Israelis, and pretty integrated into Israeli politics--as this makes clear. Politics (everywhere, but especially in the Middle East) are often very local.

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founding

I'm going to have to work harder to internalize this. It would make sense that an Israeli Arab party of Islamists would be noticeably different from others around the world, especially through the "very local" lens.

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