Why Israel's Netanyahu needs an Arab party and an old frenemy to keep his job

Arab party and a technology millionaire more hawkish than Benjamin Netanyahu emerge as must-have partners for the Israeli prime minister

People watch election exit polls on screens at the Yesh Atid party campaign headquarters in Israel's Mediterranean coastal city of Tel Aviv. AFP

Ayman Odeh, leader of Israel's predominantly Arab Joint List and the Hadash party, addresses supporters from their campaign headquarters in the predominantly-Arab northern Israeli city of Shefa Amr. AFP

Supporters cheer during a Yesh Atid party event in Tel Aviv, Israel. Bloomberg

Supporters cheer during a Yesh Atid party event in Tel Aviv. Bloomberg

Mansour Abbas, leader of the United Arab List, speaks to supporters from his campaign headquarters in the northern Israeli city of Tamra. AFP

Supporters of Israel's predominantly Arab Joint List electoral alliance celebrate at their campaign headquarters in the Arab northern Israeli city of Shefa Amr. AFP

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wearing a protective face mask, waves after delivering a speech to supporters following the announcement of exit polls of the Israeli parliamentary elections at his party's headquarters in Jerusalem. AP Photo

Likud party supporters cheer after the exit polls in Jerusalem. Getty Images

Naftali Bennett, leader of the Israeli right-wing Yamina party, addresses supporters at his party's campaign headquarters in the Mediterranean coastal city of Tel Aviv. AFP

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of the Likud party, appears with his wife Sara to address supporters at the party campaign headquarters in Jerusalem. AFP

Supporters of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wave a flag depicting him as they react following the results of the exit polls in Israel's general elections at Netanyahu's Likud party headquarters in Jerusalem. Reuters

An Arab party and a technology millionaire more hawkish than Benjamin Netanyahu are emerging as must-have partners for the Israeli prime minister as he manoeuvres to hang on to his job after another inconclusive election.

Preying on anti-Arab sentiment was a hallmark of Mr Netanyahu’s past election campaigns.

This cycle, he changed tack and promised to address long-standing problems besetting the Arab minority that makes up a fifth of Israel’s population.

The tactic drove a wedge through a unified Arab bloc of parties and left a small Islamist faction open to cultivation.

Final results are not in yet from Tuesday's vote, but they tentatively give that breakaway faction, the United Arab List, known by its Hebrew acronym Ra'am, five of parliament's 120 seats.

With Mr Netanyahu and declared allies nine seats short of a parliamentary majority, the Arab slate and the predominantly religious-nationalist Yamina party appear to be indispensable to any government he would hope to form.

With 90 per cent of the votes in, Yamina is on track to win seven seats.

Its chairman Naftali Bennett, who has served in previous Netanyahu governments, challenged him directly in this election, but has not said whether he would join a government led by his former boss to avoid a fifth round of balloting since April 2019.

It is not clear that Mr Bennett, an opponent of Palestinian statehood, and the United Arab List would even be willing to coexist as Mr Netanyahu’s allies.

That the prime minister would have to rely on these two extremes is testament to how complicated his efforts to stay in office have become.

Retaining the premiership has been key to Mr Netanyahu’s strategy for improving his legal prospects during his corruption trial.

A sympathetic government would be able to pass legislation shielding a sitting leader from prosecution.

Individual Arab legislators joined past Israeli coalitions as members of Zionist parties, but a slate of Arab candidates has never done so because of a combination of mistrust among Jewish politicians and the unwillingness of Arab factions to serve in a Zionist government.

During the 1990s, however, Arab parties agreed to vote with minority governments to prop up leaders seeking peace with the Palestinians.

The openness of United Arab List leader Mansour Abbas to Mr Netanyahu’s overtures has made him a pariah in some Israeli Arab circles, and he was attacked at a recent anti-government protest.

He says he is trying to improve the lives of an underserved community where former political allies failed, and that is best done by working with the government.

While Israel’s Arabs are citizens with equal rights on paper, they face bias in employment, housing and public services.

Strains deepened over a 2018 law defining Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people. A recent poll by the Israel Democracy Institute showed that just over half of Jewish Israelis and three quarters of Israel’s Arab citizens oppose a coalition that relies on support from Arab parties.

It was to Mr Bennett, and not Mr Abbas, that Mr Netanyahu appealed to openly on election night when he urged other right-wing parties to join his Likud in a coalition.

Mr Bennett, 48, is a former military commando and tech entrepreneur who cofounded payment security company Cyota, which was sold for $145 million to RSA Security.

He served as Mr Netanyahu’s chief of staff from 2007 to 2008 and after breaking with him, headed the Jewish settlers’ council. He entered politics in 2012.

In Israeli terms, he is a moderate on some religious issues, such as advocating pluralistic worship and respecting gay rights.

But on major diplomatic issues, Mr Bennett takes a hard line.

He loudly opposes Palestinian statehood and advocated annexing 60 per cent of the West Bank before Mr Netanyahu made it a campaign issue.

Last year he pronounced the world to be a safer place without an Iranian scientist that Tehran accuses Israel of assassinating.