Yossi Schwartz, ISL (RCIT section in Israel/Occupied Palestine) 11.10.2026
Voting for the Knesset is not mandatory; it’s a tactic designed to expose the party in which workers and the oppressed have illusions, so it is always a critical vote. As we wrote yesterday, for us the only option is the Joint List if it pledges not to support any Zionist government from the outside. In fact, the party we would have chosen if it ran independently is Balad, but this time it is a partner in the Joint List. We received the news this morning, days before the Knesset elections. The chairman of the Joint List, Yousef Jabareen, officially announced last night (Saturday) for the first time that the Joint List is ready to provide a “safety net” to any government that replaces Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and even to conduct negotiations to that end. According to all the data, it is not possible to form an alternative government to the governments of Netanyahu, Ben-Gvir and Smotrich without conducting negotiations with the Joint List,” he said in a video he published.
“We don’t give an open check,” Jabareen clarified, “Anyone who wants our support is welcome to negotiate with us about the demands of our company.” This declaration marks – for the first time – the List’s readiness to political cooperation that would help replace the government.
We are living in what is perhaps the most dangerous period in the history of our people,” he said at the beginning of his remarks, “fascism, racism, ongoing harm and unprecedented escalation, under a government that is not satisfied with the blood of our people, which harms us here in all areas of our lives and is taking this country and the entire region to the abyss.”
Jabareen noted: “Therefore, these elections are not ordinary elections. These are fateful elections for our future here, in our country, where we have no other country.” According to him, “The Joint List today is the broadest possible unity in the ranks of our society, between different parties and streams, for the sake of a common goal. When we are united, we are bigger and stronger, and our weight is heavier. In such a situation, no one can ignore us, and it is in our hands to bring down this government and put our conditions before any political composition that will be formed after the elections.”
“Don’t let anyone fool you and say that our options are limited. We will use all the tools at our disposal. Listen to me carefully: we have all the tools to replace this government. We will be a safety net, but first and foremost a safety net for our people against crime, through a clear plan, with a timetable, a budget, and supervision of implementation.”
“We can change and influence, but influence does not mean giving up everything. Influence cannot come at the price of voting in favor of war and settlement budgets, nor at the price of accepting the Nation-State Law and perpetuating Jewish supremacy. Nor can it come at the price of lowering our voices and remaining silent in the face of the destruction in Gaza, the ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, the raids on the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the harm to worshippers.”
“These elections are our opportunity to strengthen our vote, increase our representation, and ensure our presence. Our unity in the Joint List is power, and you created this force. The equation today is clear: the larger the Joint List, the greater the power, the greater the influence. Together, we can.”
Despite Jabareen’s statements, most elements in the anti-Netanyahu bloc have repeatedly said they will refuse to cooperate with the Arab parties. Most of the bloc’s leaders even ruled out cooperation with Mansour’s Ra’am. Thus, the Joint List is ready to sell out very cheaply.
If the Change Bloc wins, the expected prime minister is Gadi Eisenkot. Who is this man? In 1991 he was appointed operations officer of the Northern Command. In 1992, he was promoted to colonel and appointed commander of the Carmeli Brigade (Reserve Brigade). In 1994, he was appointed commander of the Ephraim Brigade in addition to his previous position. In 1997, he replaced Col. Erez Gerstein, became commander of the Golani Brigade, and led it for two years in the fighting in southern Lebanon. Later, he served as Ariel Sharon’s military secretary. In 2005, as a major general and in the Second Lebanon War, he proposed destroying the infrastructure of the Lebanese economy. Later, he supported the “Dahiya Doctrine,” according to which in the event of a military action by Hezbollah, the retaliation should be given by bombing villages from which rockets were fired at Israel, using disproportionate force, similar to the bombing of the Dahiya district in the Second Lebanon War. Eisenkot served as deputy chief of staff Benny Gantz between January 2013 and December 2014, during what the Zionists call Operation Protective Edge, in which the Zionist army murdered 2,000 Gazans, most of them civilians, including children.
Eisenkot was the first chief of staff to wage an open campaign against the Iranians. He intensified the campaign between wars, a secret campaign waged by intelligence agencies, the air force, and special units. Iran tried to establish itself militarily in Syria and invested efforts in arming Hezbollah. As part of the campaign between wars, the Zionist army carried out more than 200 attacks on Iranian warehouses and shipments in Syria, including a record large-scale attack in May 2018 on more than 70 Iranian targets to halt Hezbollah’s buildup. The targets included arms shipments, weapons and ammunition depots, advanced technologies, Iranian military infrastructure, military bases and airports, as well as air and anti-aircraft defense systems. The attacks destroyed many missiles and killed many operatives from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Hezbollah, and various Shiite militias, as well as more than 100 Syrian soldiers.
And Jabareen has no problem supporting this man as prime minister under the pretext that the main thing is not Netanyahu. The next government may be of the Anti-Netanyahu bloc, but the Zionist policy cannot be changed in the Zionist Knesset, but only the mass struggle, as part of the Arab revolution, can put an end to Zionist racism. The policy of the less evil in elections under a capitalist state only paves the road for a very right-wing government.