Netanyahu’s Knesset speech prompts Arab party leader to accuse him of hypocrisy, spreading ‘blood libels’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Arab parties of seeking the “destruction of the Jewish state” during his speech to the newly-sworn in Knesset on Tuesday.

The speech came during a traditionally celebratory event following the swearing-in ceremony, when Knesset party leaders gather for joint photos. It also took place amid intense negotiations between the Change Bloc and the two Arab parties, Joint List and Ra’am, over potential cooperation with Gadi Eisenkot, who is tasked with forming the next government.

Netanyahu’s remarks prompted a walkout by Arab lawmakers and drew sharp reactions from opposition leaders.

“As regards their attitude to the Jewish state, there is no difference,” Netanyahu said about the parties. “The two both agree that the Jewish state must be destroyed. They are only at odds on the question of which kind of Palestinian state will arise here on the ruins of the Jewish state... That is the whole difference. But on one thing they agree: Israel, as a Jewish state, has no right to exist.”

Netanyahu also cited statements by Arab politicians critical of Israel, including Abbas, whom he acknowledged is often described as “moderate.”

“So here, Mansour Abbas in 2015 says overtly what his goal is, in Arabic of course; in Hebrew, sweet-talking, just wants to take care of Arab Israelis… This is what he says: ‘The Zionist movement will be forced to retreat to a two-state solution. But I say that we must not be satisfied with that. We must continue pushing the idea of a one-state solution,’” Netanyahu said, claiming to quote Abbas.

“And what regime does he say in that speech will arise in the one state? A ‘democratic caliphate. Palestine from the sea to the river, on the ruins of Israel.’…‘We don’t see a contradiction,’ he says, ‘between a caliphate and the conversation on the Palestinian national project. Quite the opposite – we see that one strengthens the other.’ A democratic caliphate. That’s what he’s working for. That’s what he’s striving for. A caliphate not alongside Israel, a caliphate instead of Israel.”

Eisenkot said the speech was “delusional, divisive, hate-filled and shameful.” He later canceled a negotiation meeting with Likud party representatives due to the “outgoing prime minister’s divisive speech and his disgraceful conduct at the Knesset swearing-in ceremony.”

Joint List leaders said it was “deranged, inciting and racist,” saying Netanyahu was a “bloodthirsty and criminal prime minister is in a state of complete hysteria.”

Ra’am chairman Mansour Abbas accused Netanyahu of hypocrisy, saying the prime minister’s representatives had contacted him several times recently and recalling their 2021 meeting. He said Netanyahu’s speech was part of a “campaign of incitement, spreading blood libels even against me, against Ra’am, and against the Arab public” and is even endangering the life of himself and his family.

“He portrays us as a danger to national security and continues to incite against us and against Israel’s Arab citizens. But I thought about how, when we sat [in his residence], he told me that he and Yahya Sinwar understood each other,” Abbas told Ynet News. At the time, Netanyahu was the first party leader to consider whether Ra’am could potentially join a governing coalition.

“Today he presents himself as the person protecting Israel’s security,” Abbas told Kan News. “How does that fit with someone who placed complete trust in Sinwar in the past and said so to me directly?”

“October 7 happened because of the prime minister’s complacency and nothing else,” Abbas said. “Every time I spoke about a state commission of inquiry, I thought to myself that I would tell these things there as well. This was not only an intelligence failure. It was the prime minister’s conception and his trust in the wrong person.”

Abbas accused Netanyahu of treating Arab parties as legitimate political partners only when their support serves his interests. He claimed that Netanyahu recently sought Ra’am’s support for the “Defendant Law” through his confidant, Natan Eshel.