It's time for Israel to have an Arab co-president - opinion

The fallout from October 7 is reshaping Israel’s defense, governance, and social zeitgeist. With no codified constitution and fluid borders, the possibilities are wide open. This reckoning will far surpass the postponed judicial overhaul and the debate over Arab and ultra-Orthodox military service. Wartime polls show unprecedented solidarity among Israel’s two million Arab citizens. Israel should capitalize on this unity.

It’s time for an Arab co-president in Israel.

This idea may sound blasphemous to some, but it has precedent. Israel briefly had a Druze president. Majalli Wahabi, then a parliament member from the Kadima party, assumed both the presidency and the Knesset speakership in February 2007 when Dalia Itzik, the interim president and Knesset speaker, traveled abroad.

Wahabi, initially affiliated with the right-wing Likud, also served as a lieutenant colonel in the Israel Defense Forces. Media and pollsters refer to the Israeli Druze as Arabs, but Druze join the army at a higher rate than Israeli Jews, as part of their “blood covenant” with the Jewish people.

In the past decade, the notion of an Arab president of Israel has been scarcely mentioned. In 2014, Ami Gluska, an aide to two Israeli presidents, wrote an article imagining an Arab protest candidate. Though impractical for an Arab to try to win a vote in the Knesset, Gluska highlighted founding Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion’s stance that “Any citizen, – Jew, Arab or other – can be elected president of the state.”

Ben-Gurion believed that a constitution barring an Arab president “is inconceivable… Any citizen can be elected president of the state, and if a majority is found to elect an Arab president, there will be no discrimination in the Jewish state.” This was before the partition plan was rejected. Guska notes that Ben-Gurion declared a Jewish State just six months after stating that “it will not be a Jewish State.” The 1948 Independence War revealed a humbling truth for Ben-Gurion’s egalitarian vision.

Standing in solidarity

Today, Israel’s Arab population stands in unexpected solidarity after that dark October day. Polls by the Israel Democracy Institute reveal that about two-thirds of Israel’s Arab citizens, who make up 21% of the population, express record levels of solidarity with Israel.

Before the war, fewer than half felt solidarity with the Jewish State. Surprisingly, 87% of Israeli Arabs support volunteer efforts from their communities during the war. However, only 27% of Israeli Arabs feel optimistic about Israel’s future. The question now is what steps Israel can take to make this progress durable, by better integrating these citizens.

A shift toward greater inclusion offers Israel’s Arabs a sharp contrast to Palestinian democratic failures in Gaza, and the West Bank (Judea and Samaria). Gaza hasn’t held an election since Hamas’s 2006 victory, while the West Bank’s 1996 and 2005 presidential elections became life terms.

Addressing persistent issues, like organized crime-related gun violence in Arab towns or settling with nomadic Israeli Bedouin communities could finally be possible. An Arab leader could help expand the Abraham Peace Accords and mediate disputes, while enhancing Israel’s international standing and navigating the hostile media landscape. A co-president akin to Majalli Wahabi could be instrumental in embracing this new horizon of opportunity.

NOW IS the time to capitalize on newfound social cohesion and build a promising future for all citizens. Israel’s leaders must creatively break free of the lose-lose propositions of the international community. Israel is the best hope for the rights of Arabs living under its domain, not another tragic Palestinian failure.

The Abraham Accords and their expansion focus on concessions to the Palestinians without demanding reforms in how Israel’s Arabs are governed. This stability is reflected in polls showing Israeli Arabs almost unanimously prefer not to be subjects of a current or future Palestinian entity.

The notion of an Arab president hasn’t featured in public discourse due to the required Knesset majority. The Israeli presidency’s form, like that of the judicial regime, is not firmly enshrined in founding documents. Instead of a constitution, Israel relies on Basic Laws that can be changed by parliament.

In 2014, Israeli headlines swirled around the presidency’s powers, funding, and structure. At the time, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly questioned the presidency’s existence and allegedly wanted it abolished.

The history of Arab inclusion by Israel’s right-wing parties suggests that having an Arab co-president alongside President Isaac Herzog is not implausible. Moving from an “either-or” proposition to one that ensures Israel always has a Jewish president, would assuage concerns about preserving the Jewish State’s identity. One possibility is maintaining the Knesset’s power to appoint the president while creating a new co-president position for a minority candidate.

Labor MK Raleb Majadele was appointed as a minister in 2007. Parties like the Center-Right Blue and White led by Benny Gantz, the left-wing Meretz, and others have brought Israeli Arabs into the Knesset. Currently, Avigdor Liberman’s right-wing Yisrael Beytenu party has the only Arab parliament member among the Zionist parties.

Thanks to ruling parties from both the Left and the Right, Israeli Arabs have held prominent positions. prime Minister Golda Meir appointed Abd el-Aziz el-Zoubi as Israel’s first Arab deputy minister in 1971. He was related to Seif el-Din el-Zoubi, a one-time deputy Knesset speaker who was decorated for his service in the precursor to the IDF, the Haganah.

In 2022, justice minister Gideon Sa’ar, a member of the Right, appointed Khaled Kabub as the first permanent Muslim justice on the Supreme Court. Right-wing former prime minister Naftali Bennett teamed up with the Islamist Ra’am Party for a shaky parliamentary majority in 2021. Israel’s Arabs suddenly became kingmakers, holding veto power. A co-president position offers visibility without authority that could affect the state’s Jewish character.

Even after the paradigm shift on October 7, the Israeli public is still of two minds. One side questions coexistence with a Palestinian entity. The other wonders if they can live alongside Palestinian neighbors within a single state. #

Just as Israel’s borders, with or without Judea and Samaria, remain unsettled, the presidency may also change. It could take a breakout initiative like this – but which yields neither land, nor security, nor identity – to placate the international community, allow a face-saving win for future peace partners like Saudi Arabia, and start to end the death and destruction driven by the two-state dogma.

Regardless of the final nationality status of the Arabs in Gaza and Judea and Samaria, Israel’s two million Arab citizens want and will continue to share a common destiny with the State of Israel. Recent developments underscore the need for Israel’s Arab population to be visibly represented alongside its Jewish leaders. It is time for Israel to have an Arab co-president.

The writer is a Middle East analyst who served as a sergeant in the IDF’s Nahal infantry brigade and fought in the 2014 Gaza War. He holds an MA in Middle Eastern Studies from The University of Chicago.