The twists and turns of Israeli politics can sometimes throw up surprise alliances, unlikely bedfellows and unforeseen ideological adjustments. It has happened again in the runup to the October 27 Israeli general elections.
Yoav Segalovitz – a former centrist lawmaker and deputy national security minister from 2021 to 2022 – sent shockwaves last month when he announced his decision to run on the election list of a moderate Islamist party.
The United Arab List – known by its Hebrew acronym, Raam – made headlines in 2021 when its leader, Mansour Abbas, an Islamist politician, emerged as a kingmaker. Following the elections, Abbas went on to make history by becoming the first Israeli of Arab-Muslim origin to serve as a minister under the short-lived, 2021-2022 governing coalition of Naftali Bennett and secular centrist Yair Lapid.
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Five years later, Abbas produced another shocker with his pick for a new number two for the 2026 elections.
It was not an obvious choice. Dubbed the “supercop” by the Israeli media due to his extensive career tackling organised crime and corruption in Israel, Segalovitz is known for his tough demeanour, honed after years of interrogating high-level suspects as a law enforcement officer. He was never a peacenik, and he addressed the seeming incongruence of his latest political decision with characteristic bluntness.
“I am Jewish, a Zionist, secular, an officer in the IDF, and a police commissioner in Israel. Mansour is Arab, a practicing Muslim, and a conservative. What unites us is that we are both Israelis, and that is our shared identity. Yes, there are differences between us. Yes, there is a complicated history between Arabs and Jews in this country. But there is a shared future.”
Since the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack and subsequent Gaza war, such statements are rare in the Israeli political landscape, where calls for revenge, murder, or the deportation of Palestinians from the occupied territories – and even from Israel – have increased.
‘Why would an Arab need a Jewish police commander?’
The 2026 Raam ticket is a milestone in Israeli politics, one that can be likened to a “revolution”, says Denis Charbit, a political science professor at the Open University of Israel. “October 7 [2023] swept away the idea that one could cooperate with an Arab party, no matter how moderate it may be. The centrist parties that had invited the Raam party to join the coalition they formed in 2021 and 2022 are paralysed. They are yielding to the hegemony of the right, which portrays the participation of an Arab party in the government as a moral taboo in the wake of the October 7 massacres,” he said.
Indeed, when Bennett and Lapid announced their joint candidacy in April to unseat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, they explicitly ruled out the participation of “non-Zionist” parties — namely, Arab parties as well as those representing ultra-Orthodox Jews.
Segalovitz, for his part, believes that “the common assertion that, after October 7, it’s impossible to establish a political partnership with Arab parties, is absurd and false”.
Speaking to the press on August 31, Abbas sought to reassure his voters about his new number two. “I know what people will say. They’ll ask me, ‘Why would an Arab need a Jewish police commander?’ My answer is simple: I’m not looking for someone who’s just like me. I’m looking for someone who knows how to do the job.”
“Mansour Abbas, who takes a pragmatic approach to politics, states that the number one problem facing Arab-Palestinian society is organised crime, which is rampant in Arab communities,” explained Charbit. “The death toll from January through August 2026 stands at 166, and exceeded 200 last year. However, Segalovitz, who had built his career in the Israeli police force, was specifically tasked with combating this crime and he achieved encouraging results in reducing the number of victims.”
Under Israel’s current National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, a far-right firebrand who scrapped Segalovitz’s law enforcement programme, killings in Arab communities have surged to record levels.
On the campaign trail, Segalovitz has touted his crime-fighting record. “The state of personal security in Arab society is catastrophic. Our statistics are on a par with the worst countries in South America,” he said in an interview with AFP. “You can’t sustain an economy, a society, a culture, education or development when people are afraid to walk down the street,” he added.
Likely kingmaker role
The announcement made by the two men was welcomed by the main leaders of the opposition to Netanyahu, who will undoubtedly need the support of parties representing Israeli Arabs – or Palestinians in Israel – in the new Knesset.
A poll conducted on September 2 by Channel 13 showed the opposition bloc led by Gadi Eisenkot and the bloc led by Netanyahu and his far-right allies tied at 53 seats each in the 120-member Knesset. The two Arab parties, meanwhile, hold a combined total of 14 seats. Israeli Arabs make up 21% of the population.
The presence of a prominent Jewish figure as the number two on an Arab party’s ticket could therefore play a decisive role. “This goes beyond a political calculation. Raam, which is likely to win four to six seats, is not demanding ministerial posts for its leaders,” noted Charbit. “Under the current circumstances, it is unlikely that an Arab politician would be appointed minister. With Yoav Segalovitz, Raam has its ideal candidate to serve as national security minister after Itamar Ben-Gvir.”
For his part, Ben-Gvir wasted no time slamming the new Raam ticket, describing the rapprochement as “a joint plot by the left aimed at paving the way for a future government with the Muslim Brotherhood”. In a message on X, the far-right politician posted a doctored image of a handshake between Abbas and Segalovitz featuring keffiyehs and Hamas flags on the table.
Ben-Gvir is capitalising on “a genuine fear (that) has taken root among the Jewish population in Israel”, notes Charbit.
“Segalovitz’s candidacy seeks to overcome mistrust. He is, in a sense, declaring that he is not afraid, that he has met Arabs with whom he can forge an alliance. To assert that internal security is a matter of the public interest — one that is neither Jewish nor Arab — is disruptive. This is something unprecedented since 1948,” he explained.
On October 27, Israeli will vote in the first national elections since the October 7, 2023, massacres and the implementation of an illiberal and controversial judicial reform initiated by the Netanyahu government in 2022.
Whatever the election outcome, Segalovitz has urged Israeli Arabs to seek their place at the heart of the country’s political decision-making.
“No one loses their identity by having influence. Everyone should simply look at where they can contribute and benefit,” he told AFP. “Influence can only come from sitting at the table where decisions are made.”
This article is a translation of the original in French.
