MK Tibi in Ramallah
MK Tibi in RamallahIsrael news photo: Flash 90

As Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu heads to UN to fend off PA statehood, an Arab Knesset Member is reportedly going there too – to aid Israel's rivals in their latest diplomatic offensive against the Jewish State.

Knesset Member Ahmed Tibi is en route to New York as part of the PA delegation, according to the Bethlehem-based Ma'an News agency. Ma'an reported PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas would be flying from Amman, Jordan, to New York, and would be joined "by his advisers Nabil Abu Rudaineh and Majdi al-Khaldi, PLO Secretary-General Yasser Abed Rabbo, PLO official Saeb Erekat, negotiator Mohammed Shtayeh, PLC member Qais Khadir and Palestinian member of the Israeli Knesset Ahmad Tibi."

A Ma'an correspondent with the delegation said they were "ready for this historical event."

The Arab members of Israel's Knesset are notorious for statements and deeds designed to mock Israel and to show their disrespect for the state. However, left-wing elements in Israel make it impossible to take effective steps against them.

Israel's High Court has consistently refused to disqualify extremist Arab lists from running for Knesset. When MK Hanin Zoabi of Balad joined the Mavi Marmara Gaza flotilla, then-Knesset Ethics Committee chair MK Shelly Yechimovich prevented the committee from debating the matter for over a year. 

Balad founder Azmi Bishara was allowed to escape Israel when he came under investigation for aiding the enemy during wartime. He continued to collect his pension for years afterward, until a law was passed that made it possible to withhold it.