Yair Golan, leader of the Democrats party, has claimed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will attempt to "sabotage" elections and refuse to accept the results.
According to Golan, the upcoming Knesset elections "the most fateful elections in Israel’s history," and warned of "an attempt by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to change the rules of the game, sabotage the democratic process before the elections, suppress voting among his opponents on Election Day, and not necessarily accept the results."
In fact, new data from the Israel Society Index indicates that left-wing voters are the ones most likely to refuse to accept election results, and the vast majority of leftists view a loss for their side as "intolerable."
Netanyahu, the longest-serving prime minister Israel has had, also has no history of sabotaging elections or refusing to accept their results. In election cycles when he was not tapped to form a government, or when he did not succeed in forming one, Netanyahu sat in the opposition and allowed the chosen government to rule.
Golan stressed that the democratic-liberal public will fight to ensure that the elections are free and fair. He claimed that if they are conducted as such, "after the elections, Netanyahu will go home straight to the opposition benches."
"I take this opportunity to call on the entire Arab public to go out and vote. In the last elections, turnout in the Arab sector stood at 53%. That is unacceptable," Golan said, estimating that his party could win two to three seats from the Arab public.
Referring to the political developments, Golan said that former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s supreme test will be his ability to bring right-wing voters into the center-left camp.
"In order to form a new government, we will probably need to include at least one Arab party," Golan noted, adding: "Anyone willing to accept the guidelines of the future government, as far as I am concerned, can be a partner. There is no problem."
"It is clear that the future government is like a national unity government. It will include everyone from Bennett and [Yisrael Beytenu chair MK Avigdor] Liberman to, probably, [United Arab List chair MK] Mansour Abbas. That is absolutely clear, and we will need to know how to work together. We knew how to do that in the 'government of change.'"
On the personal level, Golan said that he would be very happy to be appointed Minister of Public Security, and even declared that if he serves in the role, he would prevent current National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir from ascending the Temple Mount.