A Very Narrow Bridge By Noa Epstein

 TRANSLATION FROM THE HEBREW MEDIA

A Very Narrow Bridge

By Noa Epstein
Hebrew Haaretz Daily news summary

10 November 2026

Mansour Abbas is on the path to passing yet another litmus test for acceptance into Israeli society. According to a report on Ynet, the Ra'am Leader has expressed his principled agreement to recognise Hamas as a terrorist organisation, in exchange for a commitment to a genuine political partnership. Splendid. We can already start preparing for the next test. Will he be required to stand up and sing "a Jewish soul yearns" bit in the Israeli national anthem? Maybe he’d be asked to don *tefillin*? Perhaps fast on Yom Kippur, that never hurts. We shall await the full list of demands, signed by the leaders of the Change Bloc.

Abbas has come a long way.

Yesterday, senior reporter Raviv Drucker aptly described this obstacle course: every time Abbas meets one demand, another pops up. The very act of raising these demands is the real story, not their content. But now, a new problem has arisen for those drafting these threshold requirements. If Abbas were to actually declare Hamas a terrorist organisation, how would we know he truly meant it? How could we be certain he was speaking from the heart, sincerely, genuinely, and without any pretence? Are we, after all, the ones who can peer into the hearts and minds of others? Could he simply be manoeuvring to gain entry into the government? Well, let me just say this: "polygraph" isn't a dirty word. In these trying times, perhaps a security background check of his extended family might be an option, too.

At the President’s Residence, Abbas already explained why he finds it difficult to make such a statement. He sought to protect himself and his family, while also preserving his ability to exert influence on the Palestinian side. "We are a bridge; let’s not destroy this bridge," he said. But it seems that a bridge connecting Jews and Arabs is only required to meet the standards set by the Jewish side. As far as we are concerned, the other end can collapse, one side is enough.

Naturally, the government has the right to ascertain the... ...the positions of its partners, certainly in the wake of October 7. Yet Avigdor Liberman, who is now prepared to negotiate with the ultra-Orthodox, following years of battling against their military service exemptions, refuses to rely on the Arab parties. Eisenkot, for his part, has set conditions; and Abbas—who will likely accede to every single one of them, may well discover that even this is not enough. If this path, too, is blocked, what exactly are his voters supposed to conclude? That their votes count when it comes to the tally, but not when it comes to forming a government?

In the next election, as the bloc shrinks further and the number of seats held by Arab parties declines, we will be able to accuse them of having no desire to integrate. How is it that they cannot even pass this test?

Translated by Sol Salbe.