Nail Zoabi, former principal of a school in Tamra, was mentioned as an armored candidate as the representative of the Arab society on the Likud list for the Knesset, spoke this morning (Monday) with Golan Yokfaz and Anat Davidov on 103FM, and commented on the publications.
Benjamin Netanyahu meets with the millionth vaccinator for the corona in Umm al-Fahm. Photo: Itai Ben On, Sound: Nir Sharaf / GPO
Did you get a phone call?
“I think the highlight is not Nail Zoabi but the good and beautiful thing that is happening, that the token has already fallen, that the Honorable Prime Minister, and I believe he means it, wants to arm someone Arab. “Whether it is Zoabi or not, it is a historic step that the government is reaching out to the Arab sector, only the government has the power to strengthen and leverage the Arab sector and bring it to districts that have never been there.”
What did you vote for in the previous election?
“I think this is an irrelevant question.”
Not Likud.
“An irrelevant question right now, I’ll say in time to say.”
In previous campaigns, Netanyahu said that the Arabs were flocking to the polls.
“Clichés and slogans failed to work on me, a politician can also say flocking to the polls, and now we are saying it in the other direction. The prime minister himself went out and talked about it and even apologized for it, I do not think it is something that should be done from him anymore.”
Have they talked to you? Are there negotiations? Did the Prime Minister call? Did anyone from the Arab sector try to negotiate with you?
“There have been talks with the Likud and other parties. The highlight is not Nail Zoabi. We are working as hard as possible so that the Jewish Zionist parties will be in the Arab sector and succeed in attracting the Arab sector elsewhere. The Arab sector cannot be left under the party’s auspices.”
Saar, Lapid, Netanyahu, is there anything to talk about with everyone?
“I really want to see the parties, I see it as an authentic, real leadership, I see it as the Prime Minister and the Jewish parties addressing the Arab sector directly, an Israeli act, an act of values, that we so want it to happen.”
Netanyahu called?
“I still can’t say anything.”
What do you and the Likud have in common?
What I have in common is that I see that only a ruling party that has the power to take the blood-soaked sector in which it swims, from the violence, to take the sector out of its leadership, that talks about the whole world and its wife and does not talk about Israeli Arabs, is common. “It is precisely the Arabs who are citizens of the country who are not succeeding – in my opinion, this is a historic step, which was not like this connection between the sectors. I do not see it as cynicism at all, I see it as an Israeli thing.”
The prime minister is fighting for his life. He criticized Ganz who wanted the common support.
“I also sharply criticized Mr. Ganz at the time when he started talking to the joint list, with people who only a day or two ago called a leper soldier, and those who volunteer in the national service ‘traitor’, etc., only recently pushed a police officer and did not condemn an attack.”
Were you also angry at Ganz who approached the joint? She represents you.
“Not only was I angry, I wrote an article in the style of ‘you went crazy’. They do not represent me and did not represent me in the past and did not represent me in the future.”
Is annexation support, continued construction in the settlements, acceptable to you?
“Everything in time, we do not discuss details.”
What is your position?
“I am in favor of rights for Israeli Arabs, obligations for Israeli Arabs, this combination.”
If Netanyahu brings up the issue of annexation, how will you vote?
“Everything is timely. I want to be a partner citizen in the State of Israel, we are educating for that. There are 2 million Arabs living in the State of Israel who are supposed to be citizens for all intents and purposes.”
What kind of minister would you like to be? Education?
“The steps being taken now and the talk of Arab armor on the Likud list is a blessed thing and I have been waiting for him so long and I think true Zionism and true Israeliness is not to leave the Arabs alone. I want to be the first Israeli Arab to act out of a deep belief that he has no other state.”