Israel’s election and self-definition invite questions | Letters

Dr Richard Skues responds to an article by Jonathan Freedland in which he says the opposition can’t win unless they join forces with Arab parties

Jonathan Freedland is surely right that the Israeli political parties opposed to Benjamin Netanyahu should make common cause with their Palestinian fellow citizens (This is the hard lesson from Israel’s election: to stop nationalist populists, you can’t play by gentlemen’s rules, 30 October).

He is also right to be pessimistic, recognising that “Israel’s Jewish-led parties have long shunned the mainly Arab parties because the latter identify as anti- or non-Zionist, meaning they reject Israel’s self-definition as a Jewish state”.

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