Holocaust Rememberance Day speech by MK Abbas Mansour (@mnsorabbas), Islamic Movement Deputy Head, Chair of Joint Arab List party.

Mr Speaker, fellow Knesset Members,

I will speak today of the potency of the Shoa and of heroism. Not based on books and coincidental quotes from the internet but based on a moral worldview, an internal refelection with the human being inside me and historical insights I have picked up over the years.

Few thoughts on historic Joint List recommendation of Benny Gantz for PM. For the Arab-dominated party to recommend a Zionist party headed by three former IDF generals makes this doubly groundbreaking. They consider toppling Netanyahu requires crossing these Rubicons. 1/ The Joint List’s recent choice to take decisions by MK majority rather than consensus allows it to better reflect the views of majority of Israel’s Arab-Palestinian population rather than their lowest common denominator. 2/

If the Trump Team sought to advance Arab-Israeli rapprochement through the Bahrain workshop it has achieved the opposite.

The one-off entry of a handful of Israeli journalists to Bahrain and photos of Israeli and Gulf businessmen should not distract from four central dynamics: 1. ALL attending Arab countries do so after declaring unyielding commitment to the traditional peace making positions which the Trump administration worked to shift (Arab Peace Initiative). This includes Arab governments who were willing to bend before the Jerusalem Proclamation.

I just listened to Netanyahu's "annexation" interview. My sense is that the media makes of it more than it is.

Here is my reading: Netanyahu did not want to say more than he usually says (I won't evacuate a single settler or withdraw the army, etc). 1/ After repeatedly pushed whether he'll annex Gush Etzion he said he'll "apply sovereignty gradually" in all West Bank settlements, not only the blocks but also isolated settlements 2/

Trump’s decision to withdraw forces from Syria sheds light on Netanyahu’s U.S. strategy and wishful thinking. To secure DC’s JCPOA withdrawal and embassy relocation to Jerusalem, Netanyahu embraced Trump, repeatedly depicting him as the most pro-Israeli U.S. president ever. 1/ It is no coincidence the PM did not even hint criticism of DC’s policies since Trump entered White House. The medium term US-Israel implications are known: Netanyahu’s uncritical embrace of Trump contributed greatly to eroding bi-partisan consensus in Congress around Israel. 2/