The aftermath of October 7 is reshaping the zeitgeist of Israel’s defense, governance and society. With no codified constitution and fluid borders, the possibilities are wide open. This reckoning will go far beyond overdue judicial reforms and debates over Arab and ultra-Orthodox military service. Wartime polls show unprecedented unity among Israel’s 2 million Arab citizens. Israel should capitalize on this unity.
The time has come for Israel to have an Arab co-president.
The idea may sound blasphemous to some, but there is precedent: Israel briefly had a Druze president in February 2007, when interim president and Knesset speaker Dalia Itzik traveled abroad, and Majali Wehbi, a Kadima MP at the time, took over as both president and speaker of Knesset.
Wahhabi, originally from the right-wing Likud party, also served as a lieutenant colonel in the Israel Defense Forces. Although the media and opinion polls refer to Israeli Druze as Arabs, they are more likely to serve in the military than Israeli Jews as part of a “blood pact” with the Jewish people.
Over the past decade, the notion of an Arab president of Israel has barely been discussed. In 2014, Ami Gruska, who served as an aide to two Israeli presidents, wrote an article imagining an Arab protest candidate. While it’s unrealistic for an Arab to win votes in the Knesset, Gruska highlighted first prime minister David Ben-Gurion’s position that “any citizen, Jew, Arab, or any other citizen, may be elected president of the state.”
Ben-Gurion believed that a constitution that forbade an Arab president was “inconceivable…the people could elect anybody to be president, and if there was a majority vote to elect an Arab president, there would be no discrimination in the Jewish state.” This was before the partition plan was rejected. Guska points out that Ben-Gurion declared a Jewish state just six months after saying “it will not be a Jewish state.” The 1948 War of Independence revealed a humiliating truth for Ben-Gurion’s egalitarian vision.
Standing in solidarity
Today, Israel’s Arab community is showing an unexpected unity after those dark October days: Nearly two-thirds of Israel’s Arab residents (who make up 21 percent of the population) express record levels of solidarity with Israel, according to a poll by the Israel Democracy Institute.
Before the war, less than half felt a sense of solidarity with the Jewish state. Strikingly, 87% of Israeli Arabs support community volunteerism during the war. Yet only 27% of Israeli Arabs are optimistic about Israel’s future. The question now is what steps Israel can take to make this progress lasting by better integrating these citizens.
Israeli Arabs’ turn toward broader inclusion stands in sharp contrast to the failure of Palestinian democracy in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank (Judea and Samaria), where there have been no elections since Hamas’ victory in 2006, while the 1996 and 2005 presidential elections were for life terms.
Deep-rooted problems such as organized crime-related gun violence in Arab towns and Israel’s reconciliation with nomadic Bedouin communities may finally be addressed. Arab leaders could help expand the Abraham Peace Accords and mediate conflicts, while at the same time boosting Israel’s international standing and navigating a hostile media environment. Co-presidents like Majali Wahhabi could play a key role in embracing this new horizon of opportunity.
Now is the time to harness newfound social cohesion and build a brighter future for all its people. Israel’s leaders must creatively break away from the international community’s lose-lose proposals. Israel remains the best hope for the rights of Arab people living under its rule, not a tragic failure for the Palestinians.
The Abraham Accords and its expansion focus on concessions to the Palestinians without calling for reforms to the way Israel governs Arabs. This stability is reflected in opinion polls that show Israeli Arabs are almost unanimous in not wanting to become subjects of a Palestinian state, either now or in the future.
The concept of an Arab president has not featured in public debate because it would require a majority in the Knesset. The form of Israel’s presidency, like its judicial system, is not explicitly laid out in the country’s founding documents. Instead of a constitution, Israel relies on basic laws that can be changed by parliament.
The powers, funding and structure of the presidency became a hot topic in Israel in 2014, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly questioned the existence of the presidency and wanted to abolish it.
The history of Arab inclusion in Israeli right-wing parties suggests that having an Arab co-president alongside President Isaac Herzog is not inconceivable. Moving from an “either/or” proposal to one that ensures Israel will always have a Jewish president would ease concerns about maintaining the identity of the Jewish state. One possibility would be to create a new co-presidential position for minority candidates while maintaining the Knesset’s power to appoint the president.
Labor MP Lalev Majadere was appointed minister in 2007. Parties such as Benny Gantz’s centre-right Blue and White and the left-wing Meretz have welcomed Israeli Arabs into the Knesset. Currently, Avigdor Lieberman’s right-wing Yisrael Beytenu party has the only Arab member of parliament among the Zionist parties.
With ruling parties of both the left and the right, Arabs in Israel have held prominent positions: In 1971, Prime Minister Golda Meir appointed Israel’s first Arab deputy minister, Abd el-Aziz El-Zoubi, a relative of Seif el-Din El-Zoubi, a former Knesset deputy speaker who was decorated for his service in the Haganah, the forerunner of the Israel Defense Forces.
In 2022, right-wing Justice Minister Gideon Sa’ar appointed Khaled Kaboub as the Supreme Court’s first permanent Muslim judge. Right-wing former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett teamed up with the Islamist Ra’am party to win a shaky parliamentary majority in 2021. Israel’s Arabs suddenly became veto-wielding kingmakers. Co-presidential positions offer visibility without the power that could affect the state’s Jewish character.
Even after the paradigm shift of October 7, Israelis remain divided. One side questions coexistence with a Palestinian state. The other side questions whether they can coexist with Palestinian neighbors in a single state.
Just as Israel’s borders, with or without Judea and Samaria, remain unresolved, so too may the presidency change. Such a breakthrough (but with no territory, security or identity to gain) may be necessary to appease the international community, deliver a face-saving victory to potential peace partners like Saudi Arabia, and put an end to the death and destruction caused by two-stateism.
Whatever the ultimate nationality of the Arabs of Gaza and Judea and Samaria, Israel’s two million Arab citizens want and will continue to want to cast their lot with the State of Israel. Recent developments underscore the need for Israel’s Arab population to be prominently represented alongside its Jewish leadership. The time has come for Israel to have an Arab co-president.
The author is a Middle East analyst who served as a sergeant in the Israel Defense Forces’ Nahal Infantry Brigade and participated in the 2014 Gaza War. He holds an MA in Middle East Studies from the University of Chicago.
