Did Israeli-Arab Parties Steal Israel’s Election?

 

An Arab-Israeli woman casts her ballot during Israel’s general elections on October 27, 2026 in Umm El Fahem, Israel. Israeli voters are heading to the polls to elect 120 members of the Knesset, which will determine the make-up of the government that succeeds incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition. The legislative elections are the first to be held since the Hamas-led attacks against Israel on October 7, 2023. (Photo by Amir Levy/Getty Images)

The explosive revelations that Qatar may have paid Israeli-Arabs to vote through terror financing channels in yesterday’s election is tantamount to an “Electoral October 7 “event. Journalist Amit Segal and Ari Tatarka titled their article this morning “The Stolen Election?”

Did Qatar “invade” Israel through the ballot box?

Indeed, this may be absolutely correct. The Israeli Central Election Committee Chairman Justice Noam Sohlberg has ordered an investigation by Israel’s internal security agency, the Shin Bet, of “serious suspicions of improper influence through foreign funding.” This is an explosive turn of events for Israel’s October 27 national election.

According to Israel’s Channel 12, the Shin Bet is pointing the finger at Qatar. The funds were to boost Israeli-Arab voting, previously through channels used to move terror funds. If true, this is a major foreign election interference scandal.

The news comes as Israeli-Arab voting exploded to 80% participation as opposed to about 40% in previous elections. Instead of the current 10 Arab Knesset members, estimates that Ra’am and the Joint List, the two major Israeli-Arab parties, will get 19 seats, an all-time high.

Was this a diabolical scheme by Qatar and other nefarious Muslim actors to cause internal political disarray inside Israel by using the Israeli-Arabs as a Fifth column? I believe it is.

The tip of the iceberg came when Southern District Israeli detectives arrested four Ra’am Arab party activists on suspicion of election bribery. Detectives found in their homes, tens of thousands of shekels with ballots and an inscription on envelopes that said, “Gifts from the Islamic movement.” Did those “gifts” come from Qatar?

Election observers and polling station officials in numerous Arab communities also reported seeing voters carrying fuel vouchers and gift cards allegedly distributed to them as they went to vote.

The reports noted that some voters acknowledged receiving the cards in exchange for voting for Ra’am. Likud party officials have charged there was widespread electoral fraud, bribery and ballot manipulation as part of a coordinated nationwide operation from those associated with the Islamic movement.

 

Ra’am is the political wing of the Southern Branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel—a movement historically inspired by the Muslim Brotherhood. Ra’am head MK Mansour Abbas hinted about an explosive Arab outpouring saying in August that the Israeli-Arab parties will “put Israeli democracy to a test.” Abbas also has called Hamas a charity, not a terror group.

Some takeaways:

– Both the Likud coalition and the opposing “Change Bloc” appealed to arguments, passion and issues. The motivation of the Israeli-Arabs to vote? Cold cash, fuel cards and gift cards.

– The existence of Israel-Arab parties and Israeli-Arab Knesset members is in contrast to virtually all Muslim countries where there are no legal Jewish political parties in existence. Israel is the only real democracy in the Middle East that grants full voting rights to its Muslim citizens as well as to other minorities.

 The intense campaigns inside Israel are in sharp contrast to the cancellation last month of the Palestinian Authority elections, once scheduled for next month by Mahmoud Abbas. Since he became the head of the PA in 2005, Abbas has served continuously and dictatorially and without any elections even though the Oslo Accords demanded elections ever four years. During that same time, there have been five Israeli Prime Ministers of all political stripes: Ariel Sharon, Ehud Olmert, Benjamin Netanyahu, Naftali Bennet and Yair Lapid.

– Qatar of course denies funneling money into Israeli-Arab hands. But Qatar, which was a major financier of Hamas, is a economic powerhouse rivaling the Mullahs in Iran. It is an enemy state determined to see the extinction of Israel.

– The charges of foreign influence will not cancel the overall election results in which Netanyahu has the biggest electoral vote. However, it could nullify part or all of the Israeli-Arab vote, especially of Ra’am which appears to be one of the main parties behind the election bribery campaign. Netanyahu’s party is calling the scandal “The Ra’amgate affair” and an “earthquake.”

There are more revelations to come. The Shin Bet is required to submit their report in one week.

It should be a tumultuous time for Israel, which has weathered many tumultuous times throughout its history. It will survive and thrive.

Credit: oann.com