Inside the Mind of Mansour Abbas

Mansour Abbas, the chairman of Ra’am (United Arab List), an Israeli Islamist political party representing the southern wing of the Israeli branch of the Muslim Brotherhood has so far been very successful in charming Jewish Israel. The Quran requires that Muslims tell sweet words to Jews and Christians and Member of Knesset Mansour Abbas surely excels in that peculiar Islamic rhetorical art. Yet, the seeming moderation and religiously sophisticated facade of MK Abbas is intended to buy Ra’am respectability throughout the Israeli political spectrum, including in the Religious Zionism national religious electoral alliance in the Knesset which in 2021 rejected Likud leader MK Benjamin Netanyahu forming a government with the support of MK Abbas’ Ra’am, something which effectively brought Yamina leader MK Naftali Bennett to power. Nevertheless, the truth is that the supposed moderation in Ra’am is limited to the polished facade of its leader as literally no one in the Islamist party is a “moderate”. Mansour Abbas is simply yet another sophisticated intelligence operative of Ankara-based Muslim Brotherhood intelligence which is focused on strategic political action worldwide. The truth is that the Israeli government can do almost anything as long as it sticks to the coalition agreement with Ra’am and Mansour Abbas will not bolt the government as he knows full well that new elections would only endanger the generous allocation of tens of billions shekels to the Israeli Arab sector. Therefore Prime Minister Naftali Bennett can sleep well at night and can even close off the Temple Mount to all visitors for the rest of Ramadan to prevent further rioting without risking his government.