They said he was a terrorist... “Netanyahu, on the verge of falling from office, secretly contacts Arab political parties.”

(Cairo = Yonhap News) Correspondent Kim Sang-hoon = Allegations have been raised that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu harshly criticized Arab political parties in public, but behind the scenes he contacted representatives of Arab political parties through his closest associates.

According to Israeli public broadcaster Kan on the 11th (local time), Mansour Abbas, leader of the Islamic Arab political party Ra'am, revealed that Natan Eshel, a close associate of Prime Minister Netanyahu, had secretly sent him a message on behalf of the prime minister.

Representative Abbas said, "He (Eschel) asked about our party's position on the bill banning criminal defendants from serving as prime minister and whether he would be willing to join the opposition-centered coalition government that is trying to oust the Netanyahu government."

This directly contradicts the crude criticism that Prime Minister Netanyahu hurled at the Arab political party, which secured the largest ever vote in the general election held last month by securing 19 seats.

At the opening ceremony of the new parliament the day before, Prime Minister Netanyahu criticized Arab parties, saying, "Arab political parties seek the destruction of the Jewish state and should not be part of the government."

In particular, he raised his voice against Arab lawmakers, calling them "supporters of terrorism" and "despicable people who go to hospitals to comfort Hamas terrorists, not our heroic soldiers."

At the time, Representative Abbas strongly condemned Prime Minister Netanyahu's speech, saying, "He was abusing his state position to incite the Arab public and representatives," and "It is a very dangerous speech and a bloody slander that endangers the lives of me and my family."

Representative Abbas revealed that Prime Minister Netanyahu had told him in the past that "Yahya Sinwar (the leader of Hamas at the time) and I understand each other," but the Likud party denied this, and also predicted a battle over the truth about this.

“There were other people in the room at the time,” he said, raising his voice and saying, “Both Netanyahu and I are willing to take a lie detector test to determine who is telling the truth.”

Representative Abbas emphasized that, unlike other Arab lawmakers who left as a group when the Israeli national anthem was played at the opening ceremony of parliament the previous day, he stayed in his seat until the end, saying, "It was to show the dignity of a responsible politician without being provocative."

The right-wing bloc led by Prime Minister Netanyahu secured 53 seats in the general election held on the 27th of last month, but Eisenkot, a former military chief of staff and opposition leader, gave priority to forming a coalition government as he received support from Arab parties.

Prime Minister Netanyahu has proposed forming a 'Zionist coalition government' that excludes Arabs, and has reached out to right-wing and centrist parties in the opposition.