Ayman Odeh, the leader of the Arab Joint List in the Israeli Knesset, has written in the New York Times announcing his party’s endorsement of Benny Gantz for Prime Minister. This bizarre endorsement was advanced even though Odeh clearly states that “Mr. Gantz has refused to commit to our legitimate political demands for a shared future.” Odeh’s demands include state alleviation of criminal violence, discrimination, exclusion, poverty, as well as cancelling the Nation-State Law that codifies the political obstruction of Palestinian self-determination and prepares for the de jure annexation of most of the West Bank.

Even though Gantz has offered Arab voters nothing, and his Kahol Lavan party represents the Zionist military-security complex, Odeh still sees hope in them: “By choosing to recommend Mr. Gantz, we have proven that cooperation between people, Arab and Jewish, is the only principled political strategy that will lead to a better future for us all.”

What Odeh’s grand language obscures is that he is merely ensuring that Netanhayu does not get first dibs at forming the next government. So rather than wait forty-two days for Netanyahu to inevitably fail in this task (with less seats than before), Odeh merely speeds up that process and gives Gantz the chance to go first. That’s all. Is this minor anti-Bibi electoral move worth recruiting “the poetry of Mahmoud Darwish and the stories of our grandparents” grandiloquently invoked by Odeh at the end of his article?