If Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Sudan, and soon also Saudi Arabia are willing to make peace with Israel and its right-wing government, why must the Arab people in Israel continue to take a back seat in this political game? The first one to address this publicly, angering his colleagues in the Joint Arab List, is the leader Ra’am faction, Mansour Abbas. Abbas is a practicing Muslim who is rethinking his politics and who sometimes amazes and irritates those around him.

For several months now, the 46-year-old Arab has been getting ever closer to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is still branded a right-wing extremist by the Arab community. “I want peace and Bibi doesn’t want war,” Abbas is reported as saying. The Israeli media are already calling it a BFF (“Best Friends Forever”) relationship, with regard to this new political romance.

An end to separatism

Mansour’s political home, Ra’am, is an Islamic party, and he is the leader of the Islamic Movement in the southern part of Israel. The new ties between...