12 | APRIL 8 • 2021 PURELY COMMENTARY Talk of defectors from other parties is, as was the case last year, mooted by his supporters, but that seems even less likely this time around. Another possibility of a solution is both a laudable development as well as a potential case of staggering hypocrisy. When the four disparate Arab factions ran together as a single party last year, they won 15 seats as the Joint Arab List. When Blue and White leader Benny Gantz spoke of his will- ingness to deal with that coa- lition of anti-Zionists — many of whom sympathize with ter- rorists — the Likud and others blasted the idea as something that would compromise the nation’s security. The Joint List split when Mansour Abbas, leader of the Ra’am Party that advocates the conversion of Israel into an Islamist Palestinian state, pointed out something that was quite true. Israeli Arabs have been badly served by their politicians. Many of them are corrupt and have spent their time working harder to support Palestinian efforts to under- mine Israel than on trying to assist their constituents. Abbas (no relation to the Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas) suggested that it was time for them to stop grand- standing in order to help allies in Ramallah and Gaza, and start doing deals with the Zionist parties in order to serve their people better. As he promised during the campaign, however, Abbas says that he is open to supporting either side of the Israeli politi- cal divide in order to advance the interests of Israeli Arabs. That opens up the possibility that one of the non-Jewish parties would become part of a government, even if it meant supporting it from outside the coalition. If Ra’am enables Netanyahu and the Likud to govern in this fashion, the prime minister and his supporters would be open to charges of staggering hypoc- risy. Then again, it would also give the lie to the canard that Israel is an “apartheid state.” It would also illustrate just how far the Abraham Accords and the other normalization deals between Israel, and Arab and Muslim states, have helped erode support for the century-long war on Zionism. Friendly relations with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain are a signal to Arab voters that it’s in their interests to stop acting like auxiliaries of Palestinian terror groups. This scenario may not hap- pen — not the least because many of Netanyahu’s support- ers won’t tolerate sitting in a government whose existence depends on the votes of those who don’t really want it to exist. It also doesn’t alter the fact that half of the country will never rest until he is finally defeated. Nor does it erase the way the prime minister’s sense of indispensability and dou- ble-dealing has fatally divided an Israeli right that might otherwise be firmly in control under almost any other leader. The mere fact that the option of a deal with an Arab party can be realistically dis- cussed is also a tribute to how much Netanyahu has changed Israel and the Middle East. Jonathan S. Tobin is editor in chief of JNS—Jewish News Syndicate. Follow him on Twitter at: @jonathans_tobin. and live a Jewish life in Detroit or b) move to an urban area that already has such infra- structure. THE GOAL The goal isn’t to mess around in the city and then get serious in Huntington Woods or West Bloomfield; many of us don’t see our futures in any suburbs, anywhere. The goal is to build a thriving Jewish community with a shul, school, access to kosher shopping and kosher dining, and more, in Detroit. Many people still seem to think that the only Jewish peo- ple living in Detroit are hipsters or have no interest in being members of a Jewish communi- ty; hopefully, this demonstrates that that’s not true. Today, there are multiple organizations that exist in Detroit that are constantly enriching Jewish life: Chabad of Greater Downtown Detroit, Hillel of Metro Detroit and the Downtown Synagogue. While each of these entities provide wonderful Jewish pro- gramming, that’s often where it ends: programming. The Downtown Synagogue is a wonderful place, and I’ve spent dozens of Shabbat mornings there, but in all my pre-pan- demic discussions, the intent was to create a community that fell somewhere along the lines of Modern Orthodox or Orthodox. As Detroit continues to attract new businesses, new developments and new invest- ments, we’re continuing to lose scores of young Jewish pro- fessionals to urban areas with large Jewish communities, like New York, Toronto, Chicago, LA and Miami, to name just a few. There’s really no reason why Detroit can’t compete with these cities. Over the course of the pan- demic, I’ve grown my network to include other Jewish profes- sionals in Detroit, including a number of people in the real estate development world who share the same interest in the creation and growth of a Jewish community in Detroit. Prior to writing this arti- cle, the idea was that a Field of Dreams approach might work: “If you build it, they will come.” As it turns out, there are companies and individuals who would work hard to build it when that demand presents itself — I’m hoping to find through this article who will come. Jeremy Rosenberg lives in Detroit, working in transit and real estate development. He invites people to reach out to him at jeremy_324@ hotmail.com. NETANYAHU continued from page 8 “THIS FOURTH CONSECUTIVE ELECTION STALEMATE IN TWO YEARS IS A DISCOURAGING OUT- COME FOR THE JEWISH STATE.” — JONATHAN S. TOBIN A VISION continued from page 4