A month ago, Ayman Odeh, chairman of the Joint List of predominately Arab parties, was relatively unknown among the public. Ever since the Arab parties united, however, and formed a single list, he has become a popular interview subject on all of the political news shows. He has even been mentioned as a possible leader of the opposition if, after the elections, the two largest parties — Likud and Zionist Camp — form a unity government, and the Joint List is the third-largest party. The scenario, considered highly unlikely, is based on polls that predict the party will win 13 seats, or in other words, more than either HaBayit HaYehudi or Yesh Atid.
Much has been written about how Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman, who pushed to raise the electoral threshold to reduce Arab representation in the Knesset, actually ended up forcing the Arab parties to unite in a single list, fulfilling the wishes of most of the people that these parties represent. It was Liberman of all people who enabled the Arab parliamentarians to overcome deep-rooted ideological differences and personal rivalries to create a single, large list. And this happened while Liberman himself was floundering in the polls because of the criminal investigations involving senior members of his own party.