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Intel: How the Palestinians are trying to take Netanyahu down via Israeli elections

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ weekend meeting with Nazareth Mayor Ali Salem is widely seen as a desperate gambit, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears to coast to re-election on a security platform while Israeli peacemakers fade from the scene.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister's office in Jerusalem February 17, 2019. Sebastian Scheiner/Pool via REUTERS *** Local Caption *** - RC1F7CF03220
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly Cabinet meeting at the prime minister's office in Jerusalem, Feb. 17, 2019. — Sebastian Scheiner/Pool via REUTERS

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ weekend meeting with Nazareth Mayor Ali Salem is widely seen as a desperate gambit, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears to coast to re-election on a security platform while Israeli peacemakers fade from the scene.

Why it matters: Abbas urged Salem, one of the influential Israeli Arab figures, to back a last-minute effort to reunite the four Arab-Israeli parties for the April elections. The Palestinian leader hopes to challenge Netanyahu through an Israeli Arab coalition with the center-left to usher in a new prime minister, as they did with Yitzhak Rabin in 1992.

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