With 94 percent of the votes counted, the two Arab lists had won a combined 19 seats in the 120-member Knesset.
Even if that figure changes in the final tally, it will not diminish the historic significance of their success.
Arab Israelis
Nor should it come as a complete surprise: Arabs make up about 20 percent of Israel’s population, and it was clear that they would turn out in large numbers to the polls.
The reason is that Netanyahu's government, and particularly Itamar Ben-Gvir, the national security minister notorious for his hostility toward Arabs, has pursued policies that pose an existential threat to Israel's Arab citizens.
Police presence in Arab communities has been reduced, leading to a sharp rise in crime. Attacks by Jewish extremist gangs have intensified, while Ben-Gvir has personally overseen the demolition of Bedouin homes on the flimsiest of pretexts.
Arab Israelis have therefore decided to respond as people in democratic countries are expected to do: not by taking up arms or organising terrorist attacks, but by going to the polls.
"Arab Israelis"—is that really an appropriate term when Israel defines itself as a Jewish state?
Israel and its supporters have repeatedly argued that the Arab minority's right to vote proves that the country is not racist, as its enemies claim, but a normal democracy.
Moreover, according to this argument, Arabs in Israel enjoy greater political rights than they do in most Arab countries, where elections are often absent altogether.
But what is the point of holding elections if they do not translate into any real influence over political life?
For most of Israel's history, a formidable wall has separated Arab parties from Zionist parties, making cooperation unthinkable. This began to change to some extent in 2021, when the conservative Arab party Ra’am joined a governing coalition, the predecessor of the current opposition.
It was a breakthrough, although the party's participation in government lasted only a little over a year.
Before Tuesday's election, however, there was an attempt to bar the Arab parties from taking part, including both Ra’am and the more radical Joint List. The effort was backed by Netanyahu's government, but the court ultimately allowed both parties to contest the election.
Netanyahu responded to their success by suggesting that Arabs had rigged the election with help from Turkey and Qatar.
This is an extraordinary claim. After all, the state's entire apparatus of oversight was in the hands of Netanyahu and Ben-Gvir. Was the prime minister effectively admitting that he had never been fit for the job because, under his leadership, Israel had become a house of cards?
Given Netanyahu's responsibility for allowing the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023 to happen, there may be something to that argument.
Israel's opposition now faces a historic dilemma. If it reaches an agreement with Ra’am and the Joint List, it could remove Netanyahu and the extremists from power with relative ease.
It could then hold them accountable over the numerous allegations of corruption, endangering national security and creating thuggish militias.
The Arab parties have already said they are willing to talk. Ra’am wants to join the government, while the Joint List is offering limited support from outside the coalition.
The centrist-left Democrats, one of the four opposition parties, have called for an agreement. The party draws on the legacy of Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres and their commitment to a peace-oriented policy.
Other opposition groups, particularly Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu, have been more reluctant.
The problem is that extremist sentiment has flourished in Israel under Netanyahu and Ben-Gvir. In such an atmosphere, forming a coalition with Arab parties would invite accusations from the far right of "betrayal" and collusion with "terrorists."
The paradox is that if Arabs are now given the message that they cannot achieve anything through political participation, the likelihood of some turning to violence will increase.
Bringing Arab parties into the governing coalition would also help improve Israel’s relations with Arab countries and enhance its international standing.
Continuing the current government’s policies, and sending the message that there is no such thing as "Arab Israelis" but only Arabs treated as a problem, would lead to catastrophe—a course Netanyahu has consistently pursued.
Of course, an agreement with the Arab parties could have another consequence: Arab citizens might come to feel that Israel is their homeland, sustaining their high turnout in future elections.
Any normal country should welcome such an outcome. Whether Israel sees it as an objective or a problem will be a test of the country itself.
How Russian-speaking Jews voted
It is also worth looking at how Russian-speaking Jews voted. As many as 21 percent backed the peace-oriented Democrats, compared with just 19 percent who supported Lieberman’s nationalist party, often regarded as the main political representative of this community.
One of the community’s major centres is the multicultural city of Haifa, where Muslims and Jews still study side by side at the local university. This shows that dialogue and coexistence are possible.
Only 9 percent of Russian-speaking Jewish voters supported Likud, while the other parties in the governing coalition attracted only marginal support from this group.
It is worth remembering, however, that the current authorities enjoy the backing of pro-Putin oligarchs who hold dual citizenship.