And at the same time as wooing the Palestinian minority, Netanyahu has also been forging an electoral alliance with the Jewish Power party, refugees from the late Meir Kahane's vehemently anti-Arab Kach faction, which was outlawed as a terrorist organisation back in the 1990s.
Nonetheless, Netanyahu's manoeuvring has managed to exacerbate discontent within the Joint List, breaking off one of its four parties, the conservative Islamic faction of the United Arab List (UAL).
Netanyahu, said Jamal, was replicating the strategy he used against Gantz and the Blue and White party after the previous election, a year ago.
"The aim then and now is to disable any bloc of parties from being able to form a rival government by weakening that bloc. Before, he succeeded by splitting Blue and White, and now, he's done it by breaking apart the Joint List."
The Gantz of this campaign is Mansour Abbas, the UAL's leader.
He has been lured into running separately from the Joint List apparently in the belief that he can tap Netanyahu's new-found goodwill towards the minority.
Abbas has campaigned on the basis that he alone can extract concessions from Netanyahu for the minority, and indicated he might be ready to pass an immunity law to help extricate Netanyahu from his corruption trial.
Political 'rookie'Polls show Abbas' party hovering close to the threshold of four seats needed to enter parliament.
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