President Isaac Herzog put a blunt question to the Joint List on Thursday, November 5: if Israel launches a major security campaign against Iran or Hamas, would the party pull its support from the government? Party chairman Yousef Jabareen refused to promise anything either way, saying the Joint List will make strategic decisions. He added that voters did not choose the party to remove Netanyahu only to bring him back, and that its choices will follow the values it stands for, with the hope that the road ends in peace. The exchange took place during consultations on who should be tasked with forming the next government after the October 27 election, where the Joint List recommended Gadi Eisenkot for the job.

The moment is spreading online with the Netanyahu line pulled out, but the full answer never said whether the party would withdraw support or stay, and that gap is what Herzog's question was really about. In the same meeting, MK Ahmad Tibi said Arab voters turned out to replace Netanyahu, and Jabareen accused Netanyahu and Itamar Ben-Gvir of ongoing incitement against Arab citizens. Critics have also pointed to Jabareen's repeated refusal in a recent interview to call Hamas a terrorist organization, although he said his party has condemned the October 7 attack. Tibi has said the party is ready to back an anti-Netanyahu government from the outside, which could make the Joint List a key player in whether Eisenkot can build a coalition. How long that support would hold in a war is still unanswered.