Tibi, who was an adviser to the P.L.O. on Arab Israeli citizens, aims to support a center-left minority government. This means that he would recommend a center-left Zionist candidate to be prime minister and vote with the government on some matters, but would not join the coalition. Tibi’s primary aim in this regard is to unseat Netanyahu as prime minister. A similar minority government model allowed the government of Yitzhak Rabin to push forward the Oslo peace process with support from opposition Arab MKs.

Ta’al split from the mostly-Palestinian Joint List, led by Hadash’s Ayman Odeh, at the start of the 2019 campaign season. While Ahmad Tibi’s faction was small within the Joint List, he commands significant popularity among Palestinian citizens of Israel, and was initially projected outperform the Joint List headed up by Ayman Odeh. The Joint List had been plagued by disagreements among its constituent factions, especially the more radical nationalist Balad and Islamist United Arab List blocs. On February 21, 2019, amid attempts to preserve the Joint List, Tibi and Odeh agreed to join forces. Their unified list will be led by Odeh, with Tibi taking the second position.

Ayman Odeh and Hadash support a two-state solution based on Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Tibi also claims to support a two-state solution, but alleges that it may be impossible because of the policies of Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump. Tibi is against West Bank settlements and military action and Gaza, citing these as reasons for not joining a government. However, he opposes the permanent opposition status of other Palestinian-Israeli factions. 

UTJ is a non-Zionist faction which does not endorse the creation of a secular Jewish state. Accordingly, the party maintains no political commitment to Israeli sovereignty over specific territories and the party has been open to concessions in the past. This peculiarity also means that UTJ MKs tend only to be awarded minor portfolios in the cabinet in order to distance themselves as much as possible from the institutions of the State of Israel.

Ultra-Orthodox voters typically took cues from their respective rabbis around elections. However, during the 2018 Jerusalem municipal elections, the rabbinic authorities were unable to come to an agreement on supporting one candidate. This allowed 30,000 ultra-Orthodox Israelis to vote without clerical direction for the first time. It is unclear whether these voters will surrender this newfound autonomy in the national elections.

Shas has previously joined coalitions led by both Likud and Labor, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not one of the party’s main priorities. However, longtime Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef did endorse territorial concessions for the sake of peace during the Oslo process. Moreover, several Shas MKs have voiced support for a two-state solution as envisioned by the Geneva Initiative. Nevertheless, the party lacks an official program related to the question of two states, and leans right on other social issues.

In recent years, Shas has lately been plagued by internal fractures and legal troubles among its membership, including Aryeh Deri. Former Shas head Eli Yishai launched a new far-right party, Yachad, in 2015. Meanwhile, the Israel Police have recommended indictments against Deri on corruption charges (Deri was previously jailed for corruption). While Deri was previously restored to the Shas leadership by the party’s rabbinical overseers, the Council of Torah Sages have been more tepid in their support for the embattled chairman this time around.

The Joint List had been plagued by ideological clashes from the outset. In the run-up to the last election, Joint List leader Ayman Odeh sought to pre-empt concerns among left-wing Hadash voters that uniting with religiously conservative United Arab List factions might undermine his party’s support for progressive positions like gender equality. Officially, the Joint List supported a two-state solution, but Balad rejects the legitimacy of Israel and instead favors a unitary democratic state.

After the 2015 elections, the Joint List was the third-largest faction in the Knesset, with 13 seats. The united entity featured complicated rotation mechanisms to balance the representation of the Joint List’s member parties. However, the resignation of several members (including one convicted of smuggling cell phones to terrorists) have impeded this rotation process. In early January, Ta’al leader Ahmad Tibi withdrew his party from the Joint List, though he was later rejoined by Hadash. Just days before the deadline to submit party lists, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas pushed for the Palestinian-Israeli factions to reunite.