MUSLIMS IN WADI ARA SHUN HERZOG AND LIVNI

The left-wing "Zionist Union" went to a campaign conference in the Arabic neighborhood of Wadi Ara, and were greeted by surely the most hostile reception you could expect for a leftist party from a community they're trying to pander to:

Dozens of Arabs, the ones who are full-fledged Israelis complete with citizenship, greeted Yitzchak Herzog and Tzipi Livni Saturday with catcalls, slurs, Palestinian Authority flags and fights when the duo visited the area of Wadi Ara, a hotbed of Islamic Movement radicals.

Protesters called the new faction, a merger of Livni's HaTnua and the Labor parties, "radical right-wingers" with "blood on their hands."

Bujie and Tzipi are tied up in the age-old bleeding heart philosophy that if you simply show the Arabs you really aren't so Jewish and Zionist, they will hug and kiss you without a knife in the back.

The demonstrators on Saturday southeast of Haifa were more honest than that. Herzog and Livni's "Zionist Camp" gimmick is the last thing that is going to convince Arabs who openly want a "one-state" solution that they can be partners for peaceful co-existence so long as there is a Jewish government.

There were many Arab supporters for Herzog and Livni during Saturday's campaign stop, but they and the "Members of the Homeland" protesters literally fought with each other, leading to six arrests.

"We do not want anyone from the Zionist Union to come here. They are accomplices to murders against the Palestinian nation," one protester said, according to Yediot Acharonot.

This is a lot different from what you might've expected in past times. The name they've now given the Labor party certainly isn't impressing upon anybody there. Also of important note:

Last month, the Zionist Union was forced to cancel a planned campaign event in Nazareth, likely due to pressure from the Arab Joint List and its supporters, media reported at the time.

The Kul al-Arab site reported the visit was dropped because the mayor and the municipality had come under pressure from the Joint List, which feared the Zionist Union would take away Arab votes.

Kul al-Arab owner and general manager Fayez Eshtiwy told The Jerusalem Post at the time that he had heard Nazareth Mayor Ali Salam canceled because he was sick with a cold. However, “the question is if that is the truth.”

An excellent question. It is possible that this election, Labor will get far less votes from Arab citizens than before, partly due to their supporting a disqualification of one of the Arab party's members, even though the supreme court reversed it.