Monday marked the beginning of one of the most unique weeks in Israeli parliamentary history. The government has sought to bind together three laws as a package deal, setting out on a marathon vote while demanding a commitment by the whole coalition to forgo any reservations. This violates the rules of the game. It's a last resort, actually, and the reason given for its execution is borderline disgraceful: The members of the coalition do not trust one another to approve the laws that go against their liking, so they have tried to mobilize a near-collective vote. Habayit Hayehudi wants to pass the referendum law against a West Bank pullout, Yisrael Beytenu wants to pass the law raising the electoral threshold and Yesh Atid wants to pass the law for equal burden in military service, but not one of these factions has any trust for the other. Not only do the factions lack trust in one another, but they are not ashamed to admit it. They have essentially passed a no-confidence motion on themselves. A responsible adult in Likud needs to take the stand and pronounce, in the spirit of Menachem Begin, that Knesset regulations constitute the minority's veritable body armor, and woe betide the democracy that fails to protect its opposition. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, therefore, really ought to muster up the courage to declare that each bill will be voted on separately one week after the other, and that whoever reneges on his commitment to approve each bill will be stripped of his coalition rank and expelled from the government. Doing thus would enable the opposition to retract its boycott of this week's deliberations and voting. The opposition's absence is going to tarnish the reputation of Knesset management, on behalf of the coalition. Netanyahu must commit himself to helping the government recognize the threat. The opposition is not humiliating the coalition; it's doing that all by itself. These three laws are not actually all that bad: • The Governability Law aims to raise the election threshold to 3.25 percent. The main significance is that any party which passes that threshold in an election will be able to appoint four MKs. If the Arab parties or left-wing parties have to consolidate to accommodate the new regulations, there is no tragedy. It is not a violation of democracy. • The equitable enlistment law is in the right direction, though its execution is unclear. In another three years we'll see whether the law improved the face of Israeli society, whether the ultra-Orthodox committed themselves to state security, or whether it was all just a lot of hot air. With skepticism, it's worth giving it a chance -- certainly in the final stretch. • It is unlikely that any Knesset, regardless of its sovereign right, would concede a part of Jerusalem. It is each and every Israeli's right to participate in deciding the future of the city of God. After the Six-Day War, Jordanian King Hussein explained to then-ministers Moshe Dayan and Yigal Allon that "it would be easier for me to lose Jerusalem in war than to give up a part of it voluntarily." If that's the case, what Jew could possibly think otherwise? Even coalition members who don't love these laws, which clash with their factions' worldviews, could approve each proposal with a clear conscience. Please don't take the occasion to abrade the fortifications Israeli democracy has scrupulously raised around the opposition. "Memento mori" ("Remember that you will die"), the Roman caesar was reminded on the day of his triumph. The coalition ought to think about the day it will find itself sitting in the benches of the opposition.
