On Sunday night, the fabric of the delicate, wounded and threatening relationship between Jews and Arabs will be put to the ultimate test. Not in legal definitions or in legislation, but in the fiercest arena of all. The two hottest soccer teams in Israel -- host Bnei Sakhnin and visiting rival Beitar Jerusalem -- will play against each other at Doha Stadium in the Galilee. It's understandable that police were leaning toward cancelling the match, and also that they decided not to. Because cancelling would've been akin to an admission that the police cannot keep the peace and ensure the safety of the players and the fans -- an admission of the helplessness of the rule of law. It will only become clear in time if the risk the police took was worth it. This is not an easy task even at the best of times. I was at Doha last season when Maccabi Tel Aviv beat the local team and everything went well. Still, some of the Maccabi fans were verbally aggressive and arrogant, and border police had to create a barrier around part of the crowd so that the match could continue in peace. This is only more so the case now. When Beitar and Sakhnin walk out onto the field -- with or without Israeli and Palestinian flags -- six hours will have passed since the Cabinet meeting in which the three bills that determine Israel to be a Jewish state will be approved, and they will in the coming months form a single bill, which will not be looked favorably upon by Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein (and justifiably so), and again unnecessary controversy will ensue. Israel is a Jewish state by virtue of the Declaration of Independence, which was written and read by David Ben-Gurion when the state was born; and that fact was validated when Dan Meridor served as justice minister. There is no need to ratify or renew this issue unless you want to fall into the trap of those plotting to smear Israel as an apartheid state. Any new version to come out of the government now omits the value of "equality," something that could have been overlooked, had it not been in the two previous chapters. Now it could be said that "equality" is "conspicuously absent." Strengthening Jewish law and the legal system also does not require legislation that will harm Israel in the international arena. There is nothing preventing the Knesset from passing laws that include many values taken from Jewish law. It's legitimate. But not by way of omitting equality. Whoever comes to the stadium in Sakhnin on Sunday would not have contributed their thoughts at the Cabinet discussion. Israeli citizens -- Arabs and Jews alike -- deserve a break from the unnecessary activity of their politicians, who are fanning the flames of violence.
