The 'problem for Likud'

About a month ago, legislation was proposed to legally define Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people. It was approved by a majority comprising only members of the coalition.

Statistically, the coalition won, but in terms of public legislation it was a failure. It would have been possible to bring MKs from the coalition and the opposition together on this issue and recruit a two-thirds majority to approve a bill that would still define Israel as the nation-state of the Jews but avoid unnecessary division. If that route had been taken, a festive atmosphere of Zionist unity would have engulfed the Knesset plenum, and foreign diplomats would have explained to their respective capitals about the diplomatic meaning of the large majority that supported the legislation.

The wording of the bill that could and should have achieved this rare unity on such an important issue would have been based on the Declaration of Independence of the State of Israel, which states: "Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people, based on the foundations of freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel, and will ensure complete equal rights for all its citizens."

I floated this alternate bill in 2011, and submitted it to the Ministerial Committee for Legislation in 2015, but with no success. It disappeared into the depths of the coalition, along with other similar proposals. At the beginning of this year, I resubmitted it to the ministerial committee, which deferred its decision on it for three months. After the delay, at the beginning of May, I tried once again to bring it in for approval by the committee, but this time officials in the upper echelons of Likud blocked it. Over the last month, I have repeated my request on a weekly basis, but Likud officials have deflected every request.

This Likud opposition demands a rational explanation. I received an explanation, but whether it is rational is debatable. I was told that my proposal poses "a problem for Likud." The abridged version of the bill did not leave much room for interpretation: The problem for Likud, which prompted its officials to block the bill, was the phrase "complete equal rights for all its citizens."

This made me wonder. My proposal stipulates a justified national preference for the Jewish people in the only Jewish state in the world. But since a quarter of our citizens are not Jewish, the proposal justly stipulates equal rights for all citizens. After all, we, as Jews, demand equal rights in all countries of the world, so how can we deny equal rights to the citizens of our own country?

Three months ago, I wrote here that "the government controls Knesset legislation through 'coalition discipline.' This is an important tool, but it creates a political power pyramid: Minority holdings lead to a majority in the Knesset, sometimes because of apathy in coalition parties, sometimes because of party interests, sometimes because of personal calculations, and sometimes because of threats. Add to that the tension between Likud and Habayit Hayehudi, which brings in competition that leads to pursuit, which sends things downhill." This continues today. Party considerations outweigh national considerations and party proposals outweigh proposals of unity. When the Likud leadership in 2017 rejects a bill that states that Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people -- only because equality for all citizens is guaranteed -- the ostensible "problem for Likud" in the bill becomes a problem for the nation.

A few weeks ago, on the 40th anniversary of the 1977 political "upheaval" (when Likud won the election after decades of left-wing hegemony), several members of the Likud leadership described the lessons they learned from that event.

But they all missed the key lesson to be learned from that election, which ended 45 years of Mapai rule. This lesson is clearly expressed in two passages of Proverbs, 27:24 and 16:18: "For riches are not forever" and "Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall."

Benny Begin is a Knesset member for the Likud party and a former government minister.