Sovereignty Bills

The Kadima Coalition may not be of use for most practical things in Israeli life but two interesting bills have passed their first vote reports the Jerusalem Post:

The Knesset plenum passed two controversial bills in their preliminary readings Wednesday; the first bill concerns the requirement of a referendum in the case of the transfer of sovereign land to a foreign government and the second may change the vows incoming Knesset members must take.

MK Avigdor Yitzhaki (Kadima) proposed the bill several weeks ago, despite the government's opposition. If passed, the bill could make it virtually impossible to give away the Golan Heights. Yitzhaki stepped down as coalition chairman after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert failed to give in to his demands to resign. He insisted that the prime minister leave his post after the release of the Winograd Committee's interim report into the Second Lebanon War two weeks ago.

Another bill would force incoming members of the Knesset to pledge allegiance to Israel. The bill calls for new MK to swear they will remain loyal to the "state of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, and remain true to its values."
(…)
Both bills, which have yet to be reviewed at the House Committee, are unlikely to pass in their second and third readings, sources said. Much of the coalition was absent during the votes thereby giving the opposition majority.

The only criticism of the first bill (concerning the land transfer to a foreign government to be decided by a national referendum)is that it deliberately excluded the disputed territories. It only makes sense to let the Israeli people ultimately decide – what, when and how much land will or will not be negotiated away as they are the ones who will end up paying whatever price the piper asks.

Though the Jerusalem Post account is a little sparse and offers no underlying rationale for the vanishing act Kadima coalition members pulled when Olmert needed support their support to crush this crucial bill. Ynet News carries a little more background into the vanishing act. And unlike the JPost; I am not so sure this bill won’t make it into law but I do have doubts about the Oath of Loyalty.

I do not have any issues with the concept of loyalty oaths, and furthermore; it only makes sense for an Israeli oath of allegiance to include loyalty to the idea of a “Jewish” democratic state. If the underlying rational for the existence of Israeli is not a homeland for the Jews there is simply no point to its continued existence. But my gut tells me, this issue will unite the hard left wing political parties in the Knesset firmly behind the Arab parties who have been seeking to minimize or actively undermine the “Jewish” character of the state for some time.