The Knesset debate Wednesday was largely demonstrative. The light bulb finally switched on for the Opposition parties. The nation-state law does not harm the citizens of the state in any way – yet it does hurt the parties in the Opposition, which failed to realize it was in their own best interests, as well as those of the people of Israel, to support the legislation, even if only partially.
At the moment, Opposition Leader Tzipi Livni's sudden outburst of patriotism over the Declaration of Independence looks like a paltry attempt to salvage some votes from the center. According to recent polls, Israel's centrist voting bloc is divided over the nation-state law, which means some will certainly consider leaving Yesh Atid and the Zionist Camp (Labor) to perhaps vote Likud. Yesh Atid head Yair Lapid's reticent support for the law indicates he understands the problem.
The law is not capable of taking votes from the far Left, but this time Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu can destroy the center and move large swathes of it to the Likud or other center-right parties, if they also learn how to present things in the proper manner. Livni could discover that her apologetic stance toward the Druze will not buy her additional public support. It's quite possible the opposite will happen, and the Druze will see that portions of the Israeli public view their demonstrations, including Wednesday's show in the Knesset, as a form of ingratitude.
To be sure, they don't owe anyone anything and they deserve equal rights as citizens, but we've never heard them say before that this equality includes the right to self-determination. If they truly consider this, they will realize it's simply unfeasible to implement such divisions between peoples in a country.
The Israeli public has shown patience, perhaps too much, in the wake of events in the Druze villages on the Golan Heights, where residents lynched wounded Syrians. On more than a few occasions, Israel altered its Syria policies to accommodate Druze requests from both sides of the border.
Five Druze lawmakers serve in the Knesset. In other words, around 4 percent of Knesset members represent 1 percent of the Israeli population. This doesn't point to discrimination. One could venture to guess we will see double that number of Druze MKs, or close to it, following the next elections.
Perhaps it's a risky prediction, but it appears the nation-state law, mainly because of the ridiculous, irrational opposition it has garnered, will propel Netanyahu and Likud to their largest victory since Ariel Sharon won the premiership in 2001. Netanyahu has also grabbed the Right by the horns – because of its bitter battle with the Left over the law – and parts of the center as well, because a large majority of the Jewish public supports the essence of the law.
People these days can decipher emojis and read entire books into Twitter posts, yet they struggle when it comes to reading legislative fine print. This type of Jewish self-determination in the land of Israel is something the hard-liners and Greater Israel proponents would never have accepted in the past.
The significance, of course, is their tacit agreement that self-determination in the land of Israel can happen together with another people. The old hands would never have conceded the words "land of Israel" in favor of "State of Israel." The word "equality" would have merely been symbolic.
However, a grandiose law such as this one would not have hit the fundamental mark – establishing a bulwark against the Hamas brand of separatist nationalism espoused by certain movements in Israel.
