On May 1, during a visit to Independence Hall in Tel Aviv, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dropped a new political bombshell. He declared that in the upcoming Knesset session, which begins May 11, he is planning to promote a new basic law defining Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people. Made a few days after Holocaust Remembrance Day and a few days before Israel's 66th Independence Day, his declaration would seem to have come at a perfect time, at least on the face of it.
Netanyahu's declaration caught the Israeli political establishment completely by surprise. The Israeli parliament has already seen similar initiatives to pass such a basic law. In the previous Knesset, it was Avi Dichter, the former Shin Bet director, who submitted a similar bill. However, due to the controversy that ensued, it was shelved. And now, it is none other than the prime minister who plans to give it a go. And by doing so, he forced Tzipi Livni, the justice minister — the one who stands to lose the most from the breakdown of the negotiations with the Palestinians — to immediately announce that she would oppose the premier's initiative and take advantage of her position as justice minister to curb it.