The Times of Israel posted An idiot’s guide to the nation-state controversy that claims to be A bird’s-eye view of the facts, arguments and motivations behind the proposed legislation that is roiling Israeli politics.
The article by Haviv Rettig Gur, The Times of Israel's political correspondent, starts off:
So much has been written about the nation-state bills, and so much of it has been wrong on the basic facts, that a straightforward primer on the existing versions and a brief sketch of the arguments around them may provide readers with basic tools to grapple with the issue.
A government-sponsored bill is currently being written at the direction of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and under the supervision of Attorney General Yehudah Weinstein. Contrary to reports in both Israeli and foreign media, from a New York Times editorial to the world’s largest wire services, the cabinet did not pass a nation-state bill two weeks ago. Rather, it passed a 13-page decision that committed the government to supporting two right-wing versions of the nation-state bill in a preliminary vote in the Knesset, “but only,” the cabinet decision reads, “on condition that the proponents [of the two bills] agree that their bills will be attached [Israeli legislative terminology for ‘subsumed’] in a government-sponsored bill that will be proposed by the prime minister on the matter, which will be drafted on the basis of the principles contained in the appendix to this decision, and which will be adapted to it [the government bill].”
Gur's article goes on to offer a full translation of the most recent publicly available draft of the most current version of the bill followed by a comparison of key differences between the government bill, the superseded right-wing bills, and the Declaration of Independence, which a handful of left-wing MKs want passed as a Basic Law in its own right.
Gur's words are found at http://www.timesofisrael.com/the-idiots-guide-to-the-nation-state-controversy/?utm_source=The+Times+of+Israel+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=b1c3103b9d-2014_12_02&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_adb46cec92-b1c3103b9d-54477781.
How accurate is the translation? How unbiased is Gur's reporting? Not having seen the bill in the original Hebrew, and not having a native Israeli's command of the language, I will not speculate.
