The opposition successfully refused to offset the 2 missing votes supporting the minimarket law and unable to muster a majority, the coalition decided to delay the vote for another week or two.

If this proposal was just about a sure thing to pass until now, at this point it is guaranteed as the MKs behind it will now turn it into a do or die affair on which the government will depend on. They will rally the troops and dig out every vote possible.

The opposition MKs will not get any sympathy in the future when they are stuck, and they will not have gained anything anyway from this incident.

Perhaps the only gain might be that they delayed the passage of the law by a week or two and can push a couple more cities to pass new municipal laws allowing businesses to be open on Shabbos - municipal laws that will be revoked anyway, after the law passes.

I guess the Supreme Court will end up as the wildcard.