(Jpost).After a week in which party discipline within the Likud seemed to be stretching the bounds of unity, fractious MKs seem to be falling into line as the weekend - and budget votes - draws nearer.Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin was first among those returning to the fold; he sent a letter of apology to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Wednesday evening. (Read report here).
"In the course of the interview," Rivlin wrote in the letter, "I expressed my principled positions on a number of topics, among them the role and position of the Knesset in Israeli democracy. I am sorry if the things that were said by me in relation to a principled argument could be interpreted as a statement or even an assault on the personal level."
But it was not just at the top of the ranks that Likud discipline seemed to be falling back into place. Dissent among the party's contentious backbenchers regarding specific clauses of the Economic Arrangements Bill grew quieter - with one key exception.
During the party's Monday faction meeting, lawmakers were told that breaking party discipline on the state budget would be rewarded by removal from Knesset committee positions - a warning presumably intended for MKs Miri Regev, Tzipi Hotovely and Danny Danon, all of whom vocally opposed parts of the draft 2009/10 budget.
Although both Danon and Hotovely toned down their dissent , Regev continued to fight on the imposition of VAT on fruit and vegetables. Unlike Danon and Hotovely, Regev does not chair any committee.