Isaac Herzog was elected Israel’s new president

Isaac herzog, former leader of the Labor Party and with a long political career, was elected on Wednesday as new president of Israel during a vote in plenary session of Parliament (Knesset) in which candidate Miriam Peretz won.

Herzog, 60, who has headed the Jewish Agency for the past three years, will be the new head of state, in replacement of Reuven Rivlin, after receiving the secret ballot by 87 deputies in a 120-seat Chamber, above the twenty-six that Peretz got.

Nephew of the historic Foreign Minister Abba Eban and son of the late Haim Herzog -President of Israel between 1983 and 1993-, Herzog started as a favorite against Peretz, a candidate with a more popular profile and associated with the right, but without positions earlier. or experience politics in the highest Israeli institutional sphere.

The new head of state He will take office when Rivlin ends his seven-year term on July 9. The presidency is a official position in Israel, because executive decisions rest with the government and the prime minister.

The parliament elects the president by a simple majority from among the candidates presented, which may be for his personal capacity or his prior contribution to the state and symbolizes the country’s unity on partisan politics.

However, beyond his ceremonial role, the president It has functions such as appointing the candidate to create an executive, a process Rivlin has had to participate in on several occasions over the past two years, after four parliamentary elections and a long political blockade..

Even today, the presidential election coincides with the end of the term of centrist Yair Lapid, with the task of forming a government, which has until midnight to inform Rivlin that he has accomplished his mission.

Lapid, an opposition leader who brings together a heterogeneous group of parties opposed to current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is today pursuing negotiations to the limit to finalize the details that will lead to the creation of a new coalition “of the change ”.

If confirmed, this new executive would relegate the opposition and remove Netanyahu from power, after twelve consecutive years as prime minister.

Experienced and accommodating

Herzog combines a vast political experience, a conciliatory speech and a family history, which will be the pillars on which he will rely to exercise a function which appears particularly relevant today.

His calm and calming tone has been a constant, not only in the weeks leading up to this election, but throughout his entire political career, which began over 20 years ago, before the 1999 election.

Since then, he has occupied multiple positions, always within left or center-left formations, including 15 years within the mythical and now weakened Labor Party.

After having been, among other things, Minister of Housing, Tourism and Social Affairs, he won the labor primaries in 2013 and became leader of the opposition, a position he held until 2018.

In those years, he delivered a speech opposite to that of Prime Minister Netanyahu, by which he was eclipsed throughout his career, with more vehement and aggressive manners.

One of the main differences between the two was Herzog’s approach to the conflict with the Palestinians, against which he always opted for a diplomatic approach, to the point that in 2013, ten days after becoming head of the In opposition, he met the President of the Palestinian National Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, in which he expressed his support for the two-state solution, which is increasingly hated by the Israeli right.

Another element that characterized Herzog’s speech was the need to maintain good relations with the United States, which he stressed even during the presidency of Barack Obama, considered one of the most critical American leaders. with regard to Israel, and which is particularly relevant in the Today, given the differences over a possible return of Washington to the nuclear deal with Iran, Israel’s eternal enemy.

Added to this is his special interest in Jewish communities abroad, from which many analysts say Israel has distanced itself in recent years due to its policies and to which Herzog seeks to reach out again, which he says. has headed the Jewish Agency for the past three years, whose mission is precisely to strengthen ties with the diaspora and promote Jewish immigration to Israel.

In addition to trying to bring together the various communities that make up heterogeneous Israeli society, Herzog will also face a serious constitutional crisis, with a Supreme Court hit by campaigns to discredit right-wing parties and in the context of the trial. for corruption against Netanyahu.

Precisely, this trial could be his main challenge for the new head of state, in the event that the still condemned Prime Minister is condemned and asks for a pardon.

(With information from EFE)

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