![\"Reuven_Rivlin\"](\"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Reuven_Rivlin.jpg\")
<\/a>Reuven_Rivlin<\/p><\/div>
\nIsrael has a new president, due to take office in July. Unlike Israel\u2019s current Labor affiliated Peacenik president, this new president has hard-line right winged views. What will this mean for the State of Israel?<\/p>\n
The President of the State of Israel is mostly a ceremonial role and real executive power lies in the hands of the Prime Minister. Israeli presidents are chosen by the Knesset (Parliament) for a single seven year term. If the President at any time becomes incapacitated or leaves office, the Speaker of the Knesset fills in as the acting president until a new president can be elected. <\/p>\n
The President is responsible for endorsing the credentials of ambassadors and receiving the credentials of foreign diplomats. He appoints the Governor of the Bank of Israel, the State Comptroller, and many others, as well as ceremonially appoints the Prime Minister. He\u2019s a bit like the Queen of England. <\/p>\n
The President is also responsible for awarding the Israel Prize and serves as the main speaker at opening ceremonies at half-yearly Knesset Conferences and the official ceremonies for Memorial Day and Holocaust Memorial Day. Although the President of Israel has no Parliament role, he is obligated to sign every law passed by the government, except those pertaining to the powers of the President. The real power of the President, however, lies in his ability to pardon or commute the sentences of soldiers and civilians. <\/p>\n
This past June, Reuvin Rivlin was elected as Israel\u2019s 10th President. He hails from the right-winged Likud party and is only the second president to come from this political party, along with the country\u2019s eighth President, Moshe Katsav. The majority of Israel\u2019s presidents have been affiliated with the left-leaning Labor party. Troubling the Jewish Diaspora community, made up of a great number of Reform and Conservative Jews, Rivlin does not recognize any non-Orthodox branch of Judaism. He also follows the ideology of Zeev Jabotinsky and believes in a \u201cGreater Israel,\u201d envisioning a nation from the right bank of the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. He does not support a two state solution, was against Israel\u2019s withdrawal from Gaza in 2005 and believes in an undivided Jerusalem. Rather than forfeiting land for two separate states, Rivlin suggests granting equal rights, including voting rights, to all Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza and making them full citizens of the Jewish State of Israel. One might see the potential conflict in this plan, for both sides. Rivlin has conceded that this solution may mean a Palestinian leader could become the elected leader of the State of Israel. But, on the other hand, he believes that under such a circumstance, Israel will maintain a Jewish majority and keep its Jewish culture and status. But, even if this were the case, how will Arab-Palestinians fit into and affiliate with this Jewish culture and nationality? And, more importantly, do Palestinians want to be part of this Jewish State, or do they envision for themselves self-sovereignty and their own state? On the Jewish side, how will the Jewish people maintain a majority in such a state and how will this single state preserve a Jewish national identity? <\/p>\n
There is a known rivalry between Rivlin and Israel\u2019s current Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, also of the Likud party. As it became clear that Rivlin held the majority in the presidential candidate pool presented to the Knesset, Netanyahu did all in his power to prevent this election. He desperately tried to find another candidate for presidency and even approached Nobel Peace Laureate Eli Wiesel, not even a citizen of Israel, for the role. Wiesel declined. Netanyahu then, unsuccessfully, attempted to abolish the office of presidency altogether. However, after Rivlin\u2019s election, both leaders have reached out to each other in a show of peace, publicly (at least) burying the hatchet. <\/p>\n
After Rivlin takes office next month we will see how he and the Prime Minister are able to work together and what affect having such a right-winged President will have on Israel\u2019s public image. Rivlin has declared he will be a \u201cman of the people.\u201d Some say we will forget his name within six months, and others worry about the effect of having such a right winger serve as the face of Israel. Only time will tell what impact Rivlin\u2019s term as President will have on the State of Israel and its image abroad. <\/p>\n
<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/div><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Nicole Sivan Israel has a new president, due to take office in July. Unlike Israel\u2019s current Labor affiliated Peacenik president, this new president has hard-line right winged views. What will this mean for the State of Israel? The President of the State of Israel is mostly a ceremonial role and real executive power lies more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1891,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[325,128,327,125,326],"class_list":{"0":"post-1890","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israeli-news","8":"tag-israeli-new","9":"tag-israeli-politics","10":"tag-israels-president","11":"tag-news-from-jerusalem","12":"tag-reuvin-rivlan","13":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1890"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1890\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1892,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1890\/revisions\/1892"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}