Why Rivlin's win is a defeat for Netanyahu
The Israeli prime minister tried and failed to prevent his right-wing rival, Reuven Rivlin, from becoming president.
Reuven Rivlin will serve as the 10th president of the State of Israel, after he defeated Knesset member Meir Sheetrit June 10 in the second round of voting. Rivlin, 74, born in Jerusalem and an extreme-right ideologue, is a veteran Likud Knesset member who twice served as speaker. He won despite the extensive campaign waged against him by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Their unstable and dysfunctional relationship is characterized by sheer hatred. Under current conditions, Rivlin’s election succeeds in delivering good news for the ideological Israeli right wing, and at the same time bad news for the leader of this same right, Benjamin Netanyahu. Israeli politics is indeed marvelous and the recent presidential campaign — full of intrigues, mudslinging and police investigations — once again verified this truism.
Rivlin was born to a deep-rooted Jerusalem family. He is the eighth generation to live in the city and his trademark is love and dedication to Jerusalem. Every radio or television interview he has given in his long career has opened with the same announcement: “Shalom to you from Jerusalem.” Rivlin was born into the Revisionist Herut movement that later became today’s Likud Party.
In contrast with a large percentage of his friends (former Prime Ministers Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert; former Ministers Roni Milo, Dan Meridor and Sheetrit; and many others), Rivlin never moved an inch to the left. Instead, he remained part and parcel of pure right-wing ideology in the full meaning of the word throughout his entire career.
