Elder statesman Shimon Peres was elected Israel's ninth president yesterday in a race that capped his six-decade political career, but was overshadowed by rape allegations against the sitting president.
Peres, of the ruling Kadima Party, won the support of 86 of parliament's 120 members in a second round of yea-or-nay voting in which he stood alone. His two rivals, Reuven Rivlin of the hawkish Likud and Colette Avital of the centrist Labor, withdrew from the race after he seized a commanding lead in the first round.
The new president, an 83-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner who has held all of Israel's top civilian posts, but failed in all his bids for elected office, is to be sworn into office on July 15 for a seven-year term.
PHOTO: AP
In a speech to lawmakers following his victory, Peres said he saw his new role as a unifier of Israel's fractured society.
"The president's role is not to deal with politics and partisanship, but to represent what unites us in a strong voice," he said.
Peres had been seen as a shoo-in to win the post in 2000 -- only to lose in a stunning upset to the now-disgraced Moshe Katsav, a political backbencher with the blessing of a prominent rabbi.
The office of president, conceived as a ceremonial post held by a prominent statesman or thinker, has been tainted by allegations that Katsav raped or otherwise sexually assaulted four women employees.
Katsav has not been formally charged, pending a final hearing before the attorney general, but has stepped down temporarily to fight the allegations.
Israelis hope that Peres, with his international stature, will be able to rehabilitate the position.
Speaking at parliament ahead of the vote, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said "the history, actions and contributions of Shimon Peres to the State of Israel" made him "a model" for the ideal presidential candidate.
A top aide to Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, Peres was elected to parliament in 1959, then held a series of top posts, including the premiership, as well as minister of defense, finance and foreign affairs. He served as prime minister in a caretaker role in the 1970s, and once in the 1980s under a rotation agreement with political opponent Yitzhak Shamir after a general election failed to produce a clear winner. He served in the post again in the 1990s after Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated.
BARAK'S COMEBACK
In other developments, former prime minister Ehud Barak won the leadership of the dovish Labor Party yesterday in a dramatic political comeback -- six years after was tossed out of office in a humiliating election defeat.
Barak, 65, a former commando and army chief of staff who is the nation's most decorated soldier, faced off in Tuesday's race against political newcomer Ami Ayalon, a former navy commander and head of Israel's internal security service.
Barak won by a margin of 6 percentage points, party officials announced early yesterday.
At a victory gathering early yesterday at party headquarters in Tel Aviv, Barak called for unity and pledged to restore Israel's military might and deterrent power. He also pledged a policy that "combines uncompromising security, protecting Israel's solidarity and democracy, a determined pursuit of real peace, the reinforcement of the rule of law and healing Israeli society."
Barak is unlikely to immediately pull Labor out of its partnership in Olmert's coalition. He is expected to become defense minister.
Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg was deported from Israel yesterday, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, the day after the Israeli navy prevented her and a group of fellow pro-Palestinian activists from sailing to Gaza. Thunberg, 22, was put on a flight to France, the ministry said, adding that she would travel on to Sweden from there. Three other people who had been aboard the charity vessel also agreed to immediate repatriation. Eight other crew members are contesting their deportation order, Israeli rights group Adalah, which advised them, said in a statement. They are being held at a detention center ahead of a
A Chinese scientist was arrested while arriving in the US at Detroit airport, the second case in days involving the alleged smuggling of biological material, authorities said on Monday. The scientist is accused of shipping biological material months ago to staff at a laboratory at the University of Michigan. The FBI, in a court filing, described it as material related to certain worms and requires a government permit. “The guidelines for importing biological materials into the US for research purposes are stringent, but clear, and actions like this undermine the legitimate work of other visiting scholars,” said John Nowak, who leads field
‘THE RED LINE’: Colombian President Gustavo Petro promised a thorough probe into the attack on the senator, who had announced his presidential bid in March Colombian Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay, a possible candidate in the country’s presidential election next year, was shot and wounded at a campaign rally in Bogota on Saturday, authorities said. His conservative Democratic Center party released a statement calling it “an unacceptable act of violence.” The attack took place in a park in the Fontibon neighborhood when armed assailants shot him from behind, said the right-wing Democratic Center, which was the party of former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe. The men are not related. Images circulating on social media showed Uribe Turbay, 39, covered in blood being held by several people. The Santa Fe Foundation
NUCLEAR WARNING: Elites are carelessly fomenting fear and tensions between nuclear powers, perhaps because they have access to shelters, Tulsi Gabbard said After a trip to Hiroshima, US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Tuesday warned that “warmongers” were pushing the world to the brink of nuclear war. Gabbard did not specify her concerns. Gabbard posted on social media a video of grisly footage from the world’s first nuclear attack and of her staring reflectively at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial. On Aug. 6, 1945, the US obliterated Hiroshima, killing 140,000 people in the explosion and by the end of the year from the uranium bomb’s effects. Three days later, a US plane dropped a plutonium bomb on Nagasaki, leaving abut 74,000 people dead by the
RSS