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Israeli president-elect Reuven Rivlin speaks to members of the press at the
Knesset in Jerusalem.

Meet Rubi!

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Seven things you
should know about Israel's new president.

THURSDAY, JUNE 27-
THURSDAY, JULY 3

Marissa Newman
Lazar Berman
Times of Israel

Representative Ginny Berk will be
available to assist you with your
selections on Friday and Saturday.

T

he Knesset vote is in, and
Likud MK Reuven Rivlin has
been elected Israel's 10th presi-
dent. A fairly beloved figure in Israel and
a relative unknown abroad, here's every-
thing you need to know about Israel's
new citizen No. 1, known affectionately
to many as "Rubi."

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32

June 19 • 2014

1 He does not believe in a two-
...L. state solution: Rivlin, a staunch
hawk, has voiced his opposition to the
establishment of a Palestinian state on
many occasions. However, despite his
objections, Rivlin maintained he would
not intervene in peacemaking efforts
if the government should support the
measure. Rivlin has stated repeatedly
that he would opt for a binational state,
granting Palestinians full citizenship,
over plans that would divide the land.
His resolutely right-wing reputation has
not alienated Israeli-Arab MKs, howev-
er, who were said to back the candidate
on Tuesday.

2

Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu is said to despise him:
The long-standing rumors of rivalry
between the two Likud members
reached new heights in recent months
when Netanyahu made attempts to
abolish the presidency, as well as other
efforts to sabotage the campaign —
such as begging Nobel-Laureate Elie
Wiesel to accept the position — as
Rivlin slowly distinguished himself
as the front-runner. At the end of the
day, however, Netanyahu endorsed
Rivlin for president, and Rivlin insisted
Tuesday there was "no bad blood"
between them.

3

He comes from an illustrious
Jerusalemite dynasty: Rivlin's ances-
tor Rabbi Hillel Rivlin was a student of
the famed 18th century rabbinic schol-
ar the Vilna Gaon, and was dispatched
to Israel along with other students on
the rabbi's instructions to establish a
Jewish community.

4

He will be Israel's first vegetarian
president: Since the late 1960s,
Rivlin has eschewed meat products for
reasons of conscience.

5

He's particularly concerned with
the sensitivities of Israeli Arabs:
During a 2011 Knesset daylong debate
over ways to attract Arabs into public
service, Rivlin, then Knesset speaker,
said he opposed a bill to give preference
in government hiring to IDF veterans
and national service participants. Rivlin
argued that since most Arabs do not
serve, this would put them at an unfair
disadvantage as they pursued jobs in
the public sector. He also criticized
the Knesset for failing to meet the 10
percent threshold in minority hirings.
In July 2012, Rivlin lambasted a Jewish
Home plan to draft Israeli Arabs into
the IDF. He called instead for a separate
Arab national service infrastructure to
be set up to allow young Arab citizens
to serve in their own communities.

He's known as a pretty funny guy:
A cousin of beloved comedian Sefi
Rivlin, Rubi is often described as hav-
ing a "quirky" sense of humor. It often
has a self-deprecating character to
it — when he was about to be ousted
as Knesset speaker in 2013 (possibly
over a joke he made about Netanyahu's
wife), Rivlin said, "I got to hear my
eulogies while I was still alive"

6

He oversaw one of the most heated
debates in Knesset history. On
June 6, 2010, Israeli Arab MK Hanin
Zoabi was slated to return to the
Knesset for the first time since she had
been detained while accompanying a
blockade-busting flotilla from Turkey
to Gaza. Predictably, the Knesset debate
on "Israeli reaction to the Gaza flotilla"
turned ugly, resulting in the expulsion
of 14 MKs as the lawmakers nearly
came to blows. Rivlin, who carefully
watched most of the proceedings from
his chambers while a hand-picked dep-
uty struggled to maintain order, called
the session the most tense since a 1952
debate over the Holocaust reparation
agreement with Germany.

7

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