Journalists, photographers and some of the staff of the President’s Residence were gathered on the lawn for the official unveiling of the bust of Israel’s 10th president, Reuven Rivlin, who within a few hours would vacate his seven-year role, after which Isaac Herzog, the 11th president, would begin his own seven-year journey.
Looking at the row of bronze likenesses of his predecessors, Rivlin said that he had known every one of them personally. Before the establishment of the state, Chaim Weizmann had been a neighbor in Jerusalem’s Rehavia garden suburb.
Yitzhak Ben-Zvi had been a personal friend of Rivlin’s father, and was present at Rivlin’s bar mitzvah.
Rivlin recalled something about each of his predecessors, some of whom had been political colleagues or rivals. He was particularly enthusiastic about Israel’s sixth president, Chaim Herzog, the father of the new incumbent, who while still a senior army officer had been the military governor of Jerusalem – “the first Jew to hold the post in 2,000 years,” declared Rivlin, who is one of the few people in Israel who can claim personal friendship or acquaintance with all of Israel’s heads of state.
ALTHOUGH THEY come from different sides of the political fence, Rivlin and Herzog have much in common.
For one thing, they are both lawyers by profession. For another, each is a voracious reader. Each was also born in September, albeit 21 years apart. However, an astrologer would note that whereas Rivlin is a Virgo, Herzog is on the cusp of Libra with certain Virgo elements, meaning that they have different character traits, regardless of the fact that they have similar principles.
Each has a healthy respect for religion and is familiar with the synagogue and the prayer book, but neither is particularly observant.
However, each is proud of his religious forebears, particularly Herzog, whose paternal grandfather was the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of the State of Israel, and who coauthored the prayer for the State of Israel, which Rivlin recited after welcoming Herzog and his wife, Michal, to their new abode.
Rivlin and Herzog are different in style – and it’s not just a generation thing. Rivlin is expansive in his body language, and makes spontaneous wisecracks, even on the most serious of occasions. Herzog, though friendly and approachable, is more conservative.
Both men have close to lifelong histories of public service.
Interviewed on Army Radio on Wednesday morning, Herzog’s older brother Brig.-Gen. (ret.) Mike Herzog said that all four Herzog siblings had been educated at home to see public service as a mission.
Herzog’s cousin of the same name who is a member of the Law Faculty at Kiryat Ono Academic College said that one of the secrets of Herzog’s success is that regardless of whatever position he holds, he talks to people as equals.
In reporting on events leading up to Herzog’s swearing-in ceremony, Army Radio referred to him as President Herzog II. Rivlin did the same in the evening at the welcome ceremony at the President’s Residence, where he presented Herzog with the Presidential Standard, as distinct from the key to the door.
It’s doubtful that any president of Israel ever had the key to the door of the President’s Residence, with the possible exceptions of Chaim Weizmann, who spent much of his time as president at his private home in Rehovot; and Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, who may have had a key to the hut which served as the official home of the president until the completion of the current President’s Residence, whose first occupant was Zalman Shazar.
HERZOG BARELY had time to take office when posed with his first test.
During the swearing-in ceremony, there was an anti-Herzog demonstration in the gardens opposite the Knesset, which was quelled by police.
But in the early evening a large group of demonstrators wearing yellow vests had gathered, with one of their members blaring through a bullhorn with the message that Balfour had moved to the President’s Residence. Police had erected barricades some 25 meters away, but although they could prevent physical contact, they could not prevent the shouting of derogatory remarks about Herzog.
The demonstrators were objecting to the fact that Herzog had appointed Naor Ihia, the former spokesman for former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to be the president’s spokesman.
Herzog will have to decide whether to stand by his decision or give in to public rebuke. If he does not stand by his decision, it will weaken his image. If he does stand by it, the demonstrations will grow in size and volume, just as they did in the effort to oust Netanyahu from the Prime Minister’s Residence.
The people who applauded Herzog inside the President’s Residence are not the same as the ones who demonstrated outside, though presumably some might agree that Herzog was unwise in his choice.
The ideal situation would be for Ihia to resign, but considering that Netanyahu never gave in to the demonstrators for more than a year, it is unlikely that Ihia would behave differently, unless he respects Herzog sufficiently to spare him from having to choose.
IN HIS closing address before returning to a regular lifestyle, Rivlin said: “Every step I took when I lay down and when I got up, the good of the country and of the Israeli people was always at the forefront of my mind. I pray I did enough. I came from this beloved and dear people, this stiff-necked and wonderful people. I came from the Israeli people, and today I return to it.”
Rivlin struck a very sad note when he said that he had come as two, implying his late wife, Nechama, “and leave here on my own today, but not alone.”
Herzog and Rivlin appear to be genuinely fond and respectful of each other, so much so that, aside from embraces, Rivlin emphatically declared that Herzog “is the right man, in the right place at the right time.”
Herzog, who said that he was deeply moved, lauded Rivlin for “the enormous contributions you have made to the State of Israel and the Jewish people. You have brought support and strength in moments of joy and sorrow,” he said, adding that he saw this as his own mission as well, in order to continue the tradition of giants who were there before him.
“I hope to continue in your footsteps,” said Herzog, promising to call Rivlin frequently for advice and at the end of this week to ask how he is.
Rivlin, who throughout his tenure asked people to call him Ruvi, has a certain exuberance, which, if he also has it, Herzog seldom displays. Rivlin is a great lover of Hebrew songs, and joined in with gusto when well-known singers performed at various events in the President’s Residence.
He also loved to play conductor of the orchestra, and didn’t miss the opportunity on his way out, when he stopped momentarily in front of the military band to conduct with extravagant arm movements.
Herzog likes to stop and talk to people, and he listens to what they have to say. This may cause some problems in the future with his security detail, which will try to separate him from the masses. But Herzog’s style is to plunge into the crowd and to engage umpteen individuals in conversation.
He did this when he returned to the main reception hall after waving goodbye to Rivlin. For those people who had not previously met his wife, his siblings or his sons, he made a point of introducing everyone to everyone else.
He is someone who not only believes in inclusion regardless of social status, but practices it.
For nearly all of his life, he has been known by his nickname of “Bougie,” which Rivlin did use, but then switched to calling him Mr. President.
When Herzog was asked earlier in the week whether people could continue to address him as Bougie, or whether he preferred them to use the more formal Mr. President, he replied that they could call him whatever they liked. He was equally comfortable with Mr. President or Bougie.
Though born with the proverbial silver spoon in his mouth, Herzog has always been a man of the people, and inasmuch as he can help it, given the security restrictions which place certain limitations on him, he will continue to be the person he always was.