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Rivlin, First Vice President | Israel today

2021-04-06T17:52:47.215Z


| political The president is working on "presidential activism" and is crumbling what little is left of Israel's national glue. • Is it any wonder that the Arab MKs today challenged Zionism? • Opinion If there is any justification for the existence of the institution of the presidency, it lies in its pure ceremonial formalism. It is an institution full of ceremony and formality, which is supposed to use the


The president is working on "presidential activism" and is crumbling what little is left of Israel's national glue. • Is it any wonder that the Arab MKs today challenged Zionism? • Opinion

If there is any justification for the existence of the institution of the presidency, it lies in its pure ceremonial formalism.

It is an institution full of ceremony and formality, which is supposed to use the little public assets it has to reflect the spirit of the people, to radiate unity, brotherhood and statehood.

The President's House is the national residence of the pure schmaltz.

A bit like the British Royal Family.

The man sitting there embodies in some way the abstract, ideological Israeli - what is left after peeling off the here and now and all the local quarrels and conflicts.

There, at the President's House, we are supposed to see "all of us," the figure of Israel who will meet a foreigner visiting from abroad. 

Rivlin granted the mandate to form the government to Netanyahu // Photo: GPO

The key to the president's status, therefore, is precisely faculties and formalism.

This is where general slogans and vague statements are expected to be found in some Zionist-Jewish-national-civic blend where everyone can find a launching point.

This is not accidental: one of the most important principles in liberal democracy is the formalism of the procedure.

Everyone knows what the rules of the game are, everyone knows that the rules will be applied fairly and equally, hence the principle of equality before the law.

These are formalist and dry foundations - but on them everything rests, and in their absence the delicate social fabric will crumble. 

The president, as the person who embodies national formalism, is examined mainly in ceremonies of this kind: swearing in judges, Remembrance Day, a few speeches in the Knesset and, of course, granting the mandate to a Knesset member to form the government.

Here the president, who represents the Israeli "nation," accepts the election results, hears most of the text and glorifies the Knesset members, and finally grants the mandate. 

The law of course allows the president some discretion, but he should function here as an agent of the general public, and therefore adhering to rigid formalism is the right action.

The president's decision should be taken for granted by the general public, and he should not be perceived as taking positions on matters of the here and now.

That he - as our "old man from the mountain" - is supposed to leave to others.  

President Rivlin, of course, is the opposite of all this.

His throat usually produces the expected and required state slogans, but too many deeds and actions he serves as an immediate and contemporary political actor.

Starting with the "Tribal Speech" in which he launched his tenure, which dismantled Israel's national ethos into a mix of competing groups and classes;

Through unfortunate statements such as "My people have chosen terrorism" and ended with his behavior today.  

Rivlin, in every way, threw the formal conventions under the rug, creating for the first time "presidential activism."

He declared an examination of "values" in decision-making, hinted to people of new hope that more time could be sought to formulate consensus of the bloc of change, and finally gave the mandate to Netanyahu without the traditional picture, without the ceremony at the president's house. In my opinion, but I do my duty. " 

This conduct culminates in the unbridled term of the first vital president.

What Aharon Barak did to the Supreme Court, Rivlin is now doing to the President's House as well.

The whole nation knew that Netanyahu was "controversial" that these elections were being conducted "under a cloud" and that if a Likud-led government was eventually formed, it was born in sin and would live under disgrace.

This is the meaning of his words and they are extremely serious. 

If there is no value in the election results at the ballot box as expressed in the Knesset members' recommendations, and the most representative person in the State of Israel is allowed to act according to his "values" and preach morality to the public, there is really no limit to breakthroughs and loss.

This is how the rule of law is eroded, this is how the people's trust is destroyed.

This is how democracies collapse.

It is no more symbolic that the Knesset members of the joint list today chose to desecrate the Knesset swearing-in ceremony and chose instead to challenge the nationalist "I swear to fight the occupation, I swear to fight apartheid, I swear to fight the occupation."

Rivlin, the first material president, crumbled the walls, but it was natural for the gates to be breached.

Source: israelhayom

All news articles on 2021-04-06

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