Truth be told, we don't go so well with the so-called "institution of the presidency." On paper, the president is the number one citizen, a symbol of Israel's unity, his heart at the center of the consensus, his powers ceremonial, as political as soup almonds and as controversial as they are. In practice, all of Israel's presidents – except one, Ephraim Katzir – were former politicians, not necessarily the most successful of them, and it should not be surprising if they felt the need to go beyond the sterile territory and throw their full weight on matters on the political agenda.
Shimon Peres paved the way for his successors when he continued as president to strive for his vision of peace, which was rejected at the ballot box. After him we won Ruby Rivlin, under whose fatherly and amiable façade hid a devoted and active PHR-Lev who just wanted to get into the right club. Ah, Rivlin! He encouraged citizens to demonstrate in Goren Square - demonstrations designed to hasten the attorney general to indict Netanyahu, declared after the murder in Douma, even before the first suspect was apprehended, "My people chose terror," participated in a conference of the left-wing organization "New Israel Fund" together with a representative of Breaking the Silence, and of course remembered his famous speech, in which he divided Israel into four different tribes that have nothing in common and hinted at the need to give up the conventional concept of "majority and minority" - that is, About democracy.
After Rivlin, it seemed that every president would model unity better than him. Even Isaac Herzog. Although he, too, managed to cultivate during his political career some feelings of political competition towards Netanyahu. And Herzog might indeed have calmed the political flame that corrupted the presidency years ago, had reform not unexpectedly landed on his head and caught him off guard.
In January, a new cycle of PHRs took to the streets for a protest that had already been planned when the election results became known. It is true that protests against right-wing rule always wrap themselves in the guise of a higher value than just another dull election loss, but due to the expected destruction of democracy, a new arsenal has been added to the permanent demonstration order: massive road blockades, including an attempt to prevent Netanyahu from flying to Italy, calls to withdraw money from the country, the mobilization of academic staff and university heads as one person and one opinion against the reform, And thick hints of civil war looming.
President Herzog watched like everyone else the unrestrained rampage of the First Israel, and at the beginning of February decided to act with stateliness and calm things down. He quickly realized that reform was the source of the fracture, of course, and then did what any apolitical president is expected to do: propose his own reform. He certainly did not call on the demonstrators to calm down a bit with the rhetoric and disruptions. These are angry people, and no one wants to get in trouble with them, especially not when "I feel, we all feel, that we are just on the verge of a collision, or even a violent clash. The barrel of explosives before an explosion, we are on the verge of constitutional collapse and harm to each other's brothers." Who's the bomber? Who is the brother who will be the first to hurt? Mystery. Discussions in the Constitutional Committee continued.
The speech did not work, and three weeks later a loaded gun was placed on the table in the form of a mass refusal of 37 pilots from one fighter squadron to report for training. Since both the air force commander, the chief of staff and the defense minister refrained from dealing with this luxury refusal, Herzog joined the trend and ignored them as well. He stated that "what is happening here is a disaster," but did not specify exactly what is happening, ruling: "The legislative complex currently being discussed in the committee must pass from the world and quickly. It is wrong, predatory and undermines our democratic foundations." Two things were clear: reform is an apocalypse, and he is the right man to get us out of the fray. The people who did not elect him as prime minister demand this from him, even begging: "I see the sights and hear the cries that are directed at me and their purpose is one - do everything to make it stop, do everything to find a solution."
The president watched the rampage of the "First Israel," decided to calm things down, and quickly realized that the source of the rift was reform
Herzog did find a solution. After discussions with unelected representatives from across the political spectrum, he presented a plan wrapped in the comforting name "The People's Outline." That is, the people on the right side. A few days after the launch of the People's Outline, the entire economy went on strike, under the instructions of the Histadrut, and illegally. Doctors abandoned their shifts, Ben Gurion Airport was closed, universities held conferences free of any fear of opening their mouths to supporters of the reform, and Herzog remained silent with presidential modesty. Only in mid-June did he see fit to condemn insubordination in weak terms, and was rewarded with a patronizing rebuke from Brothers in Arms: "It seems that instead of fighting for the truth, you are riding on a spin that never existed."
It is impossible to know whether the plea to Herzog to pull us out of the quagmire called "democracy" is authentic or imagined, but it seems that the hysterical rhetoric of the opponents of the reform (well, those who lost the elections) succeeded in bringing even the defense minister into the protest, stopping the legislation and replacing it with closed discussions at the president's residence. That is, at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Jerusalem, far from the eyes of the people, since it is known that the people are an obstacle to substantive democracy. But to prove neutrality, Herzog warned that if the talks failed, he would publish who was to blame, for the sake of "historical responsibility."
Earlier this week, opposition representatives announced the cessation of talks. Herzog recalled the historic responsibility placed on his shoulders and rushed to prepare the ground for accusing the coalition of blowing up the talks.
What a magnificent U-turn! But three months ago, Herzog declared, "I have succeeded in bringing about a situation in which the gaps have narrowed greatly. There is agreement on most issues. Not about everything, but about the vast majority." And now, as soon as it seems that the opposition is eager for battle rather than compromise, the tribal fire is once again burning in the presidential heart. "It is important for me to emphasize that in the talks held under my auspices, no binding drafts were sent by the president's residence to either side, and of course no full agreement was reached on any issue," he tweeted. In so doing, he maintained his national line: taking great care not to annoy the camp from which he came, and to which he would return at the end of his term. In the first Israel, Herzog is not citizen number one, but another ordinary soldier.
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