Though everyone in the political system and especially in the
media assumed that Shimon Peres would be the next president
of Israel, Likud MK Moshe Katsav was elected the country's
eighth president by the Knesset on Monday by a vote of 63 to
57 on the second ballot.
Katsav is the first president of Israel who was not nominated
by the Labor Party. He is a traditional Jew who observes
mitzvos and sends his children to state religious school.
Born in Yazd in Iran, Katsav came to Israel in 1951 at the
age of 5, the oldest of what would eventually be a family of
10 children. When they first arrived, the family was sent to
one of the immigrant camps (maabarot) which later
became Kiryat Malachi. Moshe Katsav served in the army (as an
ordinary soldier, not an officer) became the first person
from Kiryat Malachi to attend university, and was elected
mayor of his home town at the age of 24 and still lives there
today. Since Menachem Begin's victory in 1977 he has served
in the Likud ranks in the Knesset, and once served as
minister of tourism.
He officially takes office Tuesday evening.
In a short victory speech, Katsav donned a kippa and
said a brocho of thanksgiving. "I want Israeli Arabs
to see me as their president, all Jews to see me as their
representative; whether they are chareidi, religious or
secular, Sephardi or Ashkenazi, recent immigrant or veteran,
resident of development towns or kibbutzim, residents of
Rechavia and north Tel Aviv, residents of [Jerusalem
neighborhood] Musrara and south Tel Aviv, I will be the true
representative of each and every one of you," Katsav said.
He later visited the Kosel on his way home to a hero's
welcome in Kiryat Malachi.
The vote for president is a secret one, and few MKs indicated
publicly which way they had voted, even those whose position
had been announced. Peres, 76, is considered an elder
statesman who is well-known in world capitals, and many
assumed that he would be the certain choice. On the other
hand, he is often called an inveterate loser after failing to
win election as prime minister several times, and this final
personal loss will certainly be a big stain at the end of his
long career.
In recent months there have been persistent allegations of
financial irregularities at the peace center that he founded.
According to a report by David Bedein, Bureau Chief of the
Israel Resource News Agency, the public records of the
registrar of nonprofit organizations of the Israel Ministry
of Interior show a series of irregularities in the operation
of the Peres Center did not disclose its foreign
contributors, did disclose its senior staffers who received
exorbitant salaries, did not pay the appropriate taxes that
an organization in the political realm is supposed to pay,
all as required by law.
It also paid the law firm of Yitzhak Herzog, a member of its
board and current Cabinet Secretary, more than $250,000, also
illegally.
The Center organized an investment of $60 million in the
Palestinian communications company (Pal-Tel) which is also
owned in part by the notorious international terrorist Osama
Bin Laden. The Peres Center did not disclose the source of
those funds.
There is also a question of $2 million of the Center's funds
which are not accounted for.
Bedein says that he had a very difficult time in getting
press coverage for these documented problems. However he
distributed the information directly to key Knesset members
before the vote for president and says that several told him
that his findings influenced their votes.
The vote certainly is a big shot-in-the-arm to the opposition
to the current government. It shows that the right can win
important votes and the result will certainly influence the
Knesset behavior in subtle ways in the months ahead even if
there are not new elections.
Likud MK Yuval Steinitz said the vote reflects a victory of
Judaism over internationalization in a battle over the
character of the Jewish state.
