Israeli lawmakers elected Reuven Rivlin, a Knesset member with the leading Likud party, as the country’s next president today, replacing Shimon Peres, who retires on July 27.

Rivlin won in a second ballot after no candidate received the votes needed in the first round of voting. Rivlin garnered 63 votes with MK Meir Sheetrit from Tzipi Livni’s Hatnuah party taking 53.

In the first round, 44 lawmakers supported Rivlin and 31 for Sheetrit, while former government minister Dalia Itzik claimed 28 votes and former Supreme Court justice Dalia Dorner won 13. Nobel chemistry laureate Dan Shechtman closed out the list with just one vote.

Rivlin, a lawyer by training and known affectionately by all Israelis as Ruby, identifies himself with the ideology of the founder of revisionist Zionism, Ze’ev Jabotinsky.

Even though Rivlin is a right-winger when it comes to issues of peace and security, he is well-liked across the political spectrum because of his views on equality and democracy.

One of the many elements of this task is the need to launch extensive programs for education about democracy, which will create, for the first time, a meeting ground for young people of the various camps—ultra-Orthodox, religious, and secular; children from the center of the country and the periphery; Jews and Arabs—educational programs that will give the next generation of citizens, who are growing up in Israel’s society of many voices, an experience of the democratic process, in which they must listen and engage in dialogue.

In the newest issue of The Tower Magazine, Rick Richman explores the long-term impact of Jabotinsky’s thought and leadership on the Israeli political landscape.

[Photo: Knesset]