Israeli parliament elects new president amid questions over prime ministership

Israel’s parliament Wednesday elected former center-left politician Isaac Herzog as president, the country’s No. 2 spot, as uncertainty surrounds the future of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

The Knesset voted to elevate Herzog over rival candidate Miriam Peretz by a 87-26 vote. Herzog will begin his term as president in July after current President Reuven Rivlin finishes out his seven-year term.

Herzog has had a long career in Israeli politics, first getting elected to the Knesset in 2003 and later leading the liberal Labour Party and holding posts in several coalition governments.

Accepting the presidency, a largely symbolic position, Herzog said he will be “everyone’s president” and vowed to tackle a slate of issues, including widening divides between Jewish and Palestinian citizens that burst open during the recent 11-day war with militants in the Gaza Strip.

Herzog’s elevation comes as Netanyahu fights for his political life against an opposition coalition that this week said it has enough support to win a majority 61-seats in the 120-seat Knesset and oust Netanyahu from his role.

The deal, hammered out between Yair Lapid of the center-left Yesh Atid party and Naftali Bennett of the right-wing Yamina party, brings together parties from across the political spectrum as part of a “change coalition,” with the main goal of ousting Netanyahu from his 12 consecutive years leading Israel.

The deal would have Bennett serve the first two years of a four-year term, after which Lapid would finish out the second two years.

The two are facing a Wednesday deadline to formally submit their plans to cobble together a governing majority.