A Labor hawk has thrown his hat into the Israeli presidential ring to battle two party doves for the largely ceremonial post.
Shlomo Hillel, chairman of Keren Hayesod, which is the United Jewish Appeal’s counterpart outside the United States, announced over the weekend he would run for the top state office against declared Labor candidates Ezer Weizman and Arye (Lova) Eliav.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin has indicated he wants Labor to choose its candidate in a more discreet and intimate forum than the 700-member party Central Committee, political sources say.
Apparently stung by criticism of the overly blatant politicization in the presidential stakes, Rabin reportedly prefers moving discussion of the issue to the parliamentary caucus or to a unit made up of the caucus and the party’s leadership bureau.
The president will be chosen by the Knesset next spring as Chaim Herzog completes his second, and by law last, term in office.
Labor has begun wooing both coalition and opposition parties to mobilize a parliamentary majority for the candidate it eventually chooses.
But the vote is secret and even the best-laid plans are apt to come unstuck.
Labor leaders are acutely aware that the Likud failed twice during its period in office to block a Labor candidate: Yitzhak Navon, who was elected president in 1978, and Herzog in 1983. Herzog’s second term, in 1988, was unopposed.
The Likud has yet to put forward a candidate. Tsomet leader Rafael Eitan tried unsuccessfully last week to persuade Rabin to back State Comptroller Miriam Ben-Porat for the post.
In media interviews, Hillel said the president should be “a figure from the center of the political spectrum, not from one flank.” He also pointed to his lifelong involvement in social issues as well as foreign policy concerns.
The only member of the Sephardic community in the race so far, Hillel served as minister of police in the government of Golda Meir and subsequently as speaker of the Knesset.
He said that, unlike the other two contenders, he would not set up a campaign staff or hire public relations professionals to promote his campaign.
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