For President Reuven Rivlin, the end of his term is also an end of an era, and in many ways a turning point. While he is no longer going to hold any public office, starting July 9 he will be Israel's only elder statesman.
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Rivlin could hardly anticipate the turbulence of his 7-year run as Citizen No. 1 – which began just as Israel was prosecuting Operation Protective Edge in Gaza and ends on the heels of Operation Guardian of the Walls to stop Hamas rocket fire. Throughout his term, he has witnessed the US under President Barack Obama enter the Iran nuclear deal and then Donald Trump withdraw from it and even take the most aggressive US action against the ayatollahs in many years by assassinating Qods Force commander Qassem Soleimani. He also saw five Knesset elections, including an unprecedented four elections that were held in two years. But perhaps the moment that is seared in the collective memory more than anything else from his presidency was his "Four Tribe Speech."
That speech, about a year into his term in 2015, had many people wonder what he was warning about when he said that Israeli society might disintegrate if each tribe – secular, ultra-Orthodox,national-religious, and Arabs – keeps to itself and lives in its own cocoon. But as far as Rivlin is concerned, the speech was nothing more than stating the obvious: Israel has to unite lest the Zionist project comes to an end. Rivlin's closest aides know that the speech was his way of expressing his fascination with the wonder that is known as Israel, which has been made possible through the ingathering of the exiles and the fact that Israel has defied all the dire predictions about its impending demise in its early statehood years.
Rivlin often recalls how during the early years, when Israeli diplomats abroad told their counterparts that a million Jews could be brought to the newly founded state, people thought they were out of their mind. But Israel managed to bring them, and then some. According to Rivlin, Israel has managed to beat the survival odds by successfully countering external threats, but it must address its internal crisis without delay
A warning, with hope
That "Four Tribes Speech" came about after the president realized that the four different streams in Israel's education system create four separate peoples and that even the connective tissue called the Israel Defense Forces or some other national service was no longer as strong as it had been. This caused him considerable worry and that's why he decided to speak up. He still thinks that Israel is squandering its potential by not introducing mandatory national service for those who are exempt from the military, such as most Arabs and some in the ultra-Orthodox community.
Rivlin, through his speech, put a mirror in front of the general public and in front of the very tribes he was speaking about. Despite what many have claimed, he did not try to preach anything in that speech but just to present the facts and tell it like it is so that the people would understand the current state of affairs and realize that in the current trajectory, Israel was heading into a reality in which it could become just a composite of tribes rather than a nation that comprises tribes.
If we are too far apart, he warned, we will create a divide that none of us would be able to live in. He wants everyone to partake in the Zionist project and believes that even the ultra-Orthodox and the Arabs can find their place in developing the nation even if they do not accept the underlying premise for the founding of the state, especially through the workforce.
Rivlin believes that the ingathering of the exiles, as a key tenet of the Zionist vision, is part and parcel of any attempt to unite the tribes, and this could be in the form of marriage. He always says that when his grandchildren ask him what tribe and what ethnicity they belong to, he says, "You are Israeli." He says that this is very much noticeable in his family, where mixed couples are the norm. He also believes that the liberal economic principles of his ideological guru, Zionist thinker Ze'ev Jabotinsky who championed the rights of the individual, is another sure way to overcome the various tribal differences. He believes joining the workforce can create wonders in Israeli society and has already shown its impact as a force for good.
A vision for a better Israel
The speech also laid the foundation for Rivlin's flagship initiative called "Israeli Hope". In a book published by the President's Residence on Rivlin's tenure, the initiative has been described as a way to "promote the integration of all Israeli sectors in society and in the economy, while creating new opportunities for the forging of new, courageous ties among the various tribes."
The office of the Israeli president is a paradox. On the one had its occupier decides who gets to form a government and has exclusive clemency powers, but on the other hand he plays no role in the ongoing political affairs of the country, and in fact, he is supposed to serve as a counterweight to the turbulence in the Knesset.
But Rivlin decided to inject a new meaning to his office and has been unabashed about his ideological affiliation with Jabotinsky, considering his long familial heritage as a Jerusalemite as part of the realization of the Zionist vision that puts the holy city as the linchpin of Jewish peoplehood.
The outgoing president knows that he represents a generation that is gradually fading from public life – both within Likud and on the Right as a whole. Rivlin believes that his ideology can be a way to introduce yourself to people rather than separate you from others. In light of the divisive state of Israeli politics right now, Rivlin yearns for a return to the days when giants such as David Ben Gurion and Menachem Begin could hold a cut-throat debate that would never devolve into ad hominem attacks.
Rivlin visited the US in late June to bid farewell to America's Jewish communities and political establishment. It's no coincidence that Rivlin, who remains a relatively unknown figure among the general public outside Israel (compare to Israeli prime ministers) was tapped as the one through which the Biden administration made its first official introduction to Jerusalem. It makes sense that he was the one who would go meeet Biden, and just as Rivlin over the past seven years tried to be the connecting tissue between the Right and the Left – even as he has stuck to his right-wing guns – Biden hopes that America will let him do things that none of his predecessors could do because he is seen as a uniting president in the era of coronavirus.
The Biden-Rivlin approach
The Biden-Rivlin summit in June was, more than anything else, an attempt by the Israeli leader to turn his above-the-fray aura into an actionable agenda in the truest sense of the word: safeguarding Israel's survival by forging a deep bond with Jewish leaders and by emphasizing Israel's important input before any new nuclear deal between the US and Iran is finalized. Containing Iran and ensuring the viability of American Jewry are both important on the same level because as far as he is concerned, the continued existence of the Jewish people is what Israel is all about, and this is also the goal of his Jerusalemite family has long espoused.
Even when the Trump administration presented the Deal of the Century, Rivlin emphasized that whatever unfolds, nothing can compromise Israel's democratic and Jewish character. Rivlin, true to his convictions, tells anyone who would listen that he would never accept any deal under which Israeli Arabs would see their cities transferred to Palestinian sovereignty just so Israel's Jewish population increases its share. In all of his years as president he has always stayed true to Jabotinsky's idea of building a metaphoric Iron Wall to convince Arabs that Israel will not go anywhere, but he has been as determined to show that there is no justification for any discrimination against Israel's Arab citizens and that population transfers are just unfathomable.
Supporting peace, but not partition
Rivlin has never believed in the two-state solution because he says it is just impractical. He believes Israel cannot afford to hand over responsibility of areas to a foreign entity because it may one day bring into those territories third elements, including Iran other players, as is the case in Syria. But what Rivlin has been adamant about is how political entities have tried to use Arab citizens as a bargaining chip that can be used as part of negotiations over Israel's permanent borders in an effort to 'Judaize' Israel.
It appears as though one of the things Rivlin is most proud of is that he has had the privilege of witnessing how the Zionist vision that Jabotinsky and many others became a reality that has succeeded even beyond our wildest dreams. But it is precisely because he is known as a straight shooter that he has managed to elicit angry responses, even when it was clear that he was speaking because he cared about the wellbeing of Israelis. Right after he was elected as president in 2014, he declared that he was leaving his political home: the Likud Party. "Now I am no longer a member of a political group nor am I a member of a movement. I am everyone's president; a man of the people," he said. "I stand before you with a great burden of responsibility and service, humble as a Jerusalem man who wants to thank you for entrusting me with this task. Long live the Israeli democracy; long live Israel."
By declaring his departure from Likud, his unapologetic approach at taking on the government, calling for equal rights for the Arab community and his forceful condemnation of Jews who have engaged in attacks on minorities – he has been besmirched by many, including within Likud, resulting in attacks that have never been used against an Israeli president. Rivlin has shown restraint even toward those who tried to hurt his image, including ministers and senior officials who said he was conspiring to unseat then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Toward the end of his presidency, he was beset by tragedy: His wife Nechama died following a lung transplant. She was the epitome of humility, tolerance, and above-the-fray moderation. "As someone who was born and raised in an agricultural co-op (moshav), Nechama saw the beauty in connecting agriculture with social action," a new book published by the President's Residence notes. "She turned the community garden in the residence to a place where people from various sectors in Israeli society would meet, connecting them through simple gardening work. Jews, Arabs, secular and religious – they all learned the importance of working together and working the land," the book says.
Rivlin may be leaving the President's Residence, but he will continue the work that he has started with the help of his late wife. As he said during his visit to the US in June: "A nation's strength is not measured just by its ability to handle hardships, but also with its willingness to have its various groups engage in a partnership."
Rivlin has proved, with a single speech and by staying the course for seven years, that he can make an entire nation think. He has already found his place in history, and now, with his departure, it appears that he leaves a legacy in place by setting a new standard for how presidents should be judged: by their efforts to unite.
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