Reuven Rivlin

Post-Election Horse-Trading Kicks Off as Netanyahu Builds Israel’s “National No Opposition” Government

TEL AVIV, ISRAEL — The president of the state of Israel is arguably the most insignificant and unimpressive position on earth. The post was created as a pasture into which to send aging politicians who have become irrelevant but are still in need of a position. The role is void of any consequence — so much so, in fact, that one is reminded of the Roman Emperor Caligula, who made his horse a senator.

South Korea Rejects Official Visit by Israeli President

(MEMO) — South Korea has recently refused an official request by Israeli President Reuven Rivlin to visit Seoul over the coming months, Israeli media reported. Israel’s Ynet news site reported that Tel Aviv’s Ambassador in South Korea, Chaim Choshen, had proposed the visit on behalf of the Foreign Ministry and in coordination with the president’s office”. The site […]

Israel: We Will Not Allow Gaza to Be Rebuilt

(MEMO) — Israeli President Reuven Rivlin has pledged that the Gaza Strip will not be rebuilt so long as Hamas governs the besieged enclave, Shehab.ps reported yesterday. “Israel was and has remained the only actor in the region that conveys basic staples for the welfare of the residents of Gaza,” the Times of Israel reported Rivlin saying at a ceremony in […]

Israel Searches for Scapegoat After Argentina Pulls Out of Soccer Match

(MEE) — Israeli ministers and media reacted with fury to Argentina’s decision to pull out of a football friendly in Jerusalem, blaming anti-Semitism, Palestinian interference and death threats against Argentina forward Lionel Messi. The prime minister, Benyamin Netanyahu, tried to play down the cancellation of Saturday’s match with Israel, saying “We are moving on, guys“. President Reuven […]

Israel’s Democracy: Just for Jews?

Sixty-six years after the establishment of the State of Israel, even the most ubiquitous term employed to describe the political nature of Israel as a “Jewish democratic state” is no longer valid. The Netanyahu government and its right-wing coalition partners are preparing a law, which will exclusively define Israel as a “Jewish State” for the “Jewish people”. For independent observers, who do not wear rose-colored Zionist propaganda glasses, Israel was never a democracy in the classical Western sense of the term, but always a Jewish democracy or a democracy sui generis, i.e.