2021 Israeli Presidential Election

The election was scheduled to choose a successor to Reuven Rivlin as his seven-year presidential term approached its end.[7] Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin and his deputies selected June 2, 2021, for the vote, at least a month before Rivlin’s term was due to expire.[7] Candidates were required to submit supporting signatures from 10 Knesset members by May 19.[7]

Israel’s presidency is largely ceremonial, but the president has responsibilities in government formation after parliamentary elections, including selecting a Knesset member to try to form a government.[2] The Basic Law also grants the president power to pardon offenders and modify sentences, while the office represents Israel abroad and serves as a nonpartisan symbol of national unity.[8][9]

The Basic Law governing the presidency provides for election by the Knesset to a single seven-year term.[8] Voting takes place by secret ballot at a sitting devoted exclusively to the presidential election.[8] Where two or more candidates stand, a candidate must secure a majority of all Knesset members; otherwise, a second ballot is held between the two candidates receiving the most votes.[8] In the 2021 contest, the threshold for a first-round victory was 61 votes.[10]

The presidential contest unfolded amid prolonged political instability: the March 2021 parliamentary election was Israel’s fourth in less than two years.[11] Israel lacked a permanent government at the time of the presidential vote, and leaders seeking to replace the government were engaged in intensive coalition negotiations.[2][12] The subsequent government led by Naftali Bennett was approved by a 60–59 parliamentary vote, with one abstention.[11]

Isaac Herzog and Miriam Peretz were the two final candidates after each secured the required nominations; Herzog’s submission listed 27 supporting Knesset members.[4] Former Knesset member Michael Bar-Zohar withdrew before the final contest.[4] Both remaining candidates sought support through repeated meetings with Knesset members and party leaders.[2][12]

Herzog was serving as chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, having taken up that role in June 2018.[9] He had first been elected to the Knesset in 2003 and became chairman of the Labor Party in 2013.[9] His public career also included service as opposition leader and welfare minister, and he had spent 15 years in the Knesset.[13] He announced his intention to run for president in May 2021, presenting himself as a figure of unity.[4]

Herzog’s family had a prominent connection to the presidency: his father, Chaim Herzog, was Israel’s sixth president.[14] His grandfather was Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog, Israel’s first Ashkenazi chief rabbi.[15] Although Herzog had led the Labor Party, his presidential candidacy attracted support from several right-wing Knesset members.[4]

Peretz was an educator, public speaker, and mother of six who was born in Casablanca and grew up in immigrant transit camps in Israel.[13] Two of her sons died in battle: Uriel in Lebanon in 1998 and Eliraz during an operation near Gaza in 2010.[16] She received the Israel Prize for lifetime achievement in 2018 and became known for public advocacy emphasizing solidarity and reconciliation.[16][13] During the campaign, she appealed for unity amid the violence and rocket fire of that period.[4]

Support did not fall entirely along conventional party lines: Peretz attracted some backing from the left, while Herzog received support from right-wing politicians.[13] Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declined to endorse either candidate, calling them “two worthy candidates.”[3] On election day, Religious Zionist Party leader Bezalel Smotrich announced his faction’s support for Peretz.[12]

A public poll published the day before the election found 43 percent support for Peretz, 27 percent for Herzog, and 30 percent undecided.[13] The public did not elect the president, however; that decision belonged to the Knesset’s 120 members.[13]

The Knesset convened a special plenary session for the presidential election at 11 a.m. on June 2.[10] Members were called in surname order and could place either a ballot bearing their preferred candidate’s name or a blank ballot into an envelope.[3] The votes were cast by secret ballot.[10] Four Knesset members counted the ballots before Speaker Yariv Levin announced the result.[3]

Herzog won in the first round with 87 votes, comfortably exceeding the 61 required for election.[2][10] Most contemporary reports gave Peretz 26 votes, although published accounts differed on her total and the classification of the remaining ballots.[10][3] Herzog’s total was the largest ever reported for an Israeli presidential candidate.[3]

In his first speech after the result, Herzog said, “I accept upon myself the heavy responsibility you have placed upon me. I accept the privilege of serving the entire Israeli public.”[12] He promised to build bridges within Israeli society and with the Jewish diaspora, encourage entrepreneurship, combat antisemitism and hatred of Israel, and safeguard the foundations of democracy.[15] He also pledged to listen to different positions and to “build bridges of consensus.”[15]

Herzog linked his victory to the need for social healing, declaring, “It is essential to tend to the bleeding wounds in our society.”[17] His acceptance remarks also emphasized defending Israel’s international standing and serving as president of all Israelis.[15]

Hundreds attended a farewell ceremony for Herzog in Israel on July 5, marking the conclusion of his three years as Jewish Agency chairman.[5] He entered the presidency on July 7, 2021, succeeding Rivlin as Israel’s 11th president.[5]

At his inauguration, Herzog pledged to be a “president for all” and warned that the country’s “common ethos and shared values are more fragile than ever.”[6] He said that polarization and division were eroding national resilience, and identified rebuilding hope as the goal of his presidency.[6] In his inaugural address, he called healing the fissures threatening Israeli society and the state a shared responsibility, describing his mission as doing “whatever it takes to rebuild hope anew.”[6]

Herzog took his oath on a family Bible more than 107 years old, which his father had used at his own presidential swearing-in in 1983.[6] The Bible had survived both world wars and had been given to Herzog’s grandmother by her father on the eve of her wedding.[6] The ceremony included the blowing of a shofar, and Herzog received a standing ovation after his speech.[6]

Contemporary reports agreed that Herzog received 87 votes but differed on the rest of the tally. Ynet and Globes reported 26 votes for Peretz, while N12 reported 27 and six abstentions.[2][3] Globes’ live report said 119 Knesset members voted and identified Meir Porush as the nonvoter, but its 87–26 candidate total did not by itself account for the remaining ballots.[10]

Accounts also differed over the transition date: the Jewish Agency said Herzog began his presidency on July 7, while the American Jewish Committee’s election-day announcement said he would take office on July 9.[5][17] The June 2 result and Herzog’s 87-vote total are consistent across the principal accounts, but secondary ballot and transition details require source-specific caution.

Herzog’s election established two notable presidential precedents: he received a record 87 Knesset votes and became the first son of an Israeli president to hold the office himself.[3][14] His election followed a career spanning parliamentary politics and leadership of the Jewish Agency, while his inaugural message focused on national cohesion and shared responsibility.[9][6]

In a later essay in SAPIR Journal, Herzog wrote that he had entered office believing that bringing Israel’s divided sectors together “is not a luxury. It’s an existential imperative.”[18] He connected that conviction to his presidential initiatives promoting dialogue within Israel and between Israeli society and world Jewry.[18]