ISRAEL'S NEW PRESIDENT IS REUVEN RIVLIN

Finally, Shimon Peres will be gone from a role he didn't deserve, and a more rightist president will take his place:

Reuven Rivlin of the Likud party was elected president of Israel in a campaign that was fraught with scandal.

Rivlin was elected in the second round of Knesset balloting on Tuesday, defeating Meir Sheetrit of the Hatnua party in a 63-53 runoff vote. The former Knesset speaker becomes Israel’s 10th president and succeeds Shimon Peres.

Considered a Likud elder statesman, Rivlin was one of five candidates running for the largely ceremonial post chosen by the parliament every seven years. He will be sworn in on July 24. [...]

Labor Party lawmaker Binyamin Ben-Eliezer pulled out of the race over the weekend following accusations that he illegally received millions of shekels from private sources and used the money to buy a luxury apartment in Jaffa.

Ben-Eliezer is just one of many Labor politicians who've disgraced their profession, so he sure wouldn't be a fit for the job of president in Israel. Now, we've got a man elected who may be best fit for the job, and who'll hopefully avoid the gigantic embarrassment Moshe Katsav caused when he supported Ariel Sharon's withdrawal from Gaza in 2005. It'll be interesting to see how Rivlin - the brother of the late comedian Safi Rivlin - handles his new job. Hopefully, he'll refrain from too many politicized situations, which is surely the best way to handle a figurehead role.