Isaac Herzog has been elected Israel’s eleventh president, with 87 votes of the Knesset’s 120. Herzog will succeed Reuven Rivlin as the latter’s term ends on July 9. He will also be the first Israeli president who is the son of a former president. His father Chaim Herzog was Israel’s sixth president in 1983-1993. Herzog, currently the head of the Jewish Agency, is also a former leader of the Labor party in 2013-2017. Herzog defeated Miriam Peretz, a social activist who overcame the loss of two of her sons in battle to become an Israel Prize-winning educator. Peretz won only 26 votes. Three MKs abstained, three votes were disqualified and one person did not vote.
