Editing President of Israel (section)

==Political affiliation==
All Israeli presidents from [[Yitzhak Ben-Zvi]] to [[Ezer Weizman]] were members of, or associated with, the [[Israeli Labor Party|Labor Party]] and its predecessors, and have been considered politically moderate. Moshe Katsav was the first [[Likud]] president. These tendencies were especially significant in the April 1978 election of Labor's [[Yitzhak Navon]], following the inability of the governing Likud coalition to elect its candidate to the presidency. Israeli observers believed that, in counterbalance to Prime Minister [[Menachem Begin]]'s polarizing leadership, Navon, the country's first president of Sephardi origin, provided Israel with unifying symbolic leadership at a time of great political controversy and upheaval. In 1983, Navon decided to re-enter Labor politics after five years of non-partisan service as president, and Chaim Herzog (previously head of military intelligence and [[Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations|Ambassador of Israel to the United Nations]]) succeeded him as Israel's sixth president. Likud's [[Moshe Katsav]]'s victory over Labor's [[Shimon Peres]] in 2000 (by secret ballot) was an [[Upset (competition)|upset]].{{Citation needed|date=September 2010}}

[[Albert Einstein]], a Jew, but not an Israeli citizen, was offered the presidency in 1952,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Eban |first=Abba |author-link=Abba Eban |date=17 November 1952 |title=(Letter reprinted online) Offering the Presidency of Israel to Albert Einstein |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Politics/einsteinlet.html |access-date=18 October 2016 |website=JewishVirtualLibrary.org}}</ref> but turned it down, stating: "I am deeply moved by the offer from our State of Israel, and at once saddened and ashamed that I cannot accept it. All my life I have dealt with objective matters, hence I lack both the natural aptitude and the experience to deal properly with people and to exercise official functions."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Albert Einstein on His Decision Not to Accept the Presidency of Israel |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Quote/Einstein_On_Presidency.html |access-date=18 October 2016 |website=JewishVirtualLibrary.org |publisher=citing The Einstein Scrapbook (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002)}}</ref> [[Ehud Olmert]] was reported to be considering offering the presidency to another non-Israeli, [[Elie Wiesel]], but he was said to be "very not interested".<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Stern Stern Hoffman<!--not a typo apparently; many instances of his name like this--> |first1=Gil |last2=Keinon |first2=Herb |date=18 October 2006 |title=Olmert backs Peres as next president |work=[[The Jerusalem Post]] |url=http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Olmert-backs-Peres-as-next-president}}</ref>