The Expression of Established Bipartisanship: Israeli Presidents in Light of Israeli Domestic and International Conflicts

In addition to regional geopolitical conflicts and the continuous state of war (given the emergency act in rigour since 1948), Israel's parliamentary democracy has often been an arena of conflicting political ideologies, social and cultural cleavages, and identity-otherness relations (left-right, lay, religious, Ashkenazi-Mizrahi, Jews-Arabs etc.), revealing domestic contentious politics. Yet, the Israeli republic has often found solidity and guardianship in the figure of the Citizen n.1, the Israeli President, who symbolizes and personifies unity, despite conflict, political antagonism and sectorialization of interests. That said, one must ask the following question: in light of their supposedly 'weak' position, are Israeli presidents truly bipartisan, or are they the result of a well-established synthesis of ideological stances, political professionalism and social capital? The paper seeks to answer the questions by addressing: 1. the sociopolitical collective profile of Israeli presidents; 2. Israeli presidents' involvement in times of war and domestic instability; 3. the appreciation of the current President of Israel in light of the October 7 aftermath.