Isaac Herzog elected Israel’s 11th president

Tel Aviv, Jun 2 (UNI) The chairman of the Jewish Agency and former head of the Labor party Isaac Herzog was on Wednesday elected as Israel’s 11th president. Herzog secured 87 votes in the 120 member Knesset, this is the most number of votes a presidential candidate has ever won. His rival, social activist Miriam Peretz won 26 votes. In the election, in which all 120 MKs were eligible to vote, three abstained, three votes were disqualified and one lawmaker-Ra’am chair Mansour Abbas, did not vote. Herzog, who is the former Labor chief and son of 6th president Chaim Herzog said he’ll work to ‘build bridges’ within Israeli society and with the Diaspora. Herzog defeated who overcame the loss of two of her sons in battle to become an Israel Prize-winning educator, with 87 votes, Herzog will succeed Reuven Rivlin when the latter’s term ends on July 9.