Israeli lawmakers to vote for next figurehead president

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli parliament Wednesday is set to choose the country's next president, a largely figurehead position that is meant to serve as the nation's moral compass and promote unity.

The election will be conducted at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, and the 120 lawmakers will cast their votes anonymously.

Two candidates are running — Isaac Herzog, a veteran politician and scion of a prominent Israeli family, and Miriam Peretz, an educator who is seen as a down-to-earth outsider.

Herzog, 60, is a former head of Israel’s Labor Party and opposition leader who unsuccessfully ran against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the 2013 parliamentary elections.

He is scion of a prominent Zionist family. His father, Chaim Herzog, was Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations before being elected president. His uncle, Abba Eban, was Israel’s first foreign minister and ambassador to the United Nations and United States. His grandfather was the country’s first chief rabbi.

Herzog has served as head of the Jewish Agency, a nonprofit that works closely with the government to promote immigration to Israel, for the past three years since resigning from parliament. Given his deep ties to the political establishment, he is widely seen as the favorite to win.

Peretz, 67, is seen as a more conservative, nationalist candidate.

She immigrated from Morocco as a child and has worked as a teacher, educator and lecturer on Judaism, Zionism and grief. Two of her sons died serving in the Israeli military. In 2018 she was awarded the Israel Prize, the country's top award, for lifetime achievement.

If elected, Peretz would be the first woman to hold the office and also the first settler. She and her family lived in one of Israel’s settlements in the Sinai Peninsula until a...