The week before Yom Ha’atzmaut, celebrating Israel’s 67th birthday, President of Israel, Reuven Rivlin sat with with representatives of the Anglo press in an interview.
He was nine years old when for the first time, he saw the raising of the Israeli flag. He can still remember how it felt, the sensation of pride and belonging and triumph.
Rivlin mentioned that his ancestors were followers of the Vilna Gaon. They believed he said, that the “messiah would not come without the Rivlin family” and arrived in the Holy Land in the early 1800s.
Speaking in English, Rivlin talked of Israel becoming increasingly isolated. First, with Iran and and secondly with the Palestinian Authority, Abu Mazen needs to participate, acknowledging the right for Israel to exist is paramount. Rivlin said we have “no war with Islam,” there are fundamentalists in every religion. We prayed for 2000 years to return, to this “mother land of everyone.” For the past 25 years, Rivlin said that he and Abu Mazen have known each other from talks,
The year Rivlin was born, he said there were 200,000 Jews living here, now there are 6 million, he hopes in the next decade there will be another million. All Jews should come back to Israel, this is our promised land, our fatherland, he said. Everyone is invited to Israel, but they should not feel forced. An Israel with 12 million Jews is his vision
When asked what job he liked best and why, Rivlin replied that he liked that all “ministers were driven by a chauffeur.” Also, he liked when he saw how the Knesset Speaker was respected. As Speaker of Knesset though he had clashes with his own party, being firm about rules of democracy, he realized, can be a problem, as the “opposition sees things differently,” Rivlin was worried that being President would be boring, in these past 9 months, he has not been bored.
Rivlin noted that 16 of the 120 members of the next Knesset are not Jewish, that the first Arab minister was appointed in his time in Knesset, and that the head of the Israeli election committee was Supreme Court Justice Salim Joubran, an Arab.
Many Palestinians do not recognize Israel at all and demand right of return for 12 million, but we learned together before 1948, Rivlin said, Israel can be Jewish and Democratic.One billion shekels have been allocated to bridge the gap, maybe we could live in ‘federation.”
“There are those who are trying to bring to end our dream and reality, but we have the IDF. We are being attacked, but Israel is our home. There must be respect for every human being- dignity. We cannot have peace unless there are open borders.” Rivlin said.
Asked about the Pope’s quote on Armenian genocide, Rivlin said that he plans to meet the Pope soon and congratulate him.
When asked if he feels that he is President of all Jewish people in the world, Rivlin replied, we are “one family. Jews value charity and humanity.”
In an answer to a question about his views on reform Judaism, Rivlin said that he grew up in Jerusalem and was used to praying in an Orthodox synagogue. When he went to America and saw the intermarriage and types of services, he was surprised, as it was not anything that he was used to.
“We are one nation, everyone is responsible, and we can manage to build more than a safe haven. Israel is a democracy, and there is no gap between Jewish and democratic,” Rivlin repeated, “But we must keep watch. Starting with protecting themselves from seven armies, they built a strong country and did a tremendous job. The people of Israel should be proud of our flag, of the independent state of the Jewish people.”