“We see such developments as things that make us more similar to the systems around us, and we have always been starkly different from them, with a much deeper moral core. We have to be doubly vigilant, and ensure that even the smallest fringe minority won’t be able to carry out such acts,” Rivlin said.
Commenting on the grim poverty data included in the National Insurance Institute’s annual poverty report, released last week, Rivlin said, “Israel is seeing the development of two economies – a high-tech economy and a low-tech economy. The [socioeconomic] gaps are widening, jeopardizing the hope every Israeli child should have. We cannot allow that.
“The worst thing that has been happening right before our eyes for the past decade is that young couples cannot afford to buy their own home, and if their parents can’t help them, then a quarter or half of their monthly earning is spent on rent. That’s unbearable. A society that doesn’t care for its less unfortunate members is unworthy of the title ‘society.’ We cannot afford to see Third World poverty in Israel.”
The president’s opinions have often seen him maligned on social media, and threats have been made on his life, but Rivlin remains undeterred.
“Slander and threats,” he said, “can sometimes upset me. In a democratic system freedom of speech and freedom of expression are givens. As for the freedom of incitement, every Israeli must follow his conscience, since incitement runs in all directions.
“I feel safe, my convictions have not changed, and after all, they made me the president of Israel. I don’t feel threatened.”
– Israel Hayom, exclusive to The Jewish Press via JNS