Moshe Katsav

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Image:Moshe katsav israeli president.jpg Moshe Katsav (Hebrew מֹשֶׁה קַצָּב Mōšeh Qaṣṣāḇ), born December 5, 1945) is the current President of Israel (since 2000). He is married to Gila Katsav.

Moshe Katsav was born in Yazd, Iran. He moved with his family to Tehran when he was an infant; in August 1951, they emigrated to Israel. He remains fluent in Persian. Katsav joined the Likud party and became the mayor of Kiryat Malachi, a small town in Israel. He was subsequently elected as a Member of the Knesset.

After serving as Deputy Prime Minister in the government of Benjamin Netanyahu, Katsav vied for the position of President, running against Shimon Peres. In a surprising upset, he defeated Peres to become the president of Israel, being elected by the Knesset on July 31, 2000. He took 63 votes (over 57 for Peres), two more than the required majority of 61, and was sworn in on August 1. He is the first President of Israel to have been sworn in for a seven-year term as well as the first candidate from the right wing Likud party to be elected to the office.

Image:Khatami Katsav.jpg

The office of the Israeli President is largely ceremonial, with no executive powers save pardoning prisoners and commuting sentences. Nevertheless, each president emphasizes different aspects of the role during his tenure. Though expected to remain neutral from Israeli politics and represent the entire nation, most presidents have expressed their views in statements or actions. Katsav supported the unsuccessful 2002 cease-fire plan between Israel and the Palestinians (rejected by then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon) and refused to pardon Yigal Amir, the assassin of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

On April 8, 2005 Katsav, sat near Iranian President Mohammad Khatami (also born in Yazd) during the funeral of Pope John Paul II, due to the fact that all world leaders present were arranged in alphabetical order by the name of their state. President Katsav would later claim that he shook Khatami's hand and spoke to him in Persian. He also greeted Bashar al-Assad during the funeral service's traditional "exchange of peace". That was the first political contact of Iran and Israel since 1979.[1] Khatami, however, denied that such a meeting ever took place.

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