With just six months to go before President Shimon Peres leaves office, the race to become Israel's 10th head of state is heating up. On Friday, distinguished Professor Dan Shechtman became the latest to throw his hat in the ring. Shechtman, who won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for 2011, announced his candidacy during an interview with Channel One's Ayala Hasson. Shechtman later told Israel Hayom that he planned to meet with members of Knesset in the coming weeks to build up support for his bid in time for the vote. The election, scheduled for June, will be determined through a secret ballot among the Knesset's 120 members. "I am a Zionist; I want to create a generation of socially minded individuals who care about society; I believe I am highly qualified for the job; I represent Israel all over the world with honor," Shechtman said. "I know what we must do to improve education, technological entrepreneurship, and other things that Israelis are worried about. I will let the government deal with defense and foreign policy matters." Having a scientist-president is not unheard of in Israel: Chaim Weizmann and Ephraim Katzir were both renowned scientists before they served as Israel's first and fourth presidents, respectively. After Weizmann's death in 1952, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion offered the presidency to Albert Einstein, but Einstein declined the position. Another contender is Rabbi Yechiel Z. Eckstein, who is the founder and president of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, a philanthropic organization whose mission is "to promote understanding between Jews and Christians and build broad support for Israel and other shared concerns." Avigdor Kahalani, a decorated war hero and the chairman of the Association for the Wellbeing of Israel's Soldiers, has also been mentioned as a candidate. "I did not approach anyone on this matter; others approached me," he told Israel Hayom over the weekend. "They asked questions, they showed interest in my candidacy and they advised me to declare; I said was not interested. This matter is up to the Knesset and the government to decide. I don't like the way my name was thrown into the mix." The crop of candidates includes Likud MK and former Knesset Speaker Reuven (Ruby) Rivlin; Minister Silvan Shalom (Likud), who holds the national infrastructure, energy, and water minister, regional cooperation, and Negev and Galilee development portfolios; Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky, Labor MK Binyamin (Fouad) Ben-Eliezer, former Foreign Minister David Levy and former Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik. At a social gathering hosted by Labor, Welfare and Health Committee Chairman MK Haim Katz on Friday, Katz said the race was all but decided. "We have a candidate who is a shoo-in for the presidency," Katz told his guests, who included Likud party operatives as well as the party's ministers and MKs. "The next president of Israel is going to be MK Ruby Rivlin."
