By Gill Hoffman, JPost—
Former Likud MK Yehudah Glick hopes so.
Glick announced last month that he intends to run for president in a vote that will take place in the Knesset in May or June.
He was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1965 and made aliyah with his family nine years later to Beersheba, where his father, Professor Shimon Glick, helped start the medical school at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
Glick made a name for himself as an activist for enabling Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount. But his activism also made him enemies. Next Thursday will be the sixth anniversary of the assassination attempt that almost resulted in his death. Islamic Jihad terrorist Mutaz Hijazi approached Glick outside the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem, called him “an enemy of al-Aksa” and shot him from close range in his chest and stomach.
Glick miraculously recovered and returned to his activism. An unknown Likud activist at the time named Amir Ohana volunteered to be his bodyguard. They both ended up entering the Knesset not much later. Ohana quickly rose to become justice minister and now public security minister. Glick was sworn in on May 25, 2016, after former defense minister Moshe Ya’alon resigned from the Knesset.
Glick surprised anyone who saw him as an extremist by becoming a bridge-builder in the Knesset, building friendships across the political spectrum, including with Arab MKs. It is that bridge-building that Glick hopes to continue out of the President’s Residence and across the country, he said, in an interview with the Magazine.
“The president of Israel is much more than just a symbol,” he said. “He represents the spirit of the nation. There is a great divide in Israel because of politics and COVID-19. We need a place where the people can express how they feel.”
Glick likes to compare the president to the conductor of an orchestra.
“We don’t see his face,” he said. “We see his back, while he gets all of the instruments to play together.” Continue Reading….
