Israel’s Herzog Wins 2nd Term

Israeli right-wingers, pleased with the performance of Labor-sponsored President Chaim Herzog, helped elect him unopposed today to a second five-year term in the largely ceremonial post.

In a secret parliamentary vote, the right-wing Likud bloc joined Labor members to give Irish-born Herzog 82 of the 102 votes cast. Communist parliamentarians had said they would vote against a second term for Herzog, and a number of Labor members, disenchanted with their candidate, are believed to have cast blank ballots. Conservatives like Herzog, 69, citing his religious background as son of Israel’s first chief rabbi and his hard-line stand on security and nationalist issues.