Israel Names Weizman Its 7th President : Mideast: Selection of the dovish former general symbolizes the search for peace with Arabs.

Ezer Weizman, a hawkish general who became one of Israel’s most dovish politicians, was elected the country’s seventh president Wednesday in a vote that symbolized the search for peace with its Arab neighbors.

An outspoken advocate of a Palestinian state in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip and of negotiations with the Palestine Liberation Organization to achieve it, Weizman expressed his hope that he would be able to use the presidency, a largely ceremonial post, to advance peace.

Weizman, a member of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s governing Labor Party, won election with support from members of left-wing and religious parties in the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament. He defeated a candidate from the right-wing Likud Party, 66 to 53, with one abstention.

“Of all the roles I have had in the past 51 years, this is the most difficult because I think I know what I am not allowed to do and I am not yet sure what I am allowed to do,” said Weizman, now 68, as Rabin and other Knesset members congratulated him.

An architect of Israel’s 1979 peace treaty with Egypt, a close friend of the assassinated Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and one of the highest-ranking Israelis ever to talk with the PLO, Weizman said he hopes to be able to “take part in the development of the peace process in the Middle East.”

But Weizman, renowned for his maverick ways and fondness for personal diplomacy, also publicly promised Rabin and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres that he would undertake nothing without their consent.

“Contrary to my usual methods of operation, I won’t make a move without consulting the government first,” Weizman said, referring to his secret--and at the time forbidden--contacts with the PLO several years ago while a Cabinet minister in a coalition government led by Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir.

Weizman, who had won the Labor Party nomination in January, easily defeated Dov Shilansky of the Likud, a former Speaker of the Knesset.

On May 13, Weizman will succeed Chaim Herzog, who is retiring after two five-year terms. Weizman is the nephew of Chaim Weizmann, Israel’s first president.

Rabin welcomed Weizman’s election as a boost for his government at a time of increasing hawkish sentiments because of Palestinian guerrilla and terrorist attacks on Israelis.

“Your success is ours,” Rabin told Weizman.

Rabin and Weizman have had their differences in the past, but both made a point Wednesday of putting those behind them.

Trained as a fighter pilot by the British in World War II, Weizman joined the Israeli struggle for independence after the war and helped build the Israeli air force into the most formidable element of the country’s military forces.

Passed over for chief of staff in 1969 in part because of his right-wing political views, Weizman joined Menachem Begin in the ultranationalist Herut Party and organized the 1977 election victory of Herut and its partners in the Likud coalition.

As defense minister under Begin, however, Weizman began to change his political views, proposing a “national peace government” in 1978 and eventually leaving both the Begin Cabinet and Likud to found his own party, Yahad. (Yahad later merged with Labor.) He served as minister without portfolio and then science minister in the national unity governments of the 1980s.

Angry with Rabin, 71, and Peres, 70, for failing to step down and allow younger Labor Party leaders to emerge, Weizman resigned from the Knesset in February, 1992, and said he was quitting politics.

The Likud’s 250,000 members also were electing a new leader Wednesday, but results are not expected until today as the voting continued until late into the evening and the ballots had to be taken to a central location for counting.

Final opinion polls of party members showed Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu, a former deputy foreign minister, well ahead of his three rivals for the job that could position him to succeed Rabin if the peace process falters. Netanyahu must win at least 40% of the votes to avoid a runoff.

The other candidates are former Foreign Minister David Levy; Zeev (Benny) Begin, son of the late prime minister, and Moshe Katsav, a businessman who served in a number of Likud and national unity governments.

Profile: Ezer Weizman

Age: 68

Party: Labor

Career: Weizman, a former air force commander, was defense minister in the Likud government and played a key role in the 1979 peace treaty with Egypt. He quit as defense minister in 1980 and later switched to the left-center Labor Party. He retired from Parliament in February, 1992.

Quote: “I hope that through the efficient work of the government, I will be able to take part in the development of the Middle East peace process.”

Source: Times wire reports