OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — 

Reuven Rivlin.

, a right-wing legislator opposed to the creation of a Palestinian state, was elected Israel’s president on Tuesday, June 10, succeeding Shimon Peres in the largely ceremonial post. 

Rivlin, 74, is a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party. He has a reputation for political independence and has had a rocky personal relationship with the Israeli leader.

A former speaker of parliament, Rivlin defeated Meir Sheetrit of the centrist Hatnuah party by a vote of 63-53 in a run-off in the legislature, after none of the original five candidates won an outright victory in a first round ballot.

Peres, 90, ends his seven-year presidential term in July.

Unlike Peres, Rivlin has called for a confederation with the Palestinians rather than negotiating an independent state for them — something Palestinian leaders have long rejected.

Last month, Netanyahu floated a trial balloon on the future of the presidency, ordering his advisers to sound out cabinet colleagues on suspending the poll and evaluating the need for the position, political sources said.

Some political analysts suggested that Netanyahu was concerned that a victory by Rivlin, who once publicly accused the prime minister of showing disrespect to parliament, could make him more vulnerable in a future general election.

No single party has ever won an outright majority in a national poll. That makes the president — whose duties otherwise carry little power — a key player in coalition-building. 

In an interview last month with The Times of Israel website, Rivlin promised that, if he became president, he would not seek to intervene in the decisions of the country’s elected politicians on peacemaking or other issues.