Daniel Barenboim ‘should be president of Israel’

Daniel Barenboim ‘should be president of Israel’

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norman lebrecht

November 10, 2013

He may have time on his hands when the La Scala job is over at the end of next year, but this is one of the unlikelier career-moves for the award-laden international musician.

The proposal comes from Gideon Levy, a left-of-left commentator on the liberal daily, Haaretz, and, while not without merit, it serves chiefly to demonstrate how far the secular left in Israel has drifted apart from mainstream public opinion.

Barenboim, who holds both Israeli and Palestinian passports, would not, by our estimation, be acceptable as a figurehead president to 70 percent of Israeli society. Still, as Theodor Herzl said, if you really want it, it needn’t be a dream.

Read Levy here.

 

barenboim-emi

Comments

  • stanley cohen says:

    As we say in Israel – “רק זה חסר לנו” – or “That’s all we need!”

  • I’d vote for him! And so would many other Israeli’s , I’ll bet.

  • In order to be a politician, one has to understand politics, something which Mr Barenboim lacks. Dream on Daniel, dream on . . .

  • אוהד says:

    Gideon Levy’s work as a columnist is very controversial, borderline-ridiculous. He is by no means influential, let alone popular (except for very specific circle). I cannot see why anything he thinks is an item, let alone a thing like this, which nobody in Israel would take seriously.

  • robcat2075 says:

    I’m wondering why the holder of this ceremonial post even matters to the point that the holder needs to understand politics since the office is supposed to be above politics.

  • Michael says:

    I am pretty sure that Daniel Barenboim would make a better president than Mr. Moshe Katsav , who headed the country from 2000 -2007 and is now serving a 7 year prison sentence for rape,obstruction of justice and other charges .

  • I don’t think that Mr. Barenboim would take the job if it were offered to him. For many years he tried to use his art to bring Israelis and Palestinians together in an orchestra. Now he is squarely on the Palestinians’ side and opposed to israel because of the latter’s inhumane treatment of Palestinians in refuge camps. Amnesty International agrees with him about Israel.

    • stanley cohen says:

      Amnesty International is to impartiality as much as the UN is, Ms Lerner. So citing them as a reference is little short of risible. Their version of impartiality is confined to a policy of israel-bashing – irrespective of the rights and wrongs of any argument.

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