Colette Avital for president
It would indeed be nice to place a woman on the snowcapped mountain
How nice the two words "President Colette" sound as opposed to President Katsav or President Fuad, the president and honorable rabbi, or the honorable general or the honorable prankster or the honorable president comrade Shimon.
And it's not just the sound. It's also a promise that here, in this residence, a boring building, replete with national works of art, ceremonies, refreshments and great yawns, women will not be sexually harassed.
What a sweet revenge for the presidential residence in the heart of Jerusalem - the object of sexual harassment will actually become the proprietor. What a wonderful historical twist, that following such an ugly affair, the male members of the board will be distanced for a term or two, punished, and a woman will come in their stead.
She is an attractive woman who doesn't fit the criteria of the average Israeli woman. She will not be followed around by a meek husband and grandchildren will not be running through the corridors. Also, old buddies won't be dropping in for hummus or be involved in matters of State pardons.
A woman of the world
Colette is a woman who has personally experienced loneliness, harassment and courtships, along with pleasures and joyous occasions. While climbing the ladder at the Foreign Ministry - run by men since the days of Golda Meir and Tzipi Livni - she has learned the taste of ascent and the difficulties involved in the journey.
She has tasted the bitterness of her position as a woman alone in an all-male environment and experienced the expressions on the faces of the men who make up the appointment committees. Yet she survived and learned the rules of the jungle. That's Colette, a woman of etiquette and a woman of the world. She is Middle Eastern in the European sense of the world – she comes from Bucharest.
Enough of male-dominated society
Even as a male I can see that the appointment of a woman to the 'tainted' post of the presidency is not just revenge, a corrective experience of sorts and an act of remorse, but also a promise for something different, more feminine.
It will be a presidency that cherishes life rather then hunting and death, and it will come at a time when the management of our society has become overly male dominated, particularly since the outbreak of the war.
Our society is ruled by contingency plans, banks of targets and male codes that are both violent and lethal, void of compassion and benevolence. It is led by cruel hunters, exterminators, Apache pilots and by those wearing dark glasses. It would indeed be nice to start at the top and to place a woman on the snowcapped mountain where that ceremonial cherry of a presidency lies.
It really would be nice; it would be soothing, ameliorating. Because what we need right now is to calm down. To leave all the disgruntled Dichters, Diskins, Dagans, Mofazes and all the Ayalonism behind. All those men in their mid-life crises who are going nowhere and who are taking out all their aggressions on their surroundings. Without giving us a moment of calm and security.
A presidency without a president
It will become a presidential residency without a male president and without a president's forlorn, confused wife who is shrouded in rumors, or sad like the last one, whose smile is being hunted down by photographers in an attempt to reveal what's hiding behind it.
It will become a presidential residence with a woman president and her girlfriends. A president with an elderly mother, who she is devoted to. And a beloved dog that follows her around everywhere. The staff will primarily be comprised of women who will not be harassed. Secretaries who will not fear losing their jobs because they rejected the boss' advances.
There will be many minor problems and trivial matters, conflicts and humane matters such as Ora Namir's tears at the committee meetings. There will be some embarrassing moments, things of that nature. But the more I think of a woman president, the more I like the idea of that young girl Private Colette, who came to Israel from Romania at the age of 10 taking up office.
She is a diplomat fluent in six languages, served as a diplomatic envoy in Paris, an ambassador in Portugal, Consulate General in New York, Deputy Director-General at the Foreign Ministry's European Department, and Knesset member.
It should be Colette and not any of those proposed men, some of whom carry a heavy dowry of decaying rumors and insinuations. Finally, the first woman president.
