Moshe Katsav is the president of Israel. Why do I never seem to hear much about him? What exactly is the hierarchy in Israeli government? Who is this guy in relation to Ariel Sharon?
The president is nominally the head of state, but it’s a ceremonial position. Any actual power is held by the prime minister, who’s the highest ranked minister of the party with the most seats in the Knesset, aka the parliament. Israeli politics is incredibly complicated due to the large number of parties, but the basic structure is fairly similar to that of the British government.
Basically, when the set up the government they took the British system as a base and made a few changes (such as proportional representation). They found out, apparently, that the system needs to have a position of a Monarch, so they decided to elect someone to the mostly powerless role every five years by parliamentary vote. In other words, he’s the placeholder for the King, just like the Governer-General in Commowealth nations, although Israel is not part of the Commonwealth.