Isaac Herzog, front, says he was ‘deeply shocked’ by the recent firebombing of a Palestinian home.JACK GUEZ/AFP / Getty Images
In Israel, the Herzogs are as close as it comes to royalty. Like the Kennedys of the United States, they seem destined for greatness in high public office.
Isaac Herzog, Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition, is no exception.
His grandfather, Yitzhak Herzog, who came to Palestine from Ireland, was the country's first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi. His father, Chaim, was head of Israel's military intelligence, ambassador to the United Nations and the country's sixth president. His uncle Yaacov was director-general of the prime minister's office and ambassador to Canada. His aunt married the erudite Abba Eban, famed Israeli diplomat and foreign minister.
Now, it's Isaac Herzog's turn in the catbird seat. In March elections, he came close to defeating Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
As it is, with Mr. Netanyahu's coalition hanging by the thread of one parliamentary vote, Mr. Herzog still stands within reach of the highest office in the land, and one of the most important national posts in the Middle East.
But despite his pedigree, intelligence and current position, as well as the contempt with which some people view Mr. Netanyahu, many Israelis say Mr. Herzog will never win the big job.
"He looks too boyish," some say. "His voice is too high, too nasal." His shoulders are "too thin."
"He has no real military record," many insist. "He's too decent … not tough enough," others say. "He lacks the killer instinct."
"I've heard it all," Mr. Herzog acknowledged in a recent interview. "People tend to underestimate me." He rose from his seat as he said this and shook his head in exasperation.
The man served in the military's high-level intelligence unit. He was a major.
But in a country that likes its rulers brawny and brusque, Mr. Herzog is derided by some as a wimp.
"There are other kinds of toughness," he says. "In my own way, I am tough."
In the election this year, he chose to unite his party with Tzipi Livni's Hatnua party to form a bloc known as the Zionist Union. He even agreed, should they win, to rotate the position of prime minister between Ms. Livni and himself.
While some saw this as weakness, he thinks of it as strength – an example of bringing people together to make something stronger than the sum of their parts.
He recently confessed to an Israeli interviewer that he is bashful. "I will never sit down in the middle of the room," he said, "but at the back."
"And I loathe the display of power," he added. "Michal [his wife] and I try to live modestly." (They live in the north Tel Aviv house in which Mr. Herzog grew up.)
"So my style of leadership is different," he concluded. "I am not a general, but a citizen who works with people."
He once likened himself to Maimonides, the medieval Jewish philosopher, saying he always looks for the middle path.
"I am a social democrat who wants both a free market and a just state," Mr. Herzog explained. "I am a pragmatist who tries to act fairly. I try to bring the contradictions into harmony and unity. So I believe that some form of normalcy will be restored" to the country.
His biggest problem in getting into high office, Mr. Herzog says, is that his party is viewed as too leftist.
"I am trying to move it to the centre … just a few degrees," he said.
"I think my camp, especially the deep left, doesn't understand that things are changing," Mr. Herzog elaborated. "You cannot come to an average Israeli family and tell them you'll solve the problems of the whole Middle East, when they know that trouble is half an hour away. You cannot ignore that. You have to give them a sense of confidence and security."
"Bibi has threatened them," Mr. Herzog said, using Mr. Netanyahu's nickname. "I'm working hard to gain their trust."
I asked if he was trying hard enough to defeat the government and have a chance to form his own coalition.
"I'm doing my best," was his answer. "It's very difficult."
"I get e-mails," he said. "People ask: 'Why don't you do this and that?' We are doing it. We are voting non-confidence. We have blocked the government on three major issues – but other parties have come to their rescue."
What kind of prime minister would Mr. Herzog be? "A workaholic," he said recently.
The thing is, Israelis want someone for whom the office of power comes easily – an Ariel Sharon or, in North American terms, a Ronald Reagan or Pierre Trudeau. Mr. Trudeau would never have admitted he was doing his best. He would have said, "Just watch me."
Mr. Herzog comes across rather like Robert Stanfield, the thoughtful leader of Canada's Progressive Conservative Party from 1967 to 1976, whom older Canadians and students of history will know as "the greatest prime minister Canada never had."