President Reuven Rivlin arrived Sunday afternoon for a condolence call on the family of former Minister Benny Elon, who passed away on Friday after a long battle with cancer. Speaking with Arutz Sheva outside the house of mourning, Rivlin called Rabbi Elon, "A huge man with a huge heart, really one of the people who knew how to fight for what he believed in. A friend who sometimes was also an opponent."
President Rivlin noted that Rabbi Elon was "admired by his opponents and loved ones equally, because he was first of all a person, a person and a leader." Rivlin added, "His ability to bring the State of Israel and the Land of Israel to the entire world, which has been expressed in the past ten years, is very wonderful, a man who will be sorely missed, missed by the Jewish people and missed by the state of Israel."