President Reuven "Ruvy" Rivlin took the train from New York to Washington, where he is to meet President Barack Obama. Photos of him and his wife Nehama in the train were distributed by the Government Press Office.
On previous trips, Rivlin has been photographed sitting in the economy class section of an airplane that took him abroad. He is generally seen as conducting himself modestly on trips, as opposed to the prime minister and his wife, who have been known to rack up considerable expenses when traveling.
However, some Israelis think Rivlin is protesting his modesty a bit too much.
"There is something so fake about a person who does everything to make his modesty known in the media," wrote nationalist pundit Yotam Zimri Wednesday, in news site NRG. "More importantly, there is something unworthy, in my eyes, about Israel's number one citizen behaving this way… Can someone explain to me why the president of a regional power, the so-called 'start-up nation,' needs to go from place to place in the economy section or in a train?"
"What is the next stage, Ruvy?" Zimri asks sarcastically. "A picture of you sleeping on the floor of a barn in Texas? A video of you eating a mud cookie in Africa?"
Rivlin's ostentatious modesty has given rise to numerous humorous jabs on social media, as well. These show fake posts by Rivlin in which he uploads a photo of a military bunk bed and says this is where he and his wife will be sleeping, and such like.
Haredi journalist Yossi Elituv tweeted a price comparison between train and jet travel to Washington, and claimed that Rivlin's train trip actually cost more than what a plane ticket would have cost.
Animating much of the animosity to Rivlin is the anger among many Israelis at his unconventional views on the Israeli-Arab conflict. Many find it hard to forget that he said, immediately after a suspected act of Jewish terror in the village of Duma, "Members of my nation have chosen terrorism," phrasing the accusation in a way that could be taken as directed at the entire Jewish people.
Others are upset over his article in the Washington Post Tuesday, blaming Israel for not doing enough to alleviate the plight of local Arabs. Zimri linked both complaints, and opined that Rivlin seeks the same positive press coverage in his "leftist" statements as well as in his fake modesty.