Vice Prime Minister Shimon Peres of Israel yesterday moved closer to succeeding the country’s disgraced president, Moshe Katsav, and becoming the Jewish state’s standard bearer and symbolic leader.

Mr. Peres’s bid for president has the support of most Israelis, who are facing one of the most serious leadership crises in their country’s history. Mr. Katsav is widely expected to be indicted soon on rape charges, and the performance of Prime Minister Olmert and his top lieutenants, as well as the army command structure, has received low ratings in national polls.

Mr. Peres “is almost sure to vie for the post,” a top aide to the vice prime minister, Yoram Dori, told The New York Sun yesterday.

A new legislation drive that Mr. Olmert’s Cabinet approved yesterday, Mr. Dori added, is expected to help Mr. Peres tremendously, as it will better reflect the support he currently enjoys in the country.

While he is widely admired internationally and has received a Nobel Peace Prize, Mr. Peres has launched several unsuccessful attempts to attain the more substantial leadership position of prime minister, which he held in the past only as an unelected caretaker.

Nevertheless, according to both supporters and opponents, Israelis now see the 83-year-old Mr. Peres as a symbol of sure-handed leadership commanding the dignity and respect the largely ceremonial presidential post requires.

Yesterday a ministerial committee charged with legislative issues proposed, after a 7–5 vote, a new bill to change the law that has governed Israel’s presidential selection procedures. Until now, the president was selected through a secret ballot in the Knesset. The new legislation, which the Israeli press has dubbed the “Peres bill,” would force the legislative body’s 120 members to disclose their selection in an open vote.

“The public approves of Peres’s candidacy by a margin of 80 to 20,” Mr. Dori said. “It would be very difficult for the public’s representatives to ignore that wish once the ballot is open.” Conversely, the argument goes, a secret vote would present an opportunity for backdoor political maneuvering that could disregard the wishes of the electorate.

Those who oppose the Peres bill argue, however, that political maneuvering is already under way, as Mr. Olmert is planning a major reshuffle of his Cabinet to allow Mr. Peres to present his candidacy. Some also point to the timing of the proposed bill, as Mr. Katsav’s legal travails are expected to force a Knesset presidential ballot soon.

“It is unseemly for a democracy to change the rules of the game on the eve of a vote,” the leader of Israel’s largest opposition party, Likud, Benjamin Netanyahu, said. In addition to Likud, the right-wing party in Mr. Olmert’s ruling coalition, Israel Beitenu party, opposes the proposed bill, as do most members of the leftist Labor Party.

A Labor candidate for the presidency and former Israeli consulgeneral in New York, Collette Avital, announced yesterday that she would not withdraw her candidacy to clear the way for Mr. Peres, her one-time political patron and ally.

Other candidates include another protégé of Mr. Peres, Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik of the Kadima Party; Israel’s current chief rabbi, Meir Lau; and a former Knesset speaker and Likud Party member, Reuven Rivlin.

Mr. Katsav addressed the country last week in a rambling live television broadcast, saying he would not quit but would suspend himself from all presidential duties until the legal procedures are complete. Under Israeli law, the speaker of the Knesset assumes all presidential duties — which include representing the country in such events as world funerals and pardoning criminals — in the president’s absence.

Ms. Itzik took on Mr. Katsav’s presidential duties over the weekend, and the Israeli daily Ha’aretz reported yesterday that the presidential office staff is now trying to finesse the awkward situation that Mr. Katsav’s return to the residence could create. Ms. Itzik, according to the report, will need to use the residence for official receptions and other ceremonies that her new duties entail.

Several of Mr. Katsav’s female subordinates have alleged that the president assaulted them. The country’s attorney general, Menahem Mazuz, has said he is likely to indict the president on rape charges in a process that may start in two months.

Several Israeli commentators have argued that it is time to rid the country of the ceremonial post, which costs taxpayers almost $6 million a year. “We have no aristocratic titles and no royal houses, no counts or dukes,” a columnist for Ha’aretz, Aluf Benn, wrote. He suggested that the presidential duties could be assumed by elected officials and judges.