Hopes that departing MK Michael Oren would be replaced in the Knesset by a former ambassador were dashed on Tuesday morning, when Ron Prosor announced he would not be running in the April 9 election.
Prosor turned down serious offers from at least three parties – including Yesh Atid and Yisrael Beytenu – deciding to keep his current roles as chairman of the Abba Eban Institute of International Diplomacy at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya and as a distinguished fellow at the Hudson Institute.
“I received many offers, some serious, concrete and enticing,” Prosor wrote on his Facebook page. “They promised to place me in the most influential places in Israeli politics. I enjoyed meeting the Israeli patriots who made the offers. Israel is truly important to them, and despite all the cynicism, they wake up every morning with feelings as emissaries.”
Prosor wrote that his dilemma was challenging because he wanted to have an impact on Israel’s future but it would have required a tremendous personal sacrifice.
“After much contemplation and balancing the many considerations, my decision was negative and I decided in my heart not to enter the political realm and instead to continue in my current post,” Prosor wrote.
He praised IDC-Herzliya and vowed to continue doing what he can to help the country.
Prosor, 60, served as ambassador to the UN, director-general of the Foreign Ministry, ambassador to the United Kingdom, and in roles in Washington, London and Bonn. He was instrumental in establishing diplomatic relations behind the Iron Curtain following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and was a member of Israel’s delegation to the Wye River Summit talks in 1998.
The only native English speaker on the Yesh Atid list, Philadelphia-born and British-raised Moshe “Kinley” Tur-Paz, was placed 18th on the list that party chairman Yair Lapid revealed Monday. Former MK Dov Lipman left Yesh Atid nine months ago and decided not to run in the current election.
The fate of Labor candidate Yair “Yaya” Fink is expected to be decided by party chairman Avi Gabbay on Wednesday. He won the ninth slot on the list in last week’s primary, but if Gabbay fills reserved slots with candidates of his choice, Fink, whose mother is from Brooklyn and father from Scranton, Pennsylvania, could fall as low as 12th.
Former Jerusalem Post columnist and Chicago native Caroline Glick’s place on the New Right will also be revealed on Wednesday. Party leader Naftali Bennett, who was born in Haifa to parents from California, will lead the list and there are rumors that another Anglo will be revealed on Wednesday.
Canadian-born Likud MK Sharren Haskel will find out Wednesday whether she will be in a realistic slot on the Likud list.
One of the leaders of the Otzma Yehudit party, Baruch Marzel, was born in Boston. It was unclear Tuesday where he would be placed on his party’s list.
Former IDF chiefs of staff Benny Gantz and Moshe Ya’alon revealed their Israel Resilience-Telem list on Tuesday night. Chili Tropper, who has US citizenship due to his New Yorker parents, is seventh on the list. North Carolina-born professor Alon Tal is 25th and Michal Cotler-Wunsh, the daughter of former Canadian Justice Minister Irwin Cotler, is 28th.
Tal is a long standing environmental activist and academic who has written about US President Donald Trump’s environmental policies harming Israel. Tropper is an educator and social activist. Cotler-Wunsh is an attorney who has written for the Post.
Hagay Hacohen contributed to this report.